 All right, good morning, Radiant Church. Good to be with you. 11 o'clock service in the rain. Thank you for coming. I was in my office this morning, like 20 minutes and I, and it just starts downpouring. And I'm like, oh, of course. That never happens here in Michigan. So weird that it's raining. So can we give it up for our parking lot attendants though who are out there in the rain? Portage, if it's raining there, Mark, we love you. And I just want to welcome, Portage, they're watching online and you guys look amazing from here anyway. So my name's John. I'm the campus pastor here in Richland and one of the teaching pastors, Pastor Lee is in Texas at Gateway Church doing a prophetic presbytery. He is doing that tonight, tomorrow, tomorrow night and Tuesday, so pray for him. And as always, I'm super honored to share the pulpit with him, but also it's so cool as a church to be able to send Pastor Lee and the apostolic calling that he has to other churches. So it's a win-win for sure. And we're in the middle of a series, well sort of, we started last week we're gonna go all summer called Heroes. And we're looking at some people in the Bible that are usually well-known but have experienced the grace and the goodness of God and God has used them in mighty ways. And so last week, Pastor Lee started with John the Baptist and talked about his preparing the way for the coming of Jesus Christ. And today we're gonna look at the life of Peter. So if you brought your Bible, I want you to turn to two scriptures, Luke chapter five and John chapter 21, kind of keep a finger in both. We're gonna be in the Gospels today as we look at the life of Peter. If you didn't bring your Bible, I would recommend going to the Lost and Found after service. There's tons of them in there. I've sifted through all the good translations already. And if someone has their name in it, you can either call them or just get a Sharpie and turn like Jimmy to Joe or whatever. You can claim that thing. I'm just kidding. All right, let's pray. Father, we're so grateful, honor really to be in your house. And God, even as we saw Brother Abraham on the screen, we're reminded that it's a global movement, the cause of Christ. So right now, all around the world, billions of people are gathered together and corporately worshiping Jesus. And God, we're so grateful for this opportunity to gather really without persecution or without fear as so many around the world experience. And so God, we ask, let your Holy Spirit speak to us. God, we have expectation for you to move. We're not here out of obligation. We're not just going through the motions. You said that the grass withers, the flowers fade, but the word of the Lord endures forever. That God, your word's eternal. It's sharper than any two-edged sword. It's a discerner of the thoughts and the intents of our hearts. So I ask by the power of the Holy Spirit, minister your word to every single person in this room, every single person in portage, every person online. God, you know, every circumstance, every situation, let the Holy Spirit of God do what only he can do. We pray in Jesus' name. And everyone said, amen. Luke chapter five, I'm gonna read 11 verses. And this is the first introduction to Peter that we really have in the Bible. It says, on one occasion, while the crowd was pressing in on him to hear the word of God, he, meaning Jesus, was standing by the lake of Geneserat and he saw two boats by the lake, but the fishermen had gone out of them and were washing their nets. Getting into one of the boats, which was Simons or Peters, he asked him to put a little from the land. And he sat down and he taught the people from the boat. And when he'd finished speaking, he said to Simon, put out into the deep and let down your nets there for a catch. And Simon answered, master, we toiled all night and we took nothing. But at your word, I will let down the nets. And when they had done this, they enclosed a large number of fish so that their nets were breaking. So they signaled to their partners in the other boat to come and help them. And when they came and filled both boats, they actually began to sink from the fish. And when Simon saw this, he fell down at Jesus' knees saying, depart from me for I am a sinful man. For he and all who were with him were astonished at the catch of fish they had taken. So also were James and John, the sons of Zebedee, who were partners with Simon. And Jesus said to Simon, don't be afraid. From now on, you'll be catching men. And when they had brought their boats to land, they left everything and they followed him. This is Luke, the doctor's account of Jesus calling Peter to be his disciple. So this is what it looked like. Jesus was teaching, he saw that Peter and John and James and all of the fishing disciples had already brought their nets in. They hadn't caught anything all night and they were cleaning them. So Jesus borrowed their boat. He said, can you just push out a little bit? And he started teaching the masses. It was like built-in amplification off the water because obviously there were no microphones. And so Jesus is teaching the crowds in Peter's boat. He hasn't met Peter, Peter hasn't met him. And then after that, Jesus says to Peter, after he's teaching, he says, okay, now I want you to launch the boat out into the deep and let down your nets because there's a catch waiting for you. And so Peter in the natural would not have thought this was a good idea. I mean, they already were fishing all night. That's when you fish at night. Now they had caught nothing. They're cleaning their nets. That's a big deal. And so there must have been something about Jesus that caught Peter's attention because it would have been real easy for him to be like, how about no, you know? What's your name? You're a carpenter, right? Yeah, so maybe don't tell me how to fish and I won't tell you how to make a dresser. I mean, like I already tried all night and I caught nothing, but something about Jesus, Peter recognized was different. And so he says, master, we toiled all night and we caught nothing, but nevertheless, at your word, I'll let down my nets. And there is an entire another message there about the miracles that take place through obedience, through radical obedience. It didn't make sense in the natural. It didn't make sense to a seasoned experienced fisherman. He would have been frustrated. It would have cost him. They already cleaned the nets, but he said, Jesus, because you said it, I'll do it. And when he did, there was a miracle that took place. So many fish in the nets that they had to call partners over. So many fish in the partner's boats that they actually began to sink. And when Peter saw this, his response was not like, oh, cool, high five, you know? Jesus, you're my new homeboy. He fell down on his knees and he said, get away from me. I'm a sinful man. I don't want to be in your presence. You look at people who saw God in his glory, John on the island of Patmos, you know, Isaiah, when he saw the train of his rope, all of them fell down in humble adoration of God and Peter was no different. And in that moment, Jesus said, Peter, don't be afraid. I've called you. I've appointed you. You're not gonna just be a fisherman. I'm gonna make you a fisher of men. I have a plan and a purpose for your life. And it's in that moment that Peter's launched into ministry. And throughout the rest of the Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, we learn a lot more about Peter. He was very brash, very outspoken, very loud, had a tendency to open his mouth and directly insert his foot. He was kind of a ready fire aim kind of a guy. Said whatever he felt, never held back and it worked for him a lot of the time. I mean, you look at Peter's life, he was on the Mount of Transfiguration with only two other disciples when Jesus revealed himself in his glory. He was the only one that got out of the boat and walked on water when Jesus bid the disciples to come, nobody else did. Probably the crowning moment in the life of Peter is in Matthew chapter 16 when Jesus is talking to his disciples and he says, who do people say that I am? And the disciples responded with, you know, some say Elijah and some say John the Baptist or one of the prophets and Jesus says, but who do you say that I am? And without hesitation, Peter says, you're the Christ, you're the son of the living God. And Jesus looks at him and says, blessed are you Simon? Bar Jonah, because flesh and blood didn't reveal that to you, my father in heaven did. And your name's gonna be Peter, which means rock. And on that revelation, I'm going to build my church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it. And Peter in that moment must have been like, yes. Finally, I nailed it. He was looking at the other disciples like, huh, huh, huh. I knew I was the best. But Peter also had some low moments in his life. Sometimes he didn't get it right. Remember he hacked an ear off a guy in the garden when they came to arrest Jesus. Sometimes I think we read that and we think that it was like ninja precision. You're like, I knew he like caught his ear. No, he was just freaking out. Like I'm gonna kill you and cut his lobe off. And Jesus was like, calm down, Peter, calm down. And he heals the guy's ear. And Peter had a moment right after Jesus affirmed him in Matthew 16, where Jesus starts talking about what he's gonna have to do. He's gonna have to go to the cross. And what does Peter say? No, no, no, no. That's never gonna happen to you. Jesus, that's not the plan. That's not how it's gonna go down. And Jesus looks at him and says, get behind me, Satan. For you're not mindful of the things of God, you're mindful of the things of man. And he rebukes Peter in that moment. But maybe, unfortunately, the most defining moment in Peter's life is he was the one who denied Jesus three times. Even people who don't know the Bible, people who don't come to church, aren't Christians, they know that about Peter. He's the one who denied Jesus. So prior to this, Jesus is meeting with his disciples. And Peter, as he often does, branches out, unprovoked. You know what, Jesus? I can't speak for these other guys. These other disciples, they'll probably bail on you. They might not see this through to the end, but me? I am here for you. I am in it for the long haul. I don't care what it takes or how much it costs or where we end up, I'm with you. And Jesus says, I tell you the truth. Before the rooster crows, you're gonna deny me three times. And I don't even know if Peter heard that, but he just went on. And then the Bible tells us that Jesus was arrested. The Roman soldiers came, took him away. It's nighttime, there's chaos. One of their closest friends, Judas, has just betrayed Jesus. Nobody knows what's going on. And the Bible says that Peter and the other disciples are following from a distance as Jesus is being taken away. And he's in a courtyard and there's a charcoal fire. And he starts warming his hands by it. And someone comes up to Peter and says, hey, aren't you with Jesus? No, no. I don't know them. Someone else comes up to him a little later. You have a Galilean accent. Surely you're one of those. No, no, don't know those guys. And a teenage girl comes up and says, I saw you. You were with Jesus. And Peter starts calling down curses and saying, I don't even know who he is. And instantly the Bible says the rooster crows. And in Luke 22, it says that Jesus looks at Peter and Peter locks eyes across the courtyard with Jesus as soon as the rooster crows. And it's the moment of greatest failure in Peter's life. He's thinking to himself, I can't believe I just did that. I can't believe I operated in fear. That's not who I am. That's not what I believe. I mean, he was Jesus's friend. He was Jesus's disciple. He spent three years with him. He just got done saying, I'm gonna go to the ends of the earth if it requires it. And he failed. And he looks at Jesus. And the Bible says in the last verse of Luke 22, and he went out and he wept bitterly. He just left. And the reality is Jesus was gonna be crucified either way, whether Peter denied him or didn't deny him. But it didn't change the fact that Peter is dealing with guilt. He's dealing with shame. He's dealing with the pain of the decision that he made. He feels like I'm partly responsible. I contributed to this scenario that's so terrible. Interestingly, as we had baby dedication today, it reminds me of the movie Lion King, which is undoubtedly the greatest Disney movie in the whole world. But remember when Simba was told by his dad, Mufasa, don't go to that area. Don't go over there. And what does Simba do? He goes. And he does it anyway. And then Mufasa has to run after him and save him. And he picks him up and all the wildebeest are running and they're dodging him. And he picks him up, puts him on a stone and then jumps up and he's hanging on by a thread and scars there. And he's like, my brother. And he's like and pushes him down. Am I describing this? Okay. You guys must just be riveted by my storytelling ability. And then all of a sudden he gets trampled by the wildebeest. And how many of you know there were lots of factors that led to this situation, but it doesn't take away from the fact that Simba's disobedience was a big part of the situation that Mufasa found himself in. And it's literally the saddest thing in the world. I'm not kidding you. I cry. I watched it on YouTube and I started bawling in my office because here comes Simba and his dad's just laying there. And you see one wildebeest kind of running away. And he's like, dad, wake up. We gotta go home now. I'm gonna literally cry right now. I'm watching him going, Disney, why do you do this to children and adults? And he doesn't wake up, right? He's not waking up. And what is Simba's response? He runs. He runs away. And he doesn't become the worst lion that ever lived. He doesn't become Scar Junior. He meets some friends. He has some Makuta Matata moments in his life. But what happened? He was miles away from the plans and destiny that we're gonna unfold in his life. And he was miles away from the impact in the kingdom that he was supposed to have because of the decisions that he made. And he found himself running. He found himself just surviving in a totally different mode than was ever intended for his life. And I feel like that happens to us as Christians a lot. We're in situations where our past decisions, our past experiences wanna define us. And they cause us to identify with our mistakes and our failures. Like I've let God down. I'm not as bold as I should be. It's that divorce. It's that abuse that I went through. It's a decision that I made. And it's all of these things that keep us from believing that God could truly ever love us or maybe ever use us. The way that he wants to. Or maybe the way that he could have if we hadn't failed. And that's exactly where Peter is in this moment. He has to deal with the fact that he's failed. Not just the man that he loved. Not just the teacher, but the God that walked on the earth with him. And so I wanna talk this morning about what do we do when we fail? What do we do when we miss it? What do we do when our actions don't line up necessarily with the way that we want them to? Paul talked about that in Romans seven. The things that I don't wanna do, I keep finding myself doing. And the things that I do wanna do, I find myself not doing those. It's a struggle and it's a battle. And it happens in every single Christian, but unfortunately in our social kind of media, escapist mindset, we don't like to deal with failure. We don't like to talk about it. We can ignore it. That's why social media is so great. You put your highlights on there. Look at us. We're so happy. We're eating at Applebee's because we're rich like that. You know, or so whatever, you know. Look at our family. They're getting along and as soon as you take the picture, it's like, can you touch me? I hate you. And reality sets back in, but we project that everything's great. And it seeps into the church where we're like, I don't have issues. And if I do, I'm certainly not gonna bring them in here. No, no, no. As soon as we walk in the doors, the mask is on. We're great, awesome, fine, no weaknesses. And that's not true in most of our lives. That's not the reality. That's not how we process our relationship with God. We have failures. We have times we feel like we've disappointed or let God down. And we have to be able to deal with those. And it's not unique. It's not unique to Peter. Sometimes we talk about the heroes of the Bible and we think that they're, you know, we read Hebrews 11 in these faith chapters and we think, wow, they're like larger than life. And there's a tendency to almost deify these people. But every single person of greatness that God used had issues. I mean, Abraham, right off the bat, father of our faith. What did he do? He rushed the plans of God and he had an Ishmael. Moses, the greatest deliverer that Israel had ever known. The Bible says he talked face to face with God like a friend. What did he do? He killed an Egyptian man in a moment of anger. Elijah, the greatest prophet they'd ever known. Victory after victory, miracle after miracle. Second Kings 18 talks about the prophets of Baal and instead fire comes down and destroys all of them and it's this huge moment. And then right after that, he runs in fear from Jezebel and he starts complaining to God that he's been abandoned and that he's the only one left. David, greatest king Israel had ever known. God said he's a man after my own heart. God said that. It's one thing to say I'm a man after God's own heart but God said that about David and what happened? David had an affair with Bathsheba and he had her husband, Uriah, killed. So issues are nothing new. If you have issues in here, it's okay. God can still use you. Raise your hand in here if you ever feel like you've failed God before. Raise your other hand if you ever feel like you've let God down before. Now slide to the left. Two hops this time. No, I'm kidding, okay. Sorry, I was getting a little too serious in here. Failure is something every single Christian has to deal with and that's where Peter is in this moment. I wanna just look at what does God see when you fail? What happened in Peter's life in these moments and what can we learn from it today? So turn to John chapter 21 and we're gonna look at an interesting encounter that Peter has with Jesus after the resurrection. It says this, after this in verse one, Jesus revealed himself again to the disciples by the sea of Tiberius and he revealed himself in this way. So Jesus is at the sea of Tiberius and the interesting part is if you read Mark chapter 16, Mary Magdalene goes to the tomb and realizes that no one's there, that the tomb is empty, the stones rolled away and an angel sits down and talks to her and says, go, Jesus isn't here. He's risen, go and tell the disciples and Peter to meet him at the sea of Galilee and I think that's so interesting that the angel included Peter. He didn't say, go tell the disciples. He said, and Peter because I don't know if Peter would have come if he hadn't. Peter might have said, that's for the people who haven't failed, God. That's for the ones who didn't make the mistakes I did but instead the angel says, go tell the disciples and Peter. And he revealed himself in this way. Verse two, Simon Peter, Nathaniel, sons of Zabbatee and two others of the disciples were together and Simon Peter said to them, I'm going fishing. And they said, we'll go with you and they went out and got into the boat but that night they caught nothing. So they're going to meet Jesus and Simon Peter makes this statement. Peter says, I'm going fishing. And if you just read that at face value, you can think that that means, you know what, it might be cool to just kill some time and catch a few smallmouth bass while we're here or something. But you have to remember that Peter was a lifetime fisherman but that's what he did. So this wasn't like recreational for him. You know, like if I told Kendra, hey, I'm going to play basketball, she would know that means I'm going to the YMCA and I'm going to dunk on Corey Asbury and Caleb Culver, I'm just kidding. I'm going to try not to break my other leg but when Michael Jordan, you remember, back in the 80s and he for some odd reason decided to play baseball and then realized I'm not as good at baseball and he said the exact same thing that I just said to Kendra, I'm going to play basketball. But it means something different when it's Michael Jordan. No one was like, what, at the YMCA with Caleb Culver? No, they didn't say that because they knew this is a career move and so what Peter is saying when he says, I'm going fishing is he says, I'm going back to my life the way it was before Jesus called me. I'm going back to what's comfortable, what I'm good at. There might have been a time that God, Jesus said, you're going to be a fisher of men but I ruined that. I mean, I denied him to his face three times. So I'm just going to go back to work, to what I know, to where I am comfortable and to what I can still do well. Peter wasn't saying, I'm going to forget God and I'm going to rebel and I'm going to become a terrible person. He just went back to a place of comfort, a place of work, a place of distraction and it's not even bad. There's nothing wrong with being a fisherman but so many Christians still do that today. They make mistakes, they have things that happen in their life and they say, I can't really be who God's called me to be. I'm not going to become a terrible person. I'm just going to busy myself with work and distractions. I'm just going to try to get through this. I think I'm a Christian, I'm pretty sure I'm saved but there's no way God can really use me because I have issues and I've made too many mistakes and it keeps us living lower than the plan that God has for us and that's all the enemy wants to do. If he doesn't believe probably he can get us as Christians to renounce God or to turn from God but if he can get you to believe, you know what? Maybe you're saved but God can never use you. You're too flawed. You're too messed up. So you better just hunker down, wait for the rapture and don't try to become anything you're not because you're too weak. That's how the enemy works. And it happens to everybody. It's not just Peter, it's not just a few Christians. That's the voice of the enemy in everybody's life. It happens to pastors. I know last week we talked about John the Baptist and being bold and the wild ones and preparing the way for Jesus but if we're honest, a lot of Christians are like I don't feel that way. I don't know if I've ever talked to anybody at work about Jesus. I don't know enough and then I have my own problems and that's all the enemy disqualifying us and it happens to me too. You know, I have had some powerful encounters with the Lord, with people but I've also had some times I've missed it. I'll never forget 10 years ago probably. I was in a season where I was asking God for increase and being used by Him and I wanted to see healings and miracles and I'm just praying into that and I'm in line at Meijer in the self-checkout line and there's, I don't know, roughly 400 of us in line. So it's all the way back to the clothing department but there's part of you that's like this is still way faster than any checkout line so just wait here a minute. And there was a lady in front of me and so I'm a seven on the Enneagram. I'll talk to anybody, I don't care. So I was like, I made a joke, I was like, is there like a cedar point right up there or something that we're waiting for? And she didn't laugh but you know what? That never discourages me. So I kept talking to her and she said, she turned around and she said, yeah, this line, I don't like standing in this line either, especially with my bad back. And it was weird that she said that but I also felt the Lord saying, I want you to pray for her back. I want to heal her back. And I was like, is that the Lord? Am I imagining this? Because in my mind I'm going, I don't know, God, this is, I know, I wasn't thinking I prayed that in the moment but I'm thinking this is weirder than I wanted it to be when I asked for that in prayer. I mean, I already bombed on my joke, she doesn't think I'm funny. And I don't, what is that gonna look, how do I do that? What does that look like, you know? I'm gonna put my hand up on her hip and when I pray she dips, we dip, is that how this, I mean, I'm like going through it in my head like, this is too weird. And so I talked myself out of it and I didn't do it. And I went back in my car and I had a Peter moment where I was just like, man, I'm sorry, Lord. I really am. There was a long time church that in my head I went back to that moment and I thought about what would have happened if I'd prayed for her, if God had healed her back? What residual faith momentum might have happened in her, her family, her friends, if I hadn't been so worried about looking weird or it not working? And I struggled with that for a long time and I had to bring that to the Lord and so what I'm telling you is that's how the enemy works is with shame and condemnation and you're not good enough and guess what? You're not good enough. It's not in our strength. It's in the Lord's. It's in his power. It's in his grace. God's not asking you to be, God is great. He doesn't need you to be great. He needs you to be obedient. That's what it boils down to. And so in this moment, Peter's like, I'm bailing. I'm going fishing, but they didn't catch anything. That's how God is. Jesus isn't letting him get away that easy. So no fish. And then in verse four it says, just as day was breaking, Jesus stood on the shore, yet the disciples didn't know that it was Jesus. I don't know how they didn't know. I think it's because Jesus always messed with people after he was resurrected. He was sneaky like that. He wouldn't let people see him. So right away, Mary's there and she thinks Jesus is the gardener. I don't know if he was like playing with a bush or something, but he just rode that thing out and she goes, talks to him and he goes, who are you looking for? Jesus knows who she's looking for, right? And she goes, I'm looking for Jesus. And then he's like, Mary. And she's like, ah, you know, and same in Luke 24 on the road to Emmaus. Two disciples are walking. Jesus joins with them. They can't recognize that it's him. And he's like, hey, what's going on? And they're like, don't you know? Are you the only person who hasn't heard what happened to Jesus in Nazareth? He's like, no, what happened? Tell me more about my own death, burial and resurrection. And so they're walking along and they're telling them and then they're getting ready to leave and Jesus is like, well, I got to go, I guess. And they're like, oh, please join us for dinner. All right, I'll come over for dinner. And then they're getting ready to finally eat and Jesus goes, it's me. And it reveals himself. And they literally get up and they run out and they go seven miles back to Jerusalem to tell the other disciples, we just saw Jesus. He walked on the road with us and he didn't tell us it was him, which was weird, but it was so amazing. And then in that moment, Jesus walks through the walls of the room. They're all like, and he's like, peace, be still. And he gets all like religious on him and they're freaking out. So I don't know if that was one of these moments, they just didn't, but they didn't know it was him. And then he asked them, hey, do you have any fish? And they're like, nope, not going so good. And he says, cast the net on the other side of the boat and you'll find some. So they cast it and now they were not able to haul it in because of the quantity of fish. Does that sound familiar? It's the exact same miracle that Jesus performed in Luke chapter five when he called Peter to be his disciple. Jesus in his grace and his love. Do you want to know how Jesus responds in our failure? He's not condemning, he's not waiting for you to grovel. He's not saying, you better make it up to me. He recreates the exact same miracle he used when he called Peter. And he said, I loved you then when I called you and I love you now when you failed me. And my grace and my favor and the miraculous provision I have for your life isn't contingent on whether you're good enough or whether you perform enough, it's about my love and my grace. And so he says, look, I'm still for you. The miracle's still there in your life, Peter. And the nets are breaking. There's so many fish. And Jesus, and Peter obviously remembers that this happened. It was only three years ago. And so in verse seven, it says, then the disciple whom Jesus loved, which is the author of this book, which is amazing when you refer to yourself. He couldn't say, and then John said to Peter, he goes, no, then the disciple whom Jesus actually really loved said to Peter, it's the Lord. And when Simon Peter heard it was Lord, he put on his outer garment for he was stripped for work and he threw himself into the sea. Peter was like, it's the Lord. Peter recognized, it's God, he's still, Jesus is still opening the relationship. Jesus is saying, I'm still here for you. Jesus is saying, the same miracle that I performed then, I'm gonna do now because I'm always for you. And Peter in response jumps into the lake. But before that, he puts clothes on, which is a little weird, puts on his garment and just jumps in and starts swimming toward the shore where Jesus is. And that's my prayer for many of us today. Is that instead of running from God, like Peter did, like Simba did, we run towards him. Even in our brokenness, even in our weakness, it wasn't pretty, it wasn't eloquent, it wasn't a swan dive. He just fell in and started swimming back toward Jesus. Verse eight says, and the other disciples, this is John digging at Peter again. But the other disciples, they came in the boat, dragging the net because they weren't far, about a hundred yards. So basically John's like, the rest of us just rode like four times, go Peter, you can do it. And then they got to shore. And then it says in verse nine, when they got on land, they saw a charcoal fire in place with fish laid out and bread. And Jesus spoke to them and said, bring some of those fish you've caught. So they went aboard, hauled the net full of large fish, 153. And Jesus said to them, come and have breakfast. Do you wanna know how God responds to you and your failure? He has bread, he has food, he invites you in for breakfast. He's not yelling, he's not screaming, he's recreating the miracle. He's saying, relationship is still there. You're not defined by your failures. It's not who you are, or maybe what you've done. But he's saying to Peter, it's not who you are. I called you a rock in Matthew 16, long before you acted like a rock. That's the beauty of Jesus. He speaks to who you are before you actually become that. He's speaking to your future, not your past. And he says to Peter, come on, let's have breakfast. Let's eat, he's not yelling, he's not mad. Sometimes when we fail, we hear a voice of condemnation, we hear a voice of anger, we hear a voice that's accusing us and we confuse that or we attribute that to God. And I'm telling you, that's never how he responds in your failure, ever. He's gentle, he's kind, he invites you in. Romans 2, 4 says, it's the goodness of God that leads you to repentance. It's not God scaring you or condemning you into repentance. That's the enemy. Satan is the accuser of the brethren and it's his voice that brings shame and guilt and condemnation. The voice of God brings freedom and identity and says, you're still my child, you're still my chosen and I have plans for you. That's what God says. I haven't said this in any of the other services, but it reminds me of the movie, Walk the Line with Johnny Cash. And if you've never seen it in the beginning, he and his brother, Jack, Johnny and Jack, they're working hard in a sawmill. They're dads and alcoholic. He's abusing his mom, he's not a good man. And of course, Johnny's this musical kid and he doesn't wanna be working and he wants to go fishing and so Jack's the real responsible older brother. He says, just go ahead, I'll finish up. And he's doing the wood on the saw and you can just see it building in the scene that he's put his arm or chest or something into the saw and he's lying there. And of course, no one's there to tell anyone. Johnny's gone off fishing and then it goes to the next scene where a road, Johnny's coming back from fishing. He's got his pole over his shoulder and then a car comes screaming down this dirt road. There's all this fumes coming behind it and it stops right by Johnny. Door opens up and it's his father. And the very first words that his earthly father says to him, where you been? Sometimes I think in our failure, we hear God. We hear him saying, where you been? You haven't been doing what I asked you to do. You haven't been reading your Bible. You haven't been praying and we see God through the lens. Even if you had the best father, we see him through a lens that isn't who he is. And that was Peter's fear. I don't know how to respond. I don't know what to do. How am I gonna make this better? And instead, Jesus just invites him, says, come to me. It's okay. We can deal with it. We can move on. God isn't asking you where you been. God's asking you, come into my arms. They're open for you. And in verse nine, it says that there was a charcoal fire and this is very interesting because Jesus built this fire and he's gonna cook the fish on it. But that phrase, charcoal fire, is only used two times in scripture and all the times that fire is used. This time and then the only other time is it's described as the fire that Peter was warming his hands by when he denied Jesus. So Peter sees this fire, he knows. He remembers. And Jesus recreates the miracle from when he called Peter to be his disciple but he also recreates the moment of Peter's greatest failure. And he invites him in and he says, let's talk about it. We're not gonna ignore it. We're not gonna act like it didn't happen. Sometimes that's what we wanna do when we fail. It's just, you know, shut it out. I'll do better. I'll try harder. And God's saying now, let's talk about it. Let's bring it up. I know Peter, I know you feel terrible. I know you didn't want that to happen. I know it was heinous, we saw it, but let's move on. Let's not let that define you. Let's not let that be your identity. We have to forgive and we have to move on in our calling. And that's the same thing for us today. First John 1-9 says that if you confess your sins, God is faithful and just to forgive your sins and to clear away all your iniquity. God's not holding your sins against you. God doesn't want you to grovel. God doesn't want you to beg. Hebrews 4-16 says you can come boldly before the throne of grace to obtain mercy and to find help. God delights in mercy. He's not holding it at arm's length. He's not dangling it like I care it. He's saying if you'll come to me with a humble and a contrite heart, my mercy and my grace is greater than anything that you've done wrong. Anything. So Peter was nervous. He sees the fire. They haven't had a real conversation. Peter's probably like barely eating. He's like, what do I do? What do I say? And the moment of truth is in verse 15. They finished breakfast. And Jesus starts the conversation. Simon Peter, he says to Simon Peter. Simon's son of John, he uses his full name. He never used his full name before. Just probably scared Peter too. First he sees the fire. Now Jesus is using my full name. It was like when your mom used your full name. John Henry Zonervan. I'm like, guys, I gotta go. Why? I don't know, but it's bad. And so Peter might be freaking out. And he asked him this question. Do you love me more than these? Do you love me more than these? Scholars believe he was pointing to the fish. 153 miracle fish. He says, do you love me more than these, Peter? Because I called you away from fishing to be a fisher of men. I called you to be a part of what I'm doing in the kingdom of God. And you wanna go back. You wanna let your failure say, I can't do that anymore. I just gotta be a regular fisherman. But I'm telling you, that's not the truth. That's not the plants that I have for you. So he says, you know I love you, I do. And what does Jesus say? Feed my lambs. Then he asked him a second time, Peter, do you love me? And he said, yes, Lord, you know that I love you. He said, then tend my sheep. Then he says the third time, Simon, some of John, do you love me? And Peter was grieved because he said to him the third time, do you love me? And he said, Lord, you know everything. You know that I love you. And Jesus said to him, feed my sheep, feed my lambs, tend my sheep, feed my sheep. Now, was Jesus just being cruel here? Was he just rubbing it in? Peter, do you love me? Yes, Lord. Well, I couldn't tell the other day. So I'll ask you again. That's not what Jesus is doing. Jesus is asking him for every single time that he denied him. He's saying, do you love me? I know you do. And feed my lambs. Peter, do you love me? Yes, I know. Tend my sheep. If Jesus wanted to condemn Peter, he'd be pointing to his past, talking about what you did and what you didn't do. He says points to the future. I know you do. So you know what that means? You can't stay here. You can't wallow in your mistakes. You can't let your failures define you. Go feed my sheep. Tend my lambs. There's a world that needs you, Peter. I need you to be a voice for me to this generation. And then you read the book of Acts and you see that in this moment, the healing that Peter has propels him into his ministry and the Holy Spirit falls on him and he's preaching with boldness and the thousands are being added to the church daily and people are being cut to their heart with repentance. And he sees a crippled man who's been lame for 40 years and he says, silver and gold I don't have, but what I do have, I give to you in the name of Jesus, rise up and walk. And miraculous healings are breaking out. His shadow is healing people. All because Jesus said that isn't who you are. Your failures don't define you. I define you and you're a child of God. And I said you're gonna be a fisher of men and I need you, Peter, to leave the past in the past and go feed my lambs. Go tend my sheep. Go be a part of what I've asked you to do. We have a God to serve. We have a world to heal. We have people who need to know that I love them, Peter. And if you just stay here in yesterday, people's tomorrows are gonna be affected. And that message has never been needed more in the body of Christ than in 2019 where we have craziness going on all over the place, brokenness, sin at a high level. And we have too many Christians who are like, I can't do anything about it. I have my own issues. And Jesus is saying, no, I called you out of darkness and into light. It's not your strength. It's not your ability, Peter. You weren't strong enough on your own. Remember you said, I'll never leave you, I'll never. And you did, I get it. But now go out in my strength, go out in my power, go out in my anointing and miracles will happen. Be strong in the Lord. And the church in 2019 needs to arise and shine because the glory of the Lord is upon us. Not because we don't have any issues, but because God's glory is upon us and God's grace is greater than our mistakes. And the lies of the enemy are you have to wallow, you have to beg, you have to hope that God can use you. And the truth is, the truth is that God says, you're my child, you're my chosen one, and you're a vessel that I'm gonna use to reach the world. That's the beauty of the gospel. It's not the strong, it's not. God says, I take the weak things and I confound the wisdom of this world. I take the things that don't have honor and I bring honor to them in my kingdom. So in the kingdom of God, it's not the strongest, it's not the best, it's the broken, it's the humble, it's the obscure, it's the Davids who were just watching sheep and his own dad didn't even bring him out to be chosen for the next king. But God had already marked him, God already knew who he was. And that's what God does with us. Doesn't define us by our failures. He speaks to our future. Do you love me? Yeah, but I have issues. I know. Feed my sheep. Do you love me? Yeah, you know I do. I know. 10 mile amps. There's things I need you to do. And they're never gonna happen if you stay here. There's no condemnation in Christ. That's all I can tell you. Romans eight, one. You don't have to feel guilty. You don't have to be ashamed. John, are you saying it doesn't matter what we do? Of course it matters. Every decision we make matters. But God's grace is greater than anything you've ever done wrong. Anything you ever will do wrong. And the enemy's gonna lie to you, but I'm telling you, you do not wanna stand before God. I do not wanna stand before God. Someday, and say I would have done more to affect the kingdom for your glory, but I was too worried about the things I'd done in my past. I was too worried about mistakes that I've made. That's not what you wanna say to God. Give everything that you have. Bible says that Peter left everything and followed him. That's all God wants is obedience. You gotta stand up with me. I wanna pray. I wanna be with you. I just want you to close your eyes. I just want you to let the Holy Spirit minister to you. There's people in this room I know who feel like Peter did. I failed. I made some bad choices and now I'm disqualified. I don't have the ability to be used by God like I might have if I hadn't done that or like other people who have made better decisions. And that's not the voice of God. My prayer is that just like Peter, instead of running from him, you'll dive in after him. He's calling you back to the shore, back to the miracle, back to the anointing and calling you had in the beginning. That's the heart of God. Micah seven, verse eight, it's one of my favorite verses. The prophet says, do not rejoice over me, my enemy. For though I fall, I'll rise again. And though I sit in darkness, the Lord will be a light unto me. There's gonna be times that you fall. The Bible says a righteous man falls seven times, but he rises again. God upholds him with his mighty right hand. That's the promise of God. You don't have to try harder. You have to surrender. You have to say, God, I can't do it. And God says, I know, but I can't. But you have to give me your life. And if you're in this place and you know you've been running from God, you've been running from the call that he has on your life, you've not made him Lord and savior. Today is the day of salvation. Today is the day that God does a miracle because of your obedience. Just like Peter would be easier to say, I'll do it some other time, it doesn't make sense. I don't know if this is real, but if you will be obedient to the Holy Spirit right now, the miraculous can happen. And if that's you and you want to be included in this prayer, I want you to raise your hand right now. Say, I need to give my heart to the Lord. I need Jesus in my boat. I need the forgiveness of God. Raise it high, thank you. Awesome, I see that hand. Awesome, thank you in the back. This is the day of salvation. Awesome, I see your hands. Praise God, keep your hands up. Join in if that's you. I'm not talking about I had a bad week. I'm talking about you know you need Jesus in your life. Awesome, you can put your hands down. I want everyone in this room to pray this prayer with me. It's not magic, but it is the starting point of obedience to what the Holy Spirit's doing in this room right now. This is what we do. We ask in faith for God to come into our hearts. So if you raise your hand and you pray this right now, I'm telling you, the Spirit of God is going to move and take residence in your heart and your life. Everyone in this room say this after me. Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for your love. Thank you for your grace. I recognize I've failed you. I have sinned and I am not strong enough in myself. But I surrender to you. I look to the cross and the victory that Jesus has over death, sin and the grave. I turn my back on my past and I surrender to you. Use me, send me and fill me with your Spirit in Jesus' name. Amen, amen. Come on, let's give the Lord glory. If you raise your hand and you pray that today is a new day in your walk with Jesus.