March 9, 2025 • 43 mins
Shame can keep us sitting down in failure, wondering, “How did I get here?” But God wants to help us stand back up and step into our purpose.
To support this ministry and help us continue to reach people all around the world, click here: http://www.elevationchurch.org/giving/
Scripture References:
Acts 2, verse 14
Luke 22, verses 31-34, 54-55
Luke 23, verses 44-45
Matthew 26, verses 69-70, 73-75
Romans 3, verse 23
Acts 2, verses 1-4
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Hey, this is Stephen Ferdick.
Speaker 2 (00:02):
I'm the pastor of Elevation Church and this is our podcast.
I wanted to thank you for joining us today. Hope
this inspires you. Hope it builds your faith. Hope it
gives your perspective to see God as moving in your life.
Speaker 1 (00:13):
Enjoy the message.
Speaker 3 (00:17):
Hey, welcome to Elevation Church. My name is Larry Brye.
I'm one of the pastors here at Elevation and everybody
calls me LB. So in the chat if you want
to call me LB, we'll be friends. I love it
and my wife and had the privilege of being one
of the original eight families that sold their homes and
quit their jobs nineteen years ago to start.
Speaker 1 (00:38):
Elevation Church and.
Speaker 3 (00:42):
Surely one of the biggest honors of our lives to
have a front row seat. But every time I get
up in the pulpit, there's a couple things that I'm.
Speaker 1 (00:48):
Always encouraged by.
Speaker 3 (00:48):
One is Pastor Stephen, you do this every week, My goodness,
thank you for standing in the pulpit every week faith
inly preaching the word of God. I honor you, we
love you.
Speaker 1 (01:01):
And it makes me grateful for our church.
Speaker 3 (01:03):
Nineteen years ago we had eight families, and now we've
got nineteen physical locations.
Speaker 1 (01:08):
Come on balancein.
Speaker 3 (01:09):
Let's welcome all the other locations joining us today. It's amazing, Ronoke,
I love you. And then our very first Sunday, we
had one hundred and twenty one people joining us for church.
Now today, the team told me, on this a weekend
like this, an average weekend, there'll be one hundred and
eighty countries watching elevation chirts.
Speaker 1 (01:32):
So let's welcome everybody.
Speaker 3 (01:33):
Joining us from countries all around the world, Denmark and Sweden, Kenya,
the country of California, the country of Texas City, and well,
gratefully you joined in today because we believe God's got
a word for you. Let me give you one versus
scripture to set off where we want to go today.
This is an Acts, chapter four, Verse fourteen says, Then
(01:57):
Peter stood up with the eleven raised his voice. Let
me say it again, then Peter, he stood up, and
he raised his voice, and he addressed the crowd. Fellow
Jews and all of you who live in Jerusalem. Let
me explain this to you. Listen carefully to what I say.
I think Peter's got a sermon he's gonna preach for
(02:17):
us today, and we need to listen to the words
of Peter. But not just the words he's gonna preach with,
but he's gonna preach with his very posture, because it
says if he stood up, he was sitting down. And
I think there's some of you that have sat down
in some things that God's calling you out of. And
(02:38):
so he's not just gonna preach with his words. He's
gonna preach with his posture. And the title for today,
I got it from my mom, Dorothy. She's four foot
eleven on a good day, and when I was a kid,
I would not want to get out of bed, like
the curtains were closed.
Speaker 1 (02:52):
I love it dark.
Speaker 3 (02:53):
I'd be curled up in my blankets and my mom
would walk in with all authority of Heaven and she
would throw all open the windows and the light would
flood in, and she says, time to rise and shine. Larry,
that's the title I got for our message today.
Speaker 1 (03:08):
Time to rise and shine.
Speaker 3 (03:11):
How about your look at your neighbor, tell him to
rise and shine. Worship Team, thank you for leading us today.
You guys can have a seat. This text that were
jumping into this character Peter in Acts two fourteen. It's
the day of Pentecost. It's kind of the birth of
(03:32):
the church. The promise of the Holy Spirit had showed up,
and they started to do profound things that were filled
with the spirit. And it spills out of a little
room into the street. And this is like nine in
the morning, and all the people who didn't quite understand
what was going on looked at and said, these people
got to be drunk. And then it says Peter, he
stood up, he raised his voice because there was a
(03:55):
murmur in the crowd trying to drown out what God
was doing. And there's always a in the crowd to
try to drownd out what God wants to do in you.
And threw you in all around you. And Peter recognized
the situation because he was he stood up out of
something and he raised his voice. That was not just
him going, I think that is.
Speaker 1 (04:13):
The Holy Spirit.
Speaker 3 (04:14):
Saint Peter, you were prepared for this moment. Stand up,
lift your voice, and I'll speak something over these people.
And he got up out of something. But we don't
appreciate Peter standing up as much if we don't actually
know where he sat down, because if you only see
the second half of the movie, you don't appreciate as
much if you don't understand where it began. So as
you look at our character Peter, some of us are
(04:36):
going to identify.
Speaker 1 (04:36):
I love Peter. I so relate to Peter, and so
do you.
Speaker 3 (04:40):
Because Peter's the guy who would always say some dumb
things at the wrong time.
Speaker 1 (04:44):
Just call me Peter. That's that's me.
Speaker 3 (04:47):
But if we rewind just a couple months, in fact,
fifty three days, just flip over a couple chapters in
Luke twenty two, verses thirty one to thirty four, it says,
and Simon, this is the moment at the Last Supper
that Jesus is going to have with his disciples before
he goes to do what he was created to do.
(05:07):
And he's got this moment with Peter. Pastor Stephen actually
preached on this a couple of weeks ago in a
sermon called the Prayer that Repairs.
Speaker 1 (05:14):
Go back and watch that.
Speaker 3 (05:15):
That is so good, Jesus says Simon, Simon, Satan has
asked to sift you as we but I prayed for you, Simon,
that your faith will may not fail. And when you
turn back strengthen your brothers. But he replied, Lord, I'm
ready to go to to go to you. I'm ready
to go with you to prison and to death. Peter's loud,
(05:36):
He's like, I'll take a stand for you.
Speaker 1 (05:39):
Will.
Speaker 3 (05:40):
I will take a stand in front of everybody. And
Jesus like, yeah, surely you will, because he's he says,
I tell you, Peter, before the rooster crows today, he
will deny three times that you know me. And so
at the last Supper, Jesus gives this parting word to Peter,
and then they go out to the garden, and Jesus
know about what's gonna happen. After that moment, the disciples
(06:02):
had heard Jesus talk about three times you'll be crucified.
But now they start to see the story unfold. And
it's a little bit of disbelief, I think as they
go around with this. But if you go to Midnight
just a few hours later Luke twenty two, it says
this verse fifty four says then seizing him him being Jesus,
they led him away and took him into the house
(06:23):
of the High Priest, and Peter followed at a distance.
Now it's really interesting to see the story and fold
like this. Remember, Peter, I'll never deny you. I'll go
to prison with you, but you just got to restle.
Speaker 1 (06:36):
Like, well, just a little bit of distance.
Speaker 3 (06:38):
I don't know if I want all that. I signed
up to follow you, Jesus, but maybe just not quite
that close. And sometimes we don't understand what we sign
up for until we see it in.
Speaker 1 (06:48):
Front of us. And like, I don't know if I
signed up from eh.
Speaker 3 (06:51):
But before we beat Peter up, I think we need
to celebrate him a little bit. Because Judas he betrayed Jesus.
Where are the other ten apostles?
Speaker 1 (06:59):
They left?
Speaker 3 (06:59):
They deserted Jesus. Peter might be following out a distance,
but praise God for Peter, he's at least following. Can
we celebrate Peter just a little bit. He's at a
distance because there's somebody watching this sermon right now, and
you're afraid that your parents might hear it. So you
got the tone, you got the volume way down. You're
(07:21):
following Jesus. It might be at a distance. And we
have brothers and sisters around the world that if this
sermon were to be played in public, they would be
persecuted for their faith. They might feel like they're following
at a distance, but they're doing the best they can.
And for those of you who took every ounce of
energy to click on the link, Praise.
Speaker 1 (07:36):
God, you're following at a distance.
Speaker 3 (07:38):
For every one of you that had everything you could
do just to get in the car to get the
church today, Praise God. You're following at a distance. But
Jesus said, you'll deny me three times. But Peter doesn't
realize the denial has already started. Because the destination of
denial starts with just a little bit of distance. The
(07:59):
devil doesn't need much space to work in your life.
I wonder where you've got some distance in your life.
You just got a little bit of distance from the
word of God. You got a little bit of distance
from your small group you just haven't.
Speaker 1 (08:11):
Gone in a couple of weeks.
Speaker 3 (08:13):
A little bit of distance from your small group, a
little bit of distance at work. Maybe the path you
would normally take to get your desk at work, you're
going just a little bit of a longer way because
the person, the guy at work, gave you a little
bit of a tension, and he noticed your haircut, and
your husband didn't and now you're just adding a little
(08:34):
bit of distance, trying to fulfill something that God wants
to feel, just not that way, just a little bit
of distance. And then.
Speaker 1 (08:47):
And when some there had.
Speaker 3 (08:48):
Kindled a fire in the middle of the courtyard and
had sat down, Peter sat down with them.
Speaker 1 (08:59):
Two in the morning.
Speaker 3 (09:01):
Peter's been following at a distance. I want to be
right close with you, Jesus, but I don't know.
Speaker 1 (09:08):
I don't know.
Speaker 3 (09:09):
When he's dismayed and he's discouraged, and he sees them
making a fire in the middle of the courtyard, and
it says, and he sat down, we love talking about
Acts two fourteen. He stole up, he stood up, and
he preached boldly. But he sat down fifty three days
earlier in this situation.
Speaker 1 (09:27):
He doesn't know that he's gonna deny Jesus.
Speaker 3 (09:30):
He said, I will never And now he sits down
in something that in a sane moment, he would have
never gone close to. Why did he sit down in
that moment? What's two in the morning. Temperatures would have
been in the high thirties. It's a fire, he's cold.
He just the guy he's been following for three years,
just got to arrest and he's like, I don't even
(09:51):
know what's happening around me. And sometimes you get punched
in the face and you sit down in something that
you wouldn't have picked, but it's.
Speaker 1 (09:56):
Just there, and he sat down in it.
Speaker 3 (10:00):
And what I want you to understand, the denial is
already in motion. It started with a little bit of
distance and then he sat down. We live in North
Carolina now, and I didn't see the ocean till I
was twenty five. I was born and raised in Minnesota,
and I had all these images in my head of
what the ocean's going to be like, in the surf
(10:20):
and the oh. And then I went there and I
hate it. I hate the ocean. I hate all of it.
Oh my soul. They paint this picture of it's going
to be amazing, and you go out there and you
bak and you just lay there and you have dirt
all over it and you feel filthy.
Speaker 1 (10:36):
Gosh. I hated it.
Speaker 3 (10:39):
And then when the kids are little, you got to
take all.
Speaker 1 (10:40):
This stuff out there. Oh painful.
Speaker 3 (10:45):
And then the kids are out playing in the water
and the waves are coming in, but the waves come
in a little bit of an angle. They don't come
straight into the shore. So they'll go out and they'll
play in it, and then the waves will push them
up shore just a little bit. And then they go
back out and play and having their fun in the
(11:07):
boogie born and the surface pushing in and the waves
are just pushes them up shore just a little bit
of distance, and then they go back.
Speaker 1 (11:15):
You're just having a grand old time.
Speaker 3 (11:17):
Twenty thirty forty minutes, and now they're way upshore and
they look up and they go, how did I get.
Speaker 1 (11:27):
Here?
Speaker 3 (11:29):
No one of these movements is significant, but when you
add them all together, it creates a significant distance from
where you started. And what I want you to understand,
denial is a drift, because the drift wants to push
you away from the purposes of God. It is so subtle,
it's so slippery, and you're just out there having fun.
(11:52):
You don't even recognize how far you're drifting away. So
when the kids were really little, I would take one
of the orange tents from elevation and I would put
it right on the shore one because I didn't want
to bake in the sun is horrible. But what I
told the kids is every time you play and you're
gonna get pushed. The world wants to push you away
(12:16):
from the purposes of God. All you do, Oh there's
my dad. Take one step over, and now I'm in alignment.
But what happens with the drift of denial is some
of you have drifted so far because you don't realize
you've drifted often until you go, how did I get here?
(12:38):
And now that little bit of distance is a massive
mile of shame.
Speaker 1 (12:42):
And the enemy wants to drown you here because you don't.
Speaker 3 (12:45):
Feel like there's any way I could ever get back
to there.
Speaker 1 (12:48):
That's what denial wants you. But it's a drift. It
starts as just a little bit of distance.
Speaker 3 (12:55):
Holy Spirits, show us where we've allowed a little bit
of distance, a little bit of distance in our relationships,
a little bit of our distance in our relationship with
you and others and meaningful relationships. And he says, he
sat down. I wonder what did you sit down in?
Holy Spirit, show us where we sat down in situations
(13:15):
we would have normally avoided.
Speaker 1 (13:17):
Where did you sit down?
Speaker 3 (13:18):
Why did you sit down in that because you were
cold and it was a warm body. Why did you
sit down in that? Not because you wanted it. You
were led to it, or you were lied about it.
Maybe it was fun or it was familiar. As the
story will unfold with Peter, you'll see him go back
to the very fishing ship that he said he was
(13:39):
going to leave to follow Jesus. Why would he go
back to it because it was familiar? Some of you
sat back down in it. God called you out of it,
but you went to it because you were so discouraged.
You went back to what was familiar. What did you
sit down in and why did you sit down in it?
(14:00):
And as we look at the story of Peter unfold,
you already see the denials in motion, a little bit
of distance.
Speaker 1 (14:05):
And then he sat down.
Speaker 3 (14:07):
And then Matthew Chapter twenty six, verse sixty nine, it says,
now Peter sat outside.
Speaker 1 (14:11):
In the courtyard.
Speaker 3 (14:12):
A servant girl came to him, saying, you also were
with Jesus of Galilee, weren't you? She comes up, and
she asked Peter a question.
Speaker 1 (14:21):
Don't you know him?
Speaker 3 (14:23):
Don't you you're one of his guys. You're from Galilee,
aren't you? In verse seventy. But he denied it before them, saying,
I don't know what you're saying. Here's what he did.
He deflected, girl, you crazy. You'll know what you're talking
about is somebody in your life who loves God is
trying to get you back into alignment, but you are
(14:45):
deflecting and blaming them. You see what happens when somebody
tries to call you out of the slippery slope of denial.
It's this drift that gets in motion and somebody comes
to you with a question.
Speaker 1 (14:57):
It says, hey, weren't you don't you go to elevation?
Speaker 3 (15:00):
Oh?
Speaker 1 (15:00):
You crazy? Arms you're talking about?
Speaker 3 (15:03):
You see how he's gaslighting her because the shame is
starting to seep up inside of him. That's a projection
of the shame that he's carrying because he's unaware of
the distance that has been created between him and Jesus.
And at nine pm, I will never deny you. It's
about two am. Now look how much distance has been
(15:23):
driven there. And then the story continues, and when he
had gone out to the gateway, another girl saw him
and said to those who were there, this fellow also
was with Jesus of Nazareth. So what you see now
is that it's not just a girl asking Peter a question.
It's a girl making a statement to the crowd. Hey, yo,
guys in the crowd, that guy was with Jesus. You
(15:47):
see how the enemy is increasing the size of the waves,
trying to push you away. You see the attack of
the enemy, trying to steal your purpose, just one wave
at a time. This has been in motion. This is happening.
And how does Peter respond to this? But he says
he denied it with an oath, I promise you on
the name of Jesus. I don't know Jesus.
Speaker 1 (16:12):
He's now defending it with an oath.
Speaker 3 (16:15):
Wow. Wow, the first time he was just deflecting. Are
you aware of your drifts?
Speaker 1 (16:22):
Are you aware of when you.
Speaker 3 (16:23):
Start deflecting things that God's trying to bring into your life?
Speaker 1 (16:27):
And now you start.
Speaker 3 (16:28):
Defending your things with an oath on my mama's grave.
So a serving girl turns to the crowd. Isn't it
funny how we're so easily swayed by the crowd. We
love the applause, but then when the criticism comes, the
(16:51):
crowd is very fickle. But what you see is the
start of a servant girl asking him a question. Now
it's another girl talking to the crowd. And here's the
third time a little later those who stood by, This
is gonna be at.
Speaker 1 (17:03):
Like five thirty in the morning. You see.
Speaker 3 (17:06):
He sat down at the fire at two and now
the third denials at about five thirty or six m
because that's when the sun comes up, and that's when.
Speaker 1 (17:13):
The rooster crows.
Speaker 3 (17:15):
And a little later of those who stood by came
up and said to Peter, Now, this is the crowd
that are all murmuring with each other like that guy,
oh yeah, yeah, yeah. And Peter's trying to escape it.
He's just trying to find a safe place to stay warm.
He should have gotten out of the courtyard a little there.
Those who stood by came up and said to Peter,
surely you were one of them for your speech, but
(17:38):
trays you see, you're from Galilee, that's up north. We're
in Jerusalem here in the south. Now. I was raised
in Minnesota once upon this time, if you would have
heard me talk, I would have said things like, oh yeah, sure,
don't you know, yeah yeah, go out and about oh
yeah you bet y'ah yeah yeah sure sure, uh huh.
(17:59):
And when I'm moved to the South, I went to
a grocery store and ask a woman where.
Speaker 1 (18:03):
Do I buy the pop.
Speaker 3 (18:06):
And this woman looked at me. She's like, boy, you
ain't from around here, are you. I said, no, ma'am.
She says, do you know do you know what we
call you Northerners?
Speaker 1 (18:19):
I said no. She goes, we call you Yankees?
Speaker 3 (18:22):
And then she says, do you know what we call
you yankees that move to the south, Those darn Yankees.
That's because shame was rising as the pressure was mounting,
and something's leaking out of Peter. That's betraying who he
really wants to be, And it says verse seventy four.
(18:46):
Then he began to say, those darn Yankees. He began
to curse and swear. The first denial was a deflection,
The second one was a defense. Now the third one
is a disgust, he said, disgust in himself, he says.
Speaker 1 (19:05):
Then he began to curse and swear. I don't know
the man.
Speaker 3 (19:07):
And immediately the rooster crowed for seventy five, and Peter
remembered the words that Jesus said said to him, it
was only nine hours earlier.
Speaker 1 (19:17):
How quickly we forget? Just nine hours?
Speaker 3 (19:20):
He forgot what Jesus said to him, but he remembered
the words before the rooster crows, you will deny me
three times.
Speaker 1 (19:26):
So he went out and he wept bitterly.
Speaker 3 (19:32):
I think he sat down at this point and said,
how did I get.
Speaker 2 (19:38):
You?
Speaker 1 (19:38):
See what Shane wants to do.
Speaker 3 (19:40):
He wants to get you so far away from purpose.
You feel like the only way out is to do
what Judas did. And for some of you, your speech
betrays you.
Speaker 1 (19:52):
You kiss your mama with that mouth. You're acting like
you don't belong.
Speaker 3 (19:56):
To Jesus, because here's the reality. You'll drift far enough
that his tongue will become a Judas and betray the
allegiance to CHRISTO, Why are you acting like that? Why
are you behaving like that? It's not because you love Jesus.
I've just drifted so far away. And that's what happens.
(20:17):
And that's what the enemy wants to is to get
you to drift so far away. And Peter doesn't realize
it until he remembers what Jesus said, and he says,
how did I get here? And as I thought about
Peter sitting in that place, I wonder what he felt
after he realized he had denied Jesus three times.
Speaker 1 (20:36):
The shame, the.
Speaker 3 (20:37):
Way, I believe he felt like the complete and utter failure.
And I often thought about that story, and I would
always assume, of course Peter fail. Look at what he did,
that's what an ultimate failure like. It's easy to see
his failure in that one. But did he really fail?
And it went back to the text, And this is
the part that God really showed me in this sermon.
(20:57):
If we go back to the encounter with Christ at
nineteen Luke twenty two to thirty one says Simon, Simon,
Satan's as.
Speaker 1 (21:04):
The shifty as weak.
Speaker 3 (21:05):
But I have prayed for you, Simon, that your faith
may not fail. I so skipped over that because I
like to focus on the dysfunction of man. I so
identify with the denial. I couldn't even consider Christ's prayer.
I wonder what Jesus was praying. I wonder what it
sounded like. I wonder if he prayed out loud right
in front of him, or said I prayed in back
(21:26):
and I got all prayed up and then I came
out to you. But Jesus prayed for Peter, And what
did he pray? That your faith would not fail? Your
behaviors failed, your actions failed, but the faith I prayed
for that. I didn't pray for your behaviors. I didn't
pray for your actions. I prayed for your faith God.
The Bible says, the prayers of the righteous are powerful
(21:48):
and effective. Jesus is righteousness, He gives us his righteousness.
So the prayers of the righteous, the peers of Jesus,
are powerful and effective. And if Jesus is praying for you, who,
maybe there's something greater than just me. Maybe it's not
based upon what I think failure and success is. Because
(22:11):
I always thought that Peter failed. What's your definition of success?
Because you aren't often know what a failure is until
you've defined success. I think most of us walk around
feeling like a perpetual failure because we have a bad
definition of success.
Speaker 1 (22:27):
Who gave you your definition of success?
Speaker 3 (22:30):
Who are you trying to impress that isn't even watching,
Who spoke a word over you that you have been
trying to prove them wrong and they can't even remember
they said it, but you'll never forget it.
Speaker 1 (22:40):
Who gave you that definition for success?
Speaker 3 (22:42):
Because when I don't define success correctly, I will always
feel like a failure. And when I look at Peter
sitting in that place of weeping bitterly. He felt like
such a failure, But did he really fail? It all
depends on your definition of success. Because Jesus would leave
(23:04):
that moment at the last supper, and Peter would.
Speaker 1 (23:07):
Get it, would would.
Speaker 3 (23:09):
Go through this thing till six am, and then he
denied Jesus at six am, and then at nine am
the next day, on Friday, is when Jesus would be
kneeled to the cross. And as the story continues to unfold,
to Luke chapter twenty three, it says this in verse
forty four is about noon, and darkness came over the
whole land until three in the afternoon. And what that
(23:30):
darkness reprisen is the wrath of God being placed upon
his son. There must always be a penalty paid for sin,
and in that moment, the wrath of God, the sin
of humanity and the shame of the world, and the
darkness represents that shame of the world.
Speaker 1 (23:46):
And for three.
Speaker 3 (23:47):
Hours Jesus sat underneath that not just for three hours
until he died physically, but for three days he sat
in a grave, underneath the weight of that condemnation that
should have been placed upon us, and that this represents
the shame and it's coming on the world. And it's
interesting because the scripture says this. It says until three
in the afternoon, verse forty five, for the sun stopped shining.
(24:12):
The sun was created to illuminate so everybody else could see,
but it stopped shining for a couple hours.
Speaker 1 (24:20):
This was not an eclipse. This is a movement of
God and.
Speaker 3 (24:23):
It represents the shame of the world. The sun was
created to do something. Hey, when Jesus said I prayed
for you that your faith would not fail, the word failed.
There is only used a couple times in the Bible.
One of the places where it's used is right here.
So when it says the sun stopped shining, it means
(24:45):
the sun failed. It did not operate according to its
original design. It failed to glorify, it failed to illuminate,
it failed to shine. And here's what I'm taking from text.
We were created in the image of God. We are
the image bearers of God. We are called to receive
(25:07):
and reflect the glory of God in the world.
Speaker 1 (25:11):
Oh, you didn't catch it.
Speaker 3 (25:14):
So when Jesus said I prayed that your faith would
not fail, I created you, Peter because I picked you.
I chose you. I knew you were gonna deny me,
and yet I still picked you. I knew you were
going to do all that stuff, and yet I still
picked you.
Speaker 1 (25:26):
I knew you were going to have all.
Speaker 3 (25:27):
These questions, and yet I still picked you. And my
picking of you is not based upon your behavior. It's
based upon me, because I know the world is going
to try to make you drift, and the waves of
anxiety and the chaos, of the current of chaos will
try to push you away from the promises of God.
(25:53):
But when I think Jesus prayed for Peter, here's what
I pictures that boat out on the lake being tossed
about by the way, and then Jesus says, I just
got on your boat. Jesus, I am an anchor, and
I will go straight through the bottom, through all of
that depression, through all of that anxiety, through all of
that stuff, and I will get to the bottom, and
I will anchor your soul. And a good anchor only
(26:14):
has so many feet of.
Speaker 1 (26:16):
Rope on it.
Speaker 3 (26:17):
And when the rope gets to the end of it
and the anchor does what it does, that boat will
go no further. Jesus says, I know you're gonna drift,
but I have set by my grace how far you
will drift, because I am in control of the boat, Peter.
I'm in control of it. I know it feels like
the anxiety is sweeping you away, but I am an
(26:39):
anchor for your soul. And the faith that Jesus is
talking about is not Peter's faith to Jesus. It's Jesus
faith to Peter. So that faith I prayed that would
not fail. It's that remnant of why I picked you
and I gave it to you, because you see, we
(27:00):
were created to be the image bearers of God. Saint
Irenea says it like this. The glory of God is
man fully alive. In Roman, chapter three, verse twenty three,
it says this, It says, for all of sinned and
fall short of the glory of God. I always first
focused on the first half of that verse, all of sined.
(27:21):
It's easy for me to identify with the humanity, for
all of sin and fall short of the glory of God.
Speaker 1 (27:28):
And I think when.
Speaker 3 (27:29):
I look at that story of Peter and the failure.
Speaker 1 (27:31):
And the success and all those things.
Speaker 3 (27:33):
He says, Peter, when you're sitting down in shame, you're
not standing up giving me glory, and so.
Speaker 1 (27:44):
To me, failure.
Speaker 3 (27:47):
Is to say seated when God gave you the opportunity
to stand up. A couple of years ago, my son
was doing a video shoot. His name is Corbin, and
he was doing a video shoot for our youth. I'm
watching him do the video shoot and I'm like, oh, oh,
I'm so proud of Him'm just beaming with excitement God.
(28:07):
And then we got in the car and he sat
down after we finished, and you could see in his
face he was defeated and dejected. And he says to me,
all right, Dad, give me some constructive criticism.
Speaker 1 (28:18):
And my heart broke and I'm like, son, I'm sorry.
Speaker 3 (28:21):
I need to apologize because you got that definition of
success from your dad, and because he had the bad
definition of success, he felt like a failure and he
could not share his father's pleasure. You see what sitting
down in shame does. It robs you of sharing in
your father's pleasure. And he's not making you aware of
(28:44):
where you sat down to rub your nose in it
like a puppy, to throw you in the closet because
he's trying to punish you. He's wanting to make you
aware of where you sat down because he wants you
to recognize I sat down with you.
Speaker 1 (29:00):
Because Peter, I know you're gonna deny me, but.
Speaker 3 (29:02):
Jesus says, when you are faithless, I will remain faithful.
So when you have no faith, I've got enough for
both of us, is what Jesus was saying to Peter.
And so when you read themout and he stood up, yeah,
we like that, and often will preach a message of
you just got to stand up, meaning I'm just going
to do it my own strength, my own power, in
(29:24):
my own way, and I will give you about six hours,
but after that I'll forget because I grow tired and
weary and I sit right back down. How many times
do I go through the cycle of doing it in
my own strength and sitting back down own strength, sitting
back down before you get so exhausted, I just settle
for here, and I'll paint a smile on on Sunday mornings.
I'm blessed and highly favored. You just cussed your wife
(29:46):
on the parking lot because your speech betrays you.
Speaker 1 (29:52):
Some of you.
Speaker 3 (29:53):
The reason you're talking like that is you're so disgusted
with yourself that rather than the recognize how far you've drifted,
you blame everybody else around you. What have you sat
down in? What have you settled for? That? The grace
of God is saying, but I have prayed for you
that your faith would not fail. So success, success isn't
(30:16):
dependent upon my behavior. Success is my recognition that Jesus
still holds.
Speaker 2 (30:21):
On to me.
Speaker 3 (30:22):
And if he is still holding onto me, I'm successful.
That's what it means. I wonder if your definition of
success even includes Jesus. And so what I want you
to hear at this point is all of us are
(30:42):
going to sit in things, because that's the natural flow
of humanity. But the grace of God is another wave,
wave after wave after wave of grace. And to truly
stand up, to truly get up, it's not you doing
it better, trying hard, Gosh darn it, New Year's resolution.
Speaker 1 (31:01):
I'm gonna do it.
Speaker 3 (31:03):
I'm not talking about that. I'm talking about a real faith.
And you need two people to help you stand up.
There are two key people in this whole story, because
the last scene we had of Peter was him sitting
weeping bitterly, and in one of the other gospel accounts,
it says he saw Jesus in that moment, the one
he just denied. He saw face and he wept bitterly.
(31:25):
And that represents Peter moving forward. As some of you
have been sitting in this place for twenty two years.
You gave a part of yourself twenty two years a
part of yourself. Twenty two years ago you said you
were going to keep sacred till marriage. And because you
compromise that part of yourself, you'll feel so unworthy that
(31:46):
you are settling for sitting down in shame. And I
want you to know that God sees you, and he's
not disgusted at you. He's not looking at you with
a furrowed brow of disappointment, just waiting for you to
try harder and do better.
Speaker 1 (31:59):
No, he's coming to you. Because if this were.
Speaker 3 (32:02):
The end of the story, how depressing would that be.
But the great God that we served, Jesus shows up.
Jesus comes back for him. Jesus remembers, oh, I am
tied to his boat. He's not died to me. And
so Jesus is resurrected from the grave. Because you need
three people, he need two people to help you get up.
(32:23):
We believe in a God that's a trinity, Father, son,
and spirit. Each one is full of God. God the
Father always has been in you, as will be. God
the Son always has been in you as will be.
And God the Son took on flesh, and he made
his dwelling amongst us.
Speaker 1 (32:40):
And the sin that.
Speaker 3 (32:41):
Should have been placed on us was placed on him.
And he gave up his life, and he went into
a grave, and he sat down for three days.
Speaker 1 (32:51):
And after three days.
Speaker 3 (32:52):
The Father looked at the son and said, son, I
created you for something.
Speaker 1 (32:57):
It's time for you to rise and shine.
Speaker 3 (33:01):
And Jesus heard the voice of his father calling him
from the darkness he had sat in for three days.
Speaker 1 (33:06):
And because Jesus sat.
Speaker 3 (33:08):
Down in it for three days, you and I don't
have to settle for sitting.
Speaker 1 (33:11):
Down in it.
Speaker 3 (33:15):
And that same Jesus, that same Jesus now shows up
three days after he's resurrected. And who's the first disciple
he appears to? Who's the first apostle he appears to Peter?
And when Jesus shows up on the shore, he looks out,
and where does he see Peter sitting in a boat?
(33:41):
I thought you left that boat to follow me. Jesus,
I thought you left that to come after me. And
why did Peter go sit back down in it? He
didn't know what else to do, and it was familiar.
And I hope that gives you encouragement to realize today
that Jesus sees you going back to the thing you
said you would never do. I'll never deny you until
(34:04):
he did, and God said, I knew it was gonna
happen along, and I still picked you. You're still my
first show and fantasy with selection Peter. I won't deny
you because I'd be denying myself, because my name is
on you, because I am the anchor on your boat,
and I will only let you go so far. And
why haven't you given up to this point? Because the
grace of God has been an anchor to your soul
(34:25):
and says, I will only let you drift so far.
I will only let you get so far away from you.
But because my grace is holding on to you, success
is realizing that he is holding on to me, and
the fails to think I got to do.
Speaker 1 (34:41):
It in my own strength.
Speaker 3 (34:44):
So the Father looks at the sun and says, Jesus,
it's time to rise and shine, and Jesus kicks the
end out of a borrow to him because he was
made to glorify the Father. And then Jesus shows up
and he sees Peter out on the boat that he
was supposed to walk away from, and he says, hey,
you come back yet. So Peter makes his way back
(35:06):
into the shore, going through the same waves of chaos
that he was drifted away by. Isn't that funny how
God comes to you. All that stuff in your life
will have purpose when you see him face to face.
And he calls him in to the shore and he
has this meal, and three times he asked him do
you love me?
Speaker 1 (35:25):
Do you love me? Do you love me? One for
each of those.
Speaker 3 (35:27):
Denials, because God's love is always greater than your denial,
and he needed Peter to hear that for every one
of those denials, I've got something greater. I've got something greater,
I've got something right because I picked you for a purpose.
I picked you to show my love, to receive and
reflect my love. We were made to glorify God. But
when I sit in shame underneath the space here, I
(35:50):
don't bring him glory.
Speaker 1 (35:53):
So when you go to work tomorrow.
Speaker 3 (35:56):
Are you sitting down in something old or are you
hearing the voice of God saying stand up and glorify?
Speaker 1 (36:04):
So in Acts two.
Speaker 3 (36:05):
Fourteen, then Peter stood up. I wonder if he remembered
the bitter tears he wept when he denied Jesus. I
wonder if that was the soundtrack playing in the back
of his mind on some level, going Okay, maybe this
time I'll get it right, but maybe I won't.
Speaker 1 (36:20):
I wonder. Peter was dealing with some doubt and like,
could you really use me? God?
Speaker 3 (36:25):
But something about it, the voice of God, the Holy
Spirit resonating in him, made him stand up, and he
spoke loudly and clearly, and he said, let me explain
the goodness of God to you.
Speaker 1 (36:36):
And who better to explain the.
Speaker 3 (36:38):
Goodness of God than a man who had just disappointed
and denied Jesus fifty three days earlier. He didn't need
to go to a class, need to go to a
twelve step program. Those are good, but he said, all
I need is Jesus on one side and then the
Holy Spirit on the other. So in Acts, here's the
way it begins. Here's the second person. Acts two, Verses
(36:58):
one through four. So that day that Peter gets up
and speaks, that day that he boldly proclaims Jesus, here's
the other person that comes into him. Starting in verse one, says,
when the day of Pentecosts came, they were all together
in one place. Suddenly the sound like the blowing of
a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole
(37:19):
house where they were sitting. They saw what seemed to
be tongues of fire separated and come to rest on
each of them. All of them were filled with the
Holy Spirit and began to speak in tongues that the
spirit enabled them. So some of you have not placed
your faith in Jesus, and you are dead in your sin.
(37:41):
And what it would want you to do is to
hear the voice of Jesus calling you from the grave.
Say rise and shine. It is time to rise and shine.
It's time for you get up out of that grave cloth.
It's time do you come into relationship with me. Some
of you have been following at a distance for so long,
but God says, I still got you, and I'm still
calling you. And today is the day that you're going
(38:03):
to hear jesus voice calling you from the boat of
doubt follow calling you from the boat of disappointment and
despair and disgust, and the grace of God wants.
Speaker 1 (38:15):
To wash over you and clean you and make you
a new creation.
Speaker 3 (38:18):
And when you come into relationship with Jesus, when you
place your faith in him, it says, when you believe
in your heart that he was raised from the dead,
and you confess with your mouth that he is Lord,
the Holy Spirit, the person of God comes to live
inside of you. This Holy Spirit's not a power or
an energy. It's not a viber of feeling. It's a person.
(38:39):
And the Holy Spirit desires to lead you so to
get up out of that grave. It's hearing the voice
of Jesus. But now once we come to Jesus, we
also want to sit right back down in that place.
And if success is about you trying harder or doing better,
Earth success is more square footage. Earth success is a
corner office, sir, a certain amount of money in the
(39:01):
retirement account, you may or may not be successful. But
if success is based upon what Jesus did for me,
and if success is that he came back from me,
if success is recognizing that the Holy Spirit is tied
to me living inside of me. And though you're gonna
sit back down in something, here's what I believe.
Speaker 1 (39:23):
The Holy Spirit is a gentleman.
Speaker 3 (39:29):
He's not gonna kick down the door, but he's gonna
knock and say, I'm still here.
Speaker 1 (39:36):
I've not left you. I'm right in this thing with you.
Speaker 3 (39:40):
Would you respond to that voice, just as that voice
was so tender with Peter saying come here, Peter, get
out of that boat. I know you were sitting down
feeling disqualified, and you feel like you've got nothing to say.
But to rise and shine is to hear the Holy
Spirit saying, come forth.
Speaker 1 (39:58):
To respond to that.
Speaker 3 (40:00):
Now, the waves are going to be loud, the waves
of disappointment and doubt and discuss.
Speaker 1 (40:05):
They're just crashing, they're crashing rush.
Speaker 3 (40:09):
But the voice I'm talking about, it's a whisper, Simon, Simon,
it's a Hebrew term of intimacy.
Speaker 1 (40:21):
Because I'm close.
Speaker 3 (40:24):
And the Holy Spirit's inside of you, and he's whispering
to you, rise and shine. I put you in that
job to give me glory. I put you in that
school to give me glory. And when you sit in shame,
you don't operate according to what you were created for
the sun stopped shining. It was created to shine because
of the shame that was in the world. You were
(40:45):
created to glorify God. Don't let the shame rob you
of giving him the glory. Would you stand your feet
at all of our locations, And what we want to
do at this point is offer an invitation for somebody
to place their faith in Jesus as their Lord and savior.
Speaker 1 (41:06):
And what I wanted you to hear today.
Speaker 3 (41:08):
Is of a good God who sees you sitting down
in something that he says, I still picked you, I
love you, and I'm here.
Speaker 1 (41:16):
Will you respond to it?
Speaker 3 (41:18):
Will you come out of the grave and say, I
need to give him glory? Will you receive the gift
of salvation that's found in him? The Bible says if
you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, and
you believe in your heart that He was raised from
the dead, you will be saved.
Speaker 1 (41:35):
Would you buy your heads?
Speaker 3 (41:37):
Would you close your eyes at all over locations, in
everybody online, And if you need to place your faith
in Jesus, this is your prayer. I'm not talking about
a commitment to try harder or do better. I'm not
talking about a resolution to say I'm just going to
give it one more chance. Now I'm talking about confessing
you are dead in your sins and you cannot save yourself.
Speaker 1 (42:00):
That is why Jesus had to die.
Speaker 3 (42:03):
And if that's you, I want to lead you in
this prayer in the church family. I want us to
say this prayer together out loud for the benefit of
somebody who's making this decision to follow in Jesus. Pray
this with me, Church family. I believe that Jesus Christ
is the son of God who died on the cross
(42:24):
and rose from the grave.
Speaker 1 (42:26):
So forgive me of my sins.
Speaker 3 (42:28):
I give you my life, I give you my sin,
I give you my shame. Forgive me, and I'll spend
my life following you with your head still about in
your lives still close. If you just place your faith
in Jesus for the first time and you're recognizing I
need to be forgiven. If that's you, I'm going to
count to three, and when I get through without hesitation,
(42:50):
I want you to boldly.
Speaker 1 (42:51):
Shoot your hand into the air.
Speaker 3 (42:53):
One, two, three, shoots your hand up all across the sauditorum.
Speaker 1 (42:59):
Come on, Church family, no, let's celebrate.
Speaker 2 (43:02):
That thank you for joining us. Special thanks to those
of you who give generously to this ministry. Is because
of you that this ministry is possible. You can click
the link in the description to give now or visit
Elevationchurch dot org slash podcast for more information and if
you enjoyed the podcast, you can subscribe. You can share
(43:23):
it with your friends. You can click the share button,
take a screenshot and share it on your social stories
and tag us at Elevation Church. Thanks again for listening.
God bless you.
Hey, this is Stephen Ferdick.
Speaker 2 (00:02):
I'm the pastor of Elevation Church and this is our podcast.
I wanted to thank you for joining us today. Hope
this inspires you. Hope it builds your faith. Hope it
gives your perspective to see God as moving in your life.
Speaker 1 (00:13):
Enjoy the message.
Speaker 3 (00:17):
Hey, welcome to Elevation Church. My name is Larry Brye.
I'm one of the pastors here at Elevation and everybody
calls me LB. So in the chat if you want
to call me LB, we'll be friends. I love it
and my wife and had the privilege of being one
of the original eight families that sold their homes and
quit their jobs nineteen years ago to start.
Speaker 1 (00:38):
Elevation Church and.
Speaker 3 (00:42):
Surely one of the biggest honors of our lives to
have a front row seat. But every time I get
up in the pulpit, there's a couple things that I'm.
Speaker 1 (00:48):
Always encouraged by.
Speaker 3 (00:48):
One is Pastor Stephen, you do this every week, My goodness,
thank you for standing in the pulpit every week faith
inly preaching the word of God. I honor you, we
love you.
Speaker 1 (01:01):
And it makes me grateful for our church.
Speaker 3 (01:03):
Nineteen years ago we had eight families, and now we've
got nineteen physical locations.
Speaker 1 (01:08):
Come on balancein.
Speaker 3 (01:09):
Let's welcome all the other locations joining us today. It's amazing, Ronoke,
I love you. And then our very first Sunday, we
had one hundred and twenty one people joining us for church.
Now today, the team told me, on this a weekend
like this, an average weekend, there'll be one hundred and
eighty countries watching elevation chirts.
Speaker 1 (01:32):
So let's welcome everybody.
Speaker 3 (01:33):
Joining us from countries all around the world, Denmark and Sweden, Kenya,
the country of California, the country of Texas City, and well,
gratefully you joined in today because we believe God's got
a word for you. Let me give you one versus
scripture to set off where we want to go today.
This is an Acts, chapter four, Verse fourteen says, Then
(01:57):
Peter stood up with the eleven raised his voice. Let
me say it again, then Peter, he stood up, and
he raised his voice, and he addressed the crowd. Fellow
Jews and all of you who live in Jerusalem. Let
me explain this to you. Listen carefully to what I say.
I think Peter's got a sermon he's gonna preach for
(02:17):
us today, and we need to listen to the words
of Peter. But not just the words he's gonna preach with,
but he's gonna preach with his very posture, because it
says if he stood up, he was sitting down. And
I think there's some of you that have sat down
in some things that God's calling you out of. And
(02:38):
so he's not just gonna preach with his words. He's
gonna preach with his posture. And the title for today,
I got it from my mom, Dorothy. She's four foot
eleven on a good day, and when I was a kid,
I would not want to get out of bed, like
the curtains were closed.
Speaker 1 (02:52):
I love it dark.
Speaker 3 (02:53):
I'd be curled up in my blankets and my mom
would walk in with all authority of Heaven and she
would throw all open the windows and the light would
flood in, and she says, time to rise and shine. Larry,
that's the title I got for our message today.
Speaker 1 (03:08):
Time to rise and shine.
Speaker 3 (03:11):
How about your look at your neighbor, tell him to
rise and shine. Worship Team, thank you for leading us today.
You guys can have a seat. This text that were
jumping into this character Peter in Acts two fourteen. It's
the day of Pentecost. It's kind of the birth of
(03:32):
the church. The promise of the Holy Spirit had showed up,
and they started to do profound things that were filled
with the spirit. And it spills out of a little
room into the street. And this is like nine in
the morning, and all the people who didn't quite understand
what was going on looked at and said, these people
got to be drunk. And then it says Peter, he
stood up, he raised his voice because there was a
(03:55):
murmur in the crowd trying to drown out what God
was doing. And there's always a in the crowd to
try to drownd out what God wants to do in you.
And threw you in all around you. And Peter recognized
the situation because he was he stood up out of
something and he raised his voice. That was not just
him going, I think that is.
Speaker 1 (04:13):
The Holy Spirit.
Speaker 3 (04:14):
Saint Peter, you were prepared for this moment. Stand up,
lift your voice, and I'll speak something over these people.
And he got up out of something. But we don't
appreciate Peter standing up as much if we don't actually
know where he sat down, because if you only see
the second half of the movie, you don't appreciate as
much if you don't understand where it began. So as
you look at our character Peter, some of us are
(04:36):
going to identify.
Speaker 1 (04:36):
I love Peter. I so relate to Peter, and so
do you.
Speaker 3 (04:40):
Because Peter's the guy who would always say some dumb
things at the wrong time.
Speaker 1 (04:44):
Just call me Peter. That's that's me.
Speaker 3 (04:47):
But if we rewind just a couple months, in fact,
fifty three days, just flip over a couple chapters in
Luke twenty two, verses thirty one to thirty four, it says,
and Simon, this is the moment at the Last Supper
that Jesus is going to have with his disciples before
he goes to do what he was created to do.
(05:07):
And he's got this moment with Peter. Pastor Stephen actually
preached on this a couple of weeks ago in a
sermon called the Prayer that Repairs.
Speaker 1 (05:14):
Go back and watch that.
Speaker 3 (05:15):
That is so good, Jesus says Simon, Simon, Satan has
asked to sift you as we but I prayed for you, Simon,
that your faith will may not fail. And when you
turn back strengthen your brothers. But he replied, Lord, I'm
ready to go to to go to you. I'm ready
to go with you to prison and to death. Peter's loud,
(05:36):
He's like, I'll take a stand for you.
Speaker 1 (05:39):
Will.
Speaker 3 (05:40):
I will take a stand in front of everybody. And
Jesus like, yeah, surely you will, because he's he says,
I tell you, Peter, before the rooster crows today, he
will deny three times that you know me. And so
at the last Supper, Jesus gives this parting word to Peter,
and then they go out to the garden, and Jesus
know about what's gonna happen. After that moment, the disciples
(06:02):
had heard Jesus talk about three times you'll be crucified.
But now they start to see the story unfold. And
it's a little bit of disbelief, I think as they
go around with this. But if you go to Midnight
just a few hours later Luke twenty two, it says
this verse fifty four says then seizing him him being Jesus,
they led him away and took him into the house
(06:23):
of the High Priest, and Peter followed at a distance.
Now it's really interesting to see the story and fold
like this. Remember, Peter, I'll never deny you. I'll go
to prison with you, but you just got to restle.
Speaker 1 (06:36):
Like, well, just a little bit of distance.
Speaker 3 (06:38):
I don't know if I want all that. I signed
up to follow you, Jesus, but maybe just not quite
that close. And sometimes we don't understand what we sign
up for until we see it in.
Speaker 1 (06:48):
Front of us. And like, I don't know if I
signed up from eh.
Speaker 3 (06:51):
But before we beat Peter up, I think we need
to celebrate him a little bit. Because Judas he betrayed Jesus.
Where are the other ten apostles?
Speaker 1 (06:59):
They left?
Speaker 3 (06:59):
They deserted Jesus. Peter might be following out a distance,
but praise God for Peter, he's at least following. Can
we celebrate Peter just a little bit. He's at a
distance because there's somebody watching this sermon right now, and
you're afraid that your parents might hear it. So you
got the tone, you got the volume way down. You're
(07:21):
following Jesus. It might be at a distance. And we
have brothers and sisters around the world that if this
sermon were to be played in public, they would be
persecuted for their faith. They might feel like they're following
at a distance, but they're doing the best they can.
And for those of you who took every ounce of
energy to click on the link, Praise.
Speaker 1 (07:36):
God, you're following at a distance.
Speaker 3 (07:38):
For every one of you that had everything you could
do just to get in the car to get the
church today, Praise God. You're following at a distance. But
Jesus said, you'll deny me three times. But Peter doesn't
realize the denial has already started. Because the destination of
denial starts with just a little bit of distance. The
(07:59):
devil doesn't need much space to work in your life.
I wonder where you've got some distance in your life.
You just got a little bit of distance from the
word of God. You got a little bit of distance
from your small group you just haven't.
Speaker 1 (08:11):
Gone in a couple of weeks.
Speaker 3 (08:13):
A little bit of distance from your small group, a
little bit of distance at work. Maybe the path you
would normally take to get your desk at work, you're
going just a little bit of a longer way because
the person, the guy at work, gave you a little
bit of a tension, and he noticed your haircut, and
your husband didn't and now you're just adding a little
(08:34):
bit of distance, trying to fulfill something that God wants
to feel, just not that way, just a little bit
of distance. And then.
Speaker 1 (08:47):
And when some there had.
Speaker 3 (08:48):
Kindled a fire in the middle of the courtyard and
had sat down, Peter sat down with them.
Speaker 1 (08:59):
Two in the morning.
Speaker 3 (09:01):
Peter's been following at a distance. I want to be
right close with you, Jesus, but I don't know.
Speaker 1 (09:08):
I don't know.
Speaker 3 (09:09):
When he's dismayed and he's discouraged, and he sees them
making a fire in the middle of the courtyard, and
it says, and he sat down, we love talking about
Acts two fourteen. He stole up, he stood up, and
he preached boldly. But he sat down fifty three days
earlier in this situation.
Speaker 1 (09:27):
He doesn't know that he's gonna deny Jesus.
Speaker 3 (09:30):
He said, I will never And now he sits down
in something that in a sane moment, he would have
never gone close to. Why did he sit down in
that moment? What's two in the morning. Temperatures would have
been in the high thirties. It's a fire, he's cold.
He just the guy he's been following for three years,
just got to arrest and he's like, I don't even
(09:51):
know what's happening around me. And sometimes you get punched
in the face and you sit down in something that
you wouldn't have picked, but it's.
Speaker 1 (09:56):
Just there, and he sat down in it.
Speaker 3 (10:00):
And what I want you to understand, the denial is
already in motion. It started with a little bit of
distance and then he sat down. We live in North
Carolina now, and I didn't see the ocean till I
was twenty five. I was born and raised in Minnesota,
and I had all these images in my head of
what the ocean's going to be like, in the surf
(10:20):
and the oh. And then I went there and I
hate it. I hate the ocean. I hate all of it.
Oh my soul. They paint this picture of it's going
to be amazing, and you go out there and you
bak and you just lay there and you have dirt
all over it and you feel filthy.
Speaker 1 (10:36):
Gosh. I hated it.
Speaker 3 (10:39):
And then when the kids are little, you got to
take all.
Speaker 1 (10:40):
This stuff out there. Oh painful.
Speaker 3 (10:45):
And then the kids are out playing in the water
and the waves are coming in, but the waves come
in a little bit of an angle. They don't come
straight into the shore. So they'll go out and they'll
play in it, and then the waves will push them
up shore just a little bit. And then they go
back out and play and having their fun in the
(11:07):
boogie born and the surface pushing in and the waves
are just pushes them up shore just a little bit
of distance, and then they go back.
Speaker 1 (11:15):
You're just having a grand old time.
Speaker 3 (11:17):
Twenty thirty forty minutes, and now they're way upshore and
they look up and they go, how did I get.
Speaker 1 (11:27):
Here?
Speaker 3 (11:29):
No one of these movements is significant, but when you
add them all together, it creates a significant distance from
where you started. And what I want you to understand,
denial is a drift, because the drift wants to push
you away from the purposes of God. It is so subtle,
it's so slippery, and you're just out there having fun.
(11:52):
You don't even recognize how far you're drifting away. So
when the kids were really little, I would take one
of the orange tents from elevation and I would put
it right on the shore one because I didn't want
to bake in the sun is horrible. But what I
told the kids is every time you play and you're
gonna get pushed. The world wants to push you away
(12:16):
from the purposes of God. All you do, Oh there's
my dad. Take one step over, and now I'm in alignment.
But what happens with the drift of denial is some
of you have drifted so far because you don't realize
you've drifted often until you go, how did I get here?
(12:38):
And now that little bit of distance is a massive
mile of shame.
Speaker 1 (12:42):
And the enemy wants to drown you here because you don't.
Speaker 3 (12:45):
Feel like there's any way I could ever get back
to there.
Speaker 1 (12:48):
That's what denial wants you. But it's a drift. It
starts as just a little bit of distance.
Speaker 3 (12:55):
Holy Spirits, show us where we've allowed a little bit
of distance, a little bit of distance in our relationships,
a little bit of our distance in our relationship with
you and others and meaningful relationships. And he says, he
sat down. I wonder what did you sit down in?
Holy Spirit, show us where we sat down in situations
(13:15):
we would have normally avoided.
Speaker 1 (13:17):
Where did you sit down?
Speaker 3 (13:18):
Why did you sit down in that because you were
cold and it was a warm body. Why did you
sit down in that? Not because you wanted it. You
were led to it, or you were lied about it.
Maybe it was fun or it was familiar. As the
story will unfold with Peter, you'll see him go back
to the very fishing ship that he said he was
(13:39):
going to leave to follow Jesus. Why would he go
back to it because it was familiar? Some of you
sat back down in it. God called you out of it,
but you went to it because you were so discouraged.
You went back to what was familiar. What did you
sit down in and why did you sit down in it?
(14:00):
And as we look at the story of Peter unfold,
you already see the denials in motion, a little bit
of distance.
Speaker 1 (14:05):
And then he sat down.
Speaker 3 (14:07):
And then Matthew Chapter twenty six, verse sixty nine, it says,
now Peter sat outside.
Speaker 1 (14:11):
In the courtyard.
Speaker 3 (14:12):
A servant girl came to him, saying, you also were
with Jesus of Galilee, weren't you? She comes up, and
she asked Peter a question.
Speaker 1 (14:21):
Don't you know him?
Speaker 3 (14:23):
Don't you you're one of his guys. You're from Galilee,
aren't you? In verse seventy. But he denied it before them, saying,
I don't know what you're saying. Here's what he did.
He deflected, girl, you crazy. You'll know what you're talking
about is somebody in your life who loves God is
trying to get you back into alignment, but you are
(14:45):
deflecting and blaming them. You see what happens when somebody
tries to call you out of the slippery slope of denial.
It's this drift that gets in motion and somebody comes
to you with a question.
Speaker 1 (14:57):
It says, hey, weren't you don't you go to elevation?
Speaker 3 (15:00):
Oh?
Speaker 1 (15:00):
You crazy? Arms you're talking about?
Speaker 3 (15:03):
You see how he's gaslighting her because the shame is
starting to seep up inside of him. That's a projection
of the shame that he's carrying because he's unaware of
the distance that has been created between him and Jesus.
And at nine pm, I will never deny you. It's
about two am. Now look how much distance has been
(15:23):
driven there. And then the story continues, and when he
had gone out to the gateway, another girl saw him
and said to those who were there, this fellow also
was with Jesus of Nazareth. So what you see now
is that it's not just a girl asking Peter a question.
It's a girl making a statement to the crowd. Hey, yo,
guys in the crowd, that guy was with Jesus. You
(15:47):
see how the enemy is increasing the size of the waves,
trying to push you away. You see the attack of
the enemy, trying to steal your purpose, just one wave
at a time. This has been in motion. This is happening.
And how does Peter respond to this? But he says
he denied it with an oath, I promise you on
the name of Jesus. I don't know Jesus.
Speaker 1 (16:12):
He's now defending it with an oath.
Speaker 3 (16:15):
Wow. Wow, the first time he was just deflecting. Are
you aware of your drifts?
Speaker 1 (16:22):
Are you aware of when you.
Speaker 3 (16:23):
Start deflecting things that God's trying to bring into your life?
Speaker 1 (16:27):
And now you start.
Speaker 3 (16:28):
Defending your things with an oath on my mama's grave.
So a serving girl turns to the crowd. Isn't it
funny how we're so easily swayed by the crowd. We
love the applause, but then when the criticism comes, the
(16:51):
crowd is very fickle. But what you see is the
start of a servant girl asking him a question. Now
it's another girl talking to the crowd. And here's the
third time a little later those who stood by, This
is gonna be at.
Speaker 1 (17:03):
Like five thirty in the morning. You see.
Speaker 3 (17:06):
He sat down at the fire at two and now
the third denials at about five thirty or six m
because that's when the sun comes up, and that's when.
Speaker 1 (17:13):
The rooster crows.
Speaker 3 (17:15):
And a little later of those who stood by came
up and said to Peter, Now, this is the crowd
that are all murmuring with each other like that guy,
oh yeah, yeah, yeah. And Peter's trying to escape it.
He's just trying to find a safe place to stay warm.
He should have gotten out of the courtyard a little there.
Those who stood by came up and said to Peter,
surely you were one of them for your speech, but
(17:38):
trays you see, you're from Galilee, that's up north. We're
in Jerusalem here in the south. Now. I was raised
in Minnesota once upon this time, if you would have
heard me talk, I would have said things like, oh yeah, sure,
don't you know, yeah yeah, go out and about oh
yeah you bet y'ah yeah yeah sure sure, uh huh.
(17:59):
And when I'm moved to the South, I went to
a grocery store and ask a woman where.
Speaker 1 (18:03):
Do I buy the pop.
Speaker 3 (18:06):
And this woman looked at me. She's like, boy, you
ain't from around here, are you. I said, no, ma'am.
She says, do you know do you know what we
call you Northerners?
Speaker 1 (18:19):
I said no. She goes, we call you Yankees?
Speaker 3 (18:22):
And then she says, do you know what we call
you yankees that move to the south, Those darn Yankees.
That's because shame was rising as the pressure was mounting,
and something's leaking out of Peter. That's betraying who he
really wants to be, And it says verse seventy four.
(18:46):
Then he began to say, those darn Yankees. He began
to curse and swear. The first denial was a deflection,
The second one was a defense. Now the third one
is a disgust, he said, disgust in himself, he says.
Speaker 1 (19:05):
Then he began to curse and swear. I don't know
the man.
Speaker 3 (19:07):
And immediately the rooster crowed for seventy five, and Peter
remembered the words that Jesus said said to him, it
was only nine hours earlier.
Speaker 1 (19:17):
How quickly we forget? Just nine hours?
Speaker 3 (19:20):
He forgot what Jesus said to him, but he remembered
the words before the rooster crows, you will deny me
three times.
Speaker 1 (19:26):
So he went out and he wept bitterly.
Speaker 3 (19:32):
I think he sat down at this point and said,
how did I get.
Speaker 2 (19:38):
You?
Speaker 1 (19:38):
See what Shane wants to do.
Speaker 3 (19:40):
He wants to get you so far away from purpose.
You feel like the only way out is to do
what Judas did. And for some of you, your speech
betrays you.
Speaker 1 (19:52):
You kiss your mama with that mouth. You're acting like
you don't belong.
Speaker 3 (19:56):
To Jesus, because here's the reality. You'll drift far enough
that his tongue will become a Judas and betray the
allegiance to CHRISTO, Why are you acting like that? Why
are you behaving like that? It's not because you love Jesus.
I've just drifted so far away. And that's what happens.
(20:17):
And that's what the enemy wants to is to get
you to drift so far away. And Peter doesn't realize
it until he remembers what Jesus said, and he says,
how did I get here? And as I thought about
Peter sitting in that place, I wonder what he felt
after he realized he had denied Jesus three times.
Speaker 1 (20:36):
The shame, the.
Speaker 3 (20:37):
Way, I believe he felt like the complete and utter failure.
And I often thought about that story, and I would
always assume, of course Peter fail. Look at what he did,
that's what an ultimate failure like. It's easy to see
his failure in that one. But did he really fail?
And it went back to the text, And this is
the part that God really showed me in this sermon.
(20:57):
If we go back to the encounter with Christ at
nineteen Luke twenty two to thirty one says Simon, Simon,
Satan's as.
Speaker 1 (21:04):
The shifty as weak.
Speaker 3 (21:05):
But I have prayed for you, Simon, that your faith
may not fail. I so skipped over that because I
like to focus on the dysfunction of man. I so
identify with the denial. I couldn't even consider Christ's prayer.
I wonder what Jesus was praying. I wonder what it
sounded like. I wonder if he prayed out loud right
in front of him, or said I prayed in back
(21:26):
and I got all prayed up and then I came
out to you. But Jesus prayed for Peter, And what
did he pray? That your faith would not fail? Your
behaviors failed, your actions failed, but the faith I prayed
for that. I didn't pray for your behaviors. I didn't
pray for your actions. I prayed for your faith God.
The Bible says, the prayers of the righteous are powerful
(21:48):
and effective. Jesus is righteousness, He gives us his righteousness.
So the prayers of the righteous, the peers of Jesus,
are powerful and effective. And if Jesus is praying for you, who,
maybe there's something greater than just me. Maybe it's not
based upon what I think failure and success is. Because
(22:11):
I always thought that Peter failed. What's your definition of success?
Because you aren't often know what a failure is until
you've defined success. I think most of us walk around
feeling like a perpetual failure because we have a bad
definition of success.
Speaker 1 (22:27):
Who gave you your definition of success?
Speaker 3 (22:30):
Who are you trying to impress that isn't even watching,
Who spoke a word over you that you have been
trying to prove them wrong and they can't even remember
they said it, but you'll never forget it.
Speaker 1 (22:40):
Who gave you that definition for success?
Speaker 3 (22:42):
Because when I don't define success correctly, I will always
feel like a failure. And when I look at Peter
sitting in that place of weeping bitterly. He felt like
such a failure, But did he really fail? It all
depends on your definition of success. Because Jesus would leave
(23:04):
that moment at the last supper, and Peter would.
Speaker 1 (23:07):
Get it, would would.
Speaker 3 (23:09):
Go through this thing till six am, and then he
denied Jesus at six am, and then at nine am
the next day, on Friday, is when Jesus would be
kneeled to the cross. And as the story continues to unfold,
to Luke chapter twenty three, it says this in verse
forty four is about noon, and darkness came over the
whole land until three in the afternoon. And what that
(23:30):
darkness reprisen is the wrath of God being placed upon
his son. There must always be a penalty paid for sin,
and in that moment, the wrath of God, the sin
of humanity and the shame of the world, and the
darkness represents that shame of the world.
Speaker 1 (23:46):
And for three.
Speaker 3 (23:47):
Hours Jesus sat underneath that not just for three hours
until he died physically, but for three days he sat
in a grave, underneath the weight of that condemnation that
should have been placed upon us, and that this represents
the shame and it's coming on the world. And it's
interesting because the scripture says this. It says until three
in the afternoon, verse forty five, for the sun stopped shining.
(24:12):
The sun was created to illuminate so everybody else could see,
but it stopped shining for a couple hours.
Speaker 1 (24:20):
This was not an eclipse. This is a movement of
God and.
Speaker 3 (24:23):
It represents the shame of the world. The sun was
created to do something. Hey, when Jesus said I prayed
for you that your faith would not fail, the word failed.
There is only used a couple times in the Bible.
One of the places where it's used is right here.
So when it says the sun stopped shining, it means
(24:45):
the sun failed. It did not operate according to its
original design. It failed to glorify, it failed to illuminate,
it failed to shine. And here's what I'm taking from text.
We were created in the image of God. We are
the image bearers of God. We are called to receive
(25:07):
and reflect the glory of God in the world.
Speaker 1 (25:11):
Oh, you didn't catch it.
Speaker 3 (25:14):
So when Jesus said I prayed that your faith would
not fail, I created you, Peter because I picked you.
I chose you. I knew you were gonna deny me,
and yet I still picked you. I knew you were
going to do all that stuff, and yet I still
picked you.
Speaker 1 (25:26):
I knew you were going to have all.
Speaker 3 (25:27):
These questions, and yet I still picked you. And my
picking of you is not based upon your behavior. It's
based upon me, because I know the world is going
to try to make you drift, and the waves of
anxiety and the chaos, of the current of chaos will
try to push you away from the promises of God.
(25:53):
But when I think Jesus prayed for Peter, here's what
I pictures that boat out on the lake being tossed
about by the way, and then Jesus says, I just
got on your boat. Jesus, I am an anchor, and
I will go straight through the bottom, through all of
that depression, through all of that anxiety, through all of
that stuff, and I will get to the bottom, and
I will anchor your soul. And a good anchor only
(26:14):
has so many feet of.
Speaker 1 (26:16):
Rope on it.
Speaker 3 (26:17):
And when the rope gets to the end of it
and the anchor does what it does, that boat will
go no further. Jesus says, I know you're gonna drift,
but I have set by my grace how far you
will drift, because I am in control of the boat, Peter.
I'm in control of it. I know it feels like
the anxiety is sweeping you away, but I am an
(26:39):
anchor for your soul. And the faith that Jesus is
talking about is not Peter's faith to Jesus. It's Jesus
faith to Peter. So that faith I prayed that would
not fail. It's that remnant of why I picked you
and I gave it to you, because you see, we
(27:00):
were created to be the image bearers of God. Saint
Irenea says it like this. The glory of God is
man fully alive. In Roman, chapter three, verse twenty three,
it says this, It says, for all of sinned and
fall short of the glory of God. I always first
focused on the first half of that verse, all of sined.
(27:21):
It's easy for me to identify with the humanity, for
all of sin and fall short of the glory of God.
Speaker 1 (27:28):
And I think when.
Speaker 3 (27:29):
I look at that story of Peter and the failure.
Speaker 1 (27:31):
And the success and all those things.
Speaker 3 (27:33):
He says, Peter, when you're sitting down in shame, you're
not standing up giving me glory, and so.
Speaker 1 (27:44):
To me, failure.
Speaker 3 (27:47):
Is to say seated when God gave you the opportunity
to stand up. A couple of years ago, my son
was doing a video shoot. His name is Corbin, and
he was doing a video shoot for our youth. I'm
watching him do the video shoot and I'm like, oh, oh,
I'm so proud of Him'm just beaming with excitement God.
(28:07):
And then we got in the car and he sat
down after we finished, and you could see in his
face he was defeated and dejected. And he says to me,
all right, Dad, give me some constructive criticism.
Speaker 1 (28:18):
And my heart broke and I'm like, son, I'm sorry.
Speaker 3 (28:21):
I need to apologize because you got that definition of
success from your dad, and because he had the bad
definition of success, he felt like a failure and he
could not share his father's pleasure. You see what sitting
down in shame does. It robs you of sharing in
your father's pleasure. And he's not making you aware of
(28:44):
where you sat down to rub your nose in it
like a puppy, to throw you in the closet because
he's trying to punish you. He's wanting to make you
aware of where you sat down because he wants you
to recognize I sat down with you.
Speaker 1 (29:00):
Because Peter, I know you're gonna deny me, but.
Speaker 3 (29:02):
Jesus says, when you are faithless, I will remain faithful.
So when you have no faith, I've got enough for
both of us, is what Jesus was saying to Peter.
And so when you read themout and he stood up, yeah,
we like that, and often will preach a message of
you just got to stand up, meaning I'm just going
to do it my own strength, my own power, in
(29:24):
my own way, and I will give you about six hours,
but after that I'll forget because I grow tired and
weary and I sit right back down. How many times
do I go through the cycle of doing it in
my own strength and sitting back down own strength, sitting
back down before you get so exhausted, I just settle
for here, and I'll paint a smile on on Sunday mornings.
I'm blessed and highly favored. You just cussed your wife
(29:46):
on the parking lot because your speech betrays you.
Speaker 1 (29:52):
Some of you.
Speaker 3 (29:53):
The reason you're talking like that is you're so disgusted
with yourself that rather than the recognize how far you've drifted,
you blame everybody else around you. What have you sat
down in? What have you settled for? That? The grace
of God is saying, but I have prayed for you
that your faith would not fail. So success, success isn't
(30:16):
dependent upon my behavior. Success is my recognition that Jesus
still holds.
Speaker 2 (30:21):
On to me.
Speaker 3 (30:22):
And if he is still holding onto me, I'm successful.
That's what it means. I wonder if your definition of
success even includes Jesus. And so what I want you
to hear at this point is all of us are
(30:42):
going to sit in things, because that's the natural flow
of humanity. But the grace of God is another wave,
wave after wave after wave of grace. And to truly
stand up, to truly get up, it's not you doing
it better, trying hard, Gosh darn it, New Year's resolution.
Speaker 1 (31:01):
I'm gonna do it.
Speaker 3 (31:03):
I'm not talking about that. I'm talking about a real faith.
And you need two people to help you stand up.
There are two key people in this whole story, because
the last scene we had of Peter was him sitting
weeping bitterly, and in one of the other gospel accounts,
it says he saw Jesus in that moment, the one
he just denied. He saw face and he wept bitterly.
(31:25):
And that represents Peter moving forward. As some of you
have been sitting in this place for twenty two years.
You gave a part of yourself twenty two years a
part of yourself. Twenty two years ago you said you
were going to keep sacred till marriage. And because you
compromise that part of yourself, you'll feel so unworthy that
(31:46):
you are settling for sitting down in shame. And I
want you to know that God sees you, and he's
not disgusted at you. He's not looking at you with
a furrowed brow of disappointment, just waiting for you to
try harder and do better.
Speaker 1 (31:59):
No, he's coming to you. Because if this were.
Speaker 3 (32:02):
The end of the story, how depressing would that be.
But the great God that we served, Jesus shows up.
Jesus comes back for him. Jesus remembers, oh, I am
tied to his boat. He's not died to me. And
so Jesus is resurrected from the grave. Because you need
three people, he need two people to help you get up.
(32:23):
We believe in a God that's a trinity, Father, son,
and spirit. Each one is full of God. God the
Father always has been in you, as will be. God
the Son always has been in you as will be.
And God the Son took on flesh, and he made
his dwelling amongst us.
Speaker 1 (32:40):
And the sin that.
Speaker 3 (32:41):
Should have been placed on us was placed on him.
And he gave up his life, and he went into
a grave, and he sat down for three days.
Speaker 1 (32:51):
And after three days.
Speaker 3 (32:52):
The Father looked at the son and said, son, I
created you for something.
Speaker 1 (32:57):
It's time for you to rise and shine.
Speaker 3 (33:01):
And Jesus heard the voice of his father calling him
from the darkness he had sat in for three days.
Speaker 1 (33:06):
And because Jesus sat.
Speaker 3 (33:08):
Down in it for three days, you and I don't
have to settle for sitting.
Speaker 1 (33:11):
Down in it.
Speaker 3 (33:15):
And that same Jesus, that same Jesus now shows up
three days after he's resurrected. And who's the first disciple
he appears to? Who's the first apostle he appears to Peter?
And when Jesus shows up on the shore, he looks out,
and where does he see Peter sitting in a boat?
(33:41):
I thought you left that boat to follow me. Jesus,
I thought you left that to come after me. And
why did Peter go sit back down in it? He
didn't know what else to do, and it was familiar.
And I hope that gives you encouragement to realize today
that Jesus sees you going back to the thing you
said you would never do. I'll never deny you until
(34:04):
he did, and God said, I knew it was gonna
happen along, and I still picked you. You're still my
first show and fantasy with selection Peter. I won't deny
you because I'd be denying myself, because my name is
on you, because I am the anchor on your boat,
and I will only let you go so far. And
why haven't you given up to this point? Because the
grace of God has been an anchor to your soul
(34:25):
and says, I will only let you drift so far.
I will only let you get so far away from you.
But because my grace is holding on to you, success
is realizing that he is holding on to me, and
the fails to think I got to do.
Speaker 1 (34:41):
It in my own strength.
Speaker 3 (34:44):
So the Father looks at the sun and says, Jesus,
it's time to rise and shine, and Jesus kicks the
end out of a borrow to him because he was
made to glorify the Father. And then Jesus shows up
and he sees Peter out on the boat that he
was supposed to walk away from, and he says, hey,
you come back yet. So Peter makes his way back
(35:06):
into the shore, going through the same waves of chaos
that he was drifted away by. Isn't that funny how
God comes to you. All that stuff in your life
will have purpose when you see him face to face.
And he calls him in to the shore and he
has this meal, and three times he asked him do
you love me?
Speaker 1 (35:25):
Do you love me? Do you love me? One for
each of those.
Speaker 3 (35:27):
Denials, because God's love is always greater than your denial,
and he needed Peter to hear that for every one
of those denials, I've got something greater. I've got something greater,
I've got something right because I picked you for a purpose.
I picked you to show my love, to receive and
reflect my love. We were made to glorify God. But
when I sit in shame underneath the space here, I
(35:50):
don't bring him glory.
Speaker 1 (35:53):
So when you go to work tomorrow.
Speaker 3 (35:56):
Are you sitting down in something old or are you
hearing the voice of God saying stand up and glorify?
Speaker 1 (36:04):
So in Acts two.
Speaker 3 (36:05):
Fourteen, then Peter stood up. I wonder if he remembered
the bitter tears he wept when he denied Jesus. I
wonder if that was the soundtrack playing in the back
of his mind on some level, going Okay, maybe this
time I'll get it right, but maybe I won't.
Speaker 1 (36:20):
I wonder. Peter was dealing with some doubt and like,
could you really use me? God?
Speaker 3 (36:25):
But something about it, the voice of God, the Holy
Spirit resonating in him, made him stand up, and he
spoke loudly and clearly, and he said, let me explain
the goodness of God to you.
Speaker 1 (36:36):
And who better to explain the.
Speaker 3 (36:38):
Goodness of God than a man who had just disappointed
and denied Jesus fifty three days earlier. He didn't need
to go to a class, need to go to a
twelve step program. Those are good, but he said, all
I need is Jesus on one side and then the
Holy Spirit on the other. So in Acts, here's the
way it begins. Here's the second person. Acts two, Verses
(36:58):
one through four. So that day that Peter gets up
and speaks, that day that he boldly proclaims Jesus, here's
the other person that comes into him. Starting in verse one, says,
when the day of Pentecosts came, they were all together
in one place. Suddenly the sound like the blowing of
a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole
(37:19):
house where they were sitting. They saw what seemed to
be tongues of fire separated and come to rest on
each of them. All of them were filled with the
Holy Spirit and began to speak in tongues that the
spirit enabled them. So some of you have not placed
your faith in Jesus, and you are dead in your sin.
(37:41):
And what it would want you to do is to
hear the voice of Jesus calling you from the grave.
Say rise and shine. It is time to rise and shine.
It's time for you get up out of that grave cloth.
It's time do you come into relationship with me. Some
of you have been following at a distance for so long,
but God says, I still got you, and I'm still
calling you. And today is the day that you're going
(38:03):
to hear jesus voice calling you from the boat of
doubt follow calling you from the boat of disappointment and
despair and disgust, and the grace of God wants.
Speaker 1 (38:15):
To wash over you and clean you and make you
a new creation.
Speaker 3 (38:18):
And when you come into relationship with Jesus, when you
place your faith in him, it says, when you believe
in your heart that he was raised from the dead,
and you confess with your mouth that he is Lord,
the Holy Spirit, the person of God comes to live
inside of you. This Holy Spirit's not a power or
an energy. It's not a viber of feeling. It's a person.
(38:39):
And the Holy Spirit desires to lead you so to
get up out of that grave. It's hearing the voice
of Jesus. But now once we come to Jesus, we
also want to sit right back down in that place.
And if success is about you trying harder or doing better,
Earth success is more square footage. Earth success is a
corner office, sir, a certain amount of money in the
(39:01):
retirement account, you may or may not be successful. But
if success is based upon what Jesus did for me,
and if success is that he came back from me,
if success is recognizing that the Holy Spirit is tied
to me living inside of me. And though you're gonna
sit back down in something, here's what I believe.
Speaker 1 (39:23):
The Holy Spirit is a gentleman.
Speaker 3 (39:29):
He's not gonna kick down the door, but he's gonna
knock and say, I'm still here.
Speaker 1 (39:36):
I've not left you. I'm right in this thing with you.
Speaker 3 (39:40):
Would you respond to that voice, just as that voice
was so tender with Peter saying come here, Peter, get
out of that boat. I know you were sitting down
feeling disqualified, and you feel like you've got nothing to say.
But to rise and shine is to hear the Holy
Spirit saying, come forth.
Speaker 1 (39:58):
To respond to that.
Speaker 3 (40:00):
Now, the waves are going to be loud, the waves
of disappointment and doubt and discuss.
Speaker 1 (40:05):
They're just crashing, they're crashing rush.
Speaker 3 (40:09):
But the voice I'm talking about, it's a whisper, Simon, Simon,
it's a Hebrew term of intimacy.
Speaker 1 (40:21):
Because I'm close.
Speaker 3 (40:24):
And the Holy Spirit's inside of you, and he's whispering
to you, rise and shine. I put you in that
job to give me glory. I put you in that
school to give me glory. And when you sit in shame,
you don't operate according to what you were created for
the sun stopped shining. It was created to shine because
of the shame that was in the world. You were
(40:45):
created to glorify God. Don't let the shame rob you
of giving him the glory. Would you stand your feet
at all of our locations, And what we want to
do at this point is offer an invitation for somebody
to place their faith in Jesus as their Lord and savior.
Speaker 1 (41:06):
And what I wanted you to hear today.
Speaker 3 (41:08):
Is of a good God who sees you sitting down
in something that he says, I still picked you, I
love you, and I'm here.
Speaker 1 (41:16):
Will you respond to it?
Speaker 3 (41:18):
Will you come out of the grave and say, I
need to give him glory? Will you receive the gift
of salvation that's found in him? The Bible says if
you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, and
you believe in your heart that He was raised from
the dead, you will be saved.
Speaker 1 (41:35):
Would you buy your heads?
Speaker 3 (41:37):
Would you close your eyes at all over locations, in
everybody online, And if you need to place your faith
in Jesus, this is your prayer. I'm not talking about
a commitment to try harder or do better. I'm not
talking about a resolution to say I'm just going to
give it one more chance. Now I'm talking about confessing
you are dead in your sins and you cannot save yourself.
Speaker 1 (42:00):
That is why Jesus had to die.
Speaker 3 (42:03):
And if that's you, I want to lead you in
this prayer in the church family. I want us to
say this prayer together out loud for the benefit of
somebody who's making this decision to follow in Jesus. Pray
this with me, Church family. I believe that Jesus Christ
is the son of God who died on the cross
(42:24):
and rose from the grave.
Speaker 1 (42:26):
So forgive me of my sins.
Speaker 3 (42:28):
I give you my life, I give you my sin,
I give you my shame. Forgive me, and I'll spend
my life following you with your head still about in
your lives still close. If you just place your faith
in Jesus for the first time and you're recognizing I
need to be forgiven. If that's you, I'm going to
count to three, and when I get through without hesitation,
(42:50):
I want you to boldly.
Speaker 1 (42:51):
Shoot your hand into the air.
Speaker 3 (42:53):
One, two, three, shoots your hand up all across the sauditorum.
Speaker 1 (42:59):
Come on, Church family, no, let's celebrate.
Speaker 2 (43:02):
That thank you for joining us. Special thanks to those
of you who give generously to this ministry. Is because
of you that this ministry is possible. You can click
the link in the description to give now or visit
Elevationchurch dot org slash podcast for more information and if
you enjoyed the podcast, you can subscribe. You can share
(43:23):
it with your friends. You can click the share button,
take a screenshot and share it on your social stories
and tag us at Elevation Church. Thanks again for listening.
God bless you.
Host
Steven Furtick
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