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You can take your seat in the presence of the Almighty God. Hallelujah. Somebody came to give God praise on today. Can I tell you something real quick? God still has time. You missed it. The year is not over. God still has time to make good on what he said. And that's just something for somebody in this room who has been patiently waiting, fervently, praying and digging deep in their word, trusting God. And can I let you know, today is December 14th, and there's still time that his word will come to pass, and he does not lie. And so I'm just excited about today. My name is Lonell Williams. I'm the executive pastor here at 2819 Church. And I'm just so grateful to be able to preach on this morning. I know some of y' all are wondering where in the world is Pastor Philip Anthony Mitchell? You know, these. The last 11 months have been so challenging and yet rewarding. And, you know, when we moved here to Greenbrier, he did not take a sabbatical. He came to me and said, lynell, I think I'm gonna take off the whole month of June. I said, wait, wait, wait. No, don't do that. Don't do that. We just moved here. Don't do that. But he said, but we said, let's talk about the end of the year. And, you know, he's just been going so hard for the Lord. And so I said, man just came to us and said, let's take a break. He said, I just need a couple of weeks to just replenish, refresh, restore. And so he and I talked yesterday. He said, encourage the people to be consistent not only in their presence in the gathering and online, but it doesn't matter who mounts the stage. The Bible's very clear. In Colossians 1:28, him we proclaim, so it doesn't matter who's up here, because he used the donkey. All right, here we go. He used the donkey so he can use some fallible person like me to be able to preach his word. So I'm just so excited. And to all of our digital disciples online and those who are in the room, we are just so humble and grateful for your presence. I got a lot of work to do in just a little bit of time as we close out this section of Matthew 26 in our series Cross to Commission. And I'm just really excited because I just feel like God has something special for us today. I want you to lean in with me as we kind of dig into this word and see what The Lord has to say, I'm going to actually read the. The entire section so that you know where we are headed. And I just think it's important for those who have your Bibles to just open them up to Matthew 26. We're going to go to verse 20. Excuse me. 69, verse 69. 26, verse 69. We're going to read from 69 to 75. I love who has a physical Bible in the room. Let me see it. I love it. No judgment against the Bible app. Folks. I'm not judging you. I'm not judging you. Not judging you. But I just. It's such a beautiful thing to see young people with Bibles reading the Word and turning the pages. There's something beautiful about the sound of pages turning with his Word. And so let's, let's read Matthew 26, 69, 75. Every single word matters. Every word that we read today matters. And this is what it says. Now, Peter was sitting outside in the courtyard and a servant girl came up to him and said, you also were with Jesus the Galilean. But he denied it before them all, saying, I do not know what you mean. And when he went out to the entrance, another servant girl saw him and said to him, with the bystanders, the man was with Jesus. And again he denied it with an oath, I do not know the man. After a little while, the bystanders came up and said to Peter, certainly you too are one of them, for your accent betrays you. Then he began to invoke a curse on himself and to swear, I do not know the man. And immediately the rooster crowed and Peter remembered the sayings of Jesus, for the rooster crows, you will deny me three times. And he went out and wept bitterly. If I could pin a title on this preachment, I would call it I did it anyway. I did it anyway. In my goodness, 2010, I met my current wife. We were both at Princeton. She was actually getting her PhD in molecular biology and I was getting my master's in divinity. Yeah, that's my baby mama. Y' all can say something today? Yeah, yeah. She fine and smart, all right. And got a little hood in her, which I love. Amen. Amen. All right, so we were at Princeton, we met, fell in love, and in 2013 we had. My wife was pregnant with our daughter Ivy Ivy Grace Williams. And it was so amazing because this was the first time that I was a father. And as we were preparing for this process, anytime someone is a first time parent, or specifically a first time father, you want to do everything you can to help your pregnant wife. Everything you can to help your pregnant wife. And I, as a first time dad, I was trying my best. Now, I can't say that I did a good job. Can I say I did a good job? But I was trying my best. She bought me the books and unfortunately I didn't read the books. I didn't read the books. I even swore I will never change a diaper because I just could not stand the smell. I couldn't see the look, couldn't stand the smell. But I tried my best to support her in the way that I could. And one of the challenges that I have historically always had is that oftentimes I'm a little bit more wittier than I should be. A little bit more wittier than I should be. I'm very quick with my, with my lips. I can come up with really witty statements very fast. And sometimes my mouth moves faster than my brain does. Sometimes my mouth moves faster than my brain does. She told me many years ago. And it's an adage that I continue to say to our team, everything that comes up does not need to come out. Everything that comes up does not need to come out. And unfortunately on this day, I didn't listen. Unfortunately, on this day, I didn't listen. We were sitting and. Oftentimes throughout the course of her pregnancy, she would forget things, she would lose things, she would forget things. And they call it pregnancy brain. It's a terminology that's often coined when a woman is pregnant. There's just a lot of hormones changing, bodies changing. She's creating a life in her belly and in her womb. And so things sometimes are forgotten. And, you know, my wife had a propensity to forget things. Had a propensity to forget things. And I remember as clear as day. It's clear as day. One day she had forgotten her keys. She had forgotten her keys. And we were looking all over for her car keys because she had to go to class, she had to go to lab. And so we were looking, we were looking, we're looking and we could not find the keys. Now me, I am preoccupied in my work. I'm working on something for the church at that time. And she's like, she's looking, she's looking, she's looking, she's looking. And she finally identifies where her keys are. And she says, lynell, I found the keys. Now, in that moment, my mouth spoke faster than my brain did. And in that moment, I thought about something and I said, lanell, you probably shouldn't say this, but before my mind could catch up, my mouth had already said it. So she said, lonella, I found my keys. And I, looking down, typing, said, an elephant never forgets. Yep, yep, yeah, exactly. Now, mind you, I was trying to be funny and witty and laughing and joking, and in my mind and my mouth didn't quite catch up with one another. You can imagine the look on my wife's face. I mean, I can just envision. I thought I felt the wind of the Holy Ghost come behind my head. I just. It was. Now, she didn't hit me. She didn't hit me, but she should have. Now she should have. And in that moment, my mind, when I finally realized what I had said, I said, oh, snap. I probably shouldn't have said that. But in that moment in my soul, I said, I did it anyway. And that, my brothers and sisters, is a challenge that we face here in the text because we see Peter here in a very unique position. We have just exited out of the garden of Gethsemane. And the last time I spoke, we mentioned the story of him swiping the ear with his sword of Malchus the soldier. And then on last week, Elder Eric did an amazing job talking about the experience where Jesus and Caiaphas home and they're going through this trial here. We are picking up at that moment in time, and we pick up at verse number 69. And the first thing in the text that we learn is that compromise will always begin with distance. Let's look at the text. This is what it says. It says, now, Peter was sitting. He was sitting. He wasn't standing. He wasn't interceding. He wasn't fighting. Peter was sitting. And where was he sitting? Outside the courtyard. He was not inside where Jesus was. We have to immediately put the text in context. We have to understand what Jesus in real time was experiencing. He was being humiliated on and he. And he was being spat on. And Peter came to see it with his own eyes. And what is he doing? He is sitting outside in the courtroom courtyard with guards and servants with really the opposition. Now, Matthew already told us in 2658 that Peter followed Jesus at a distance and sat with the guards to see the outcome. Let me translate that for you. Peter wanted to see how it all played out with not being implicated in the situation. He wanted proximity without identification. He wanted to be close enough to care, but far enough to be safe. And Peter wanted Jesus close enough to claim him, but far enough to deny him. And that is the posture of Convenience. Christians, Christianity, we like to get close enough for comfort, but far enough so it doesn't cost us anything. And oftentimes we use distance to protect us. As long as I'm close enough to see him, I'll be okay. And we think that distance is protecting us, but distance is actually weakening us. Because the posture of so many modern Christians is that we want to see what Jesus is doing without being marked by what Jesus is doing. Y', all, I know I'm preaching better than y' all talking. We want to watch the move of God without being moved by God. We. We want to observe the Gospel without being obligated to follow the Gospel. We want to profess the truth without living by the truth. You cannot follow Jesus from a distance and expect him to stand with you when you're in pressure. Okay, okay, okay, okay. Lean in. Proximity without commitment is just religious tourism. Okay? Peter is sitting, and that's the first compromise, because when you're sitting, you're comfortable. And comfortable is the enemy of conviction. Watch this. Watch this. Peter is sitting, and I'm certain it was cold. Historically, during that time in Israel, it was probably cold, similar to today. Now, I don't know about y', all, but it's hot up in here. But. But. But he was sitting amongst the people who actually were the ones who were about to kill Jesus. He was sitting by the fire, and we just want to get warm, just like Peter. But he was sitting next to the wrong fire. And here's the dangerous thing about the wrong fire. It still keeps you warm. Hear me. Sin does not announce itself with cold. It invites you with comfort. He was not sitting by the fire because he hated Jesus. He was sitting by the fire because it felt better than being uncomfortable. But warmth is not the same as safety, and comfort is not the same as calling. And the fire that warms you tonight might be the fire that burns your testimony tomorrow. All right, now let me ask you this question. What fire are you sitting by instead of witnessing? What environment are we in where we're warming ourselves instead of putting the fire on others? What spaces are we occupying where we are blending in instead of standing out? Watch this. You can't warm yourself by the enemy's fire and expect this to stay on fire. For God, the wrong fire will always put out the right flame. Peter, stay with me. Is sitting and sitting led to silence, and silence led to denial? Silence is safety. Faith that needs safety may not be faith at all. It may just be convenience. Wearing church clothes, you're sitting in spaces right now that are slowly suffocating your spiritual sensitivity and you don't even realize you're dying because you're too comfortable. We want to know how we deny Jesus in our lives right now because we are comfortably sitting in wrong places. Let me ask you something. Didn't Peter know what Jesus told him before the moment happened? Matthew 26, verse 34, Jesus told him, before the rooster crows, you'll deny me three times. Matthew 26, verse 35, Peter swore, even if I must die with you, I will not deny you. Peter knew what Jesus predicted. He knew what he promised. He knew what was at stake. And yet when the moment came, he did it anyway. Peter failed here, but Jesus has already made provisions for his failure. And this is so crazy. Peter exemplified courage in the garden, but the same courage failed him when his personal safety and comfort were questioned. Let me ask you this. How many of us knew what God said and still did the opposite? We knew we shouldn't be in that relationship, but we did it anyway. We knew we shouldn't compromise our integrity, but you did it anyway. We knew we shouldn't entertain that sin. We did it anyway. This isn't about ignorance. This is about willful disobedience in the face of clear conviction, which is both willful and fear driven. Peter made a conscious choice. That's the willful part. But those choices were motivated by fear. That's the fear driven part. We don't sin because we love wrong. We sin because we are afraid of what right might cost us. Fear doesn't force the choice, but it influences it. Let me show you the second thing that I see in the text. Fear thrives in comfort. Verse 69 and 70 it says, and a servant girl came up to him and said, you also were with Jesus the Galilean. But he denied it before them all, saying, I do not know what you mean. Now let's talk about who exposes Peter was not a soldier, was not a Pharisee or Sadducee. It was not Pilate, it was not Caiaphas. It was a servant girl. Likely she was a teenager. She was at the bottom of the social hierarchy and she had no power, no authority, no influence. And yet she was the one who broke Peter. Now why does Matthew emphasize this? Because the threat was not a sword, it was an association. She did not accuse him of a crime. She didn't even threaten him. She simply said, you, you were. You were with Jesus the Galilean. And that's it. You were with him. And Peter folded. This is the same Peter. The same Peter. The one who walked. Water. This. This is the same Peter who confessed you are the Christ. This is. This is the same Peter who cut off Malchus's ear. What does that tell me? All the Shamamamama in the world. All the oil. All the dancing. All the hallelujahs. But if Peter can fold, so can you and me. Peter folded under pressure from somebody who didn't even matter. And that's how you know fear is irrational. It'll make you bow to people who have no authority over your destiny. Peter did not deny Jesus to save his life. He denied Jesus to avoid embarrassment. Let me tell you what Peter was really afraid of. It wasn't death. He had already proven that he'd swing a sword. It wasn't pain because he was willing to fight the soldiers. Peter was afraid of something worse than death. He. He was afraid that if he admitted he was with Jesus, these strangers might see him the way Jesus saw him. He was afraid of being known. And some of us aren't hiding from people finding out that we are Christians. Some of us are hiding from people finding out that we're not very good Christians. You're not afraid of association. You are afraid of exposure. You think you denied him to stay alive, but you denied him to stay light. You won't post the scripture because your followers might unfollow you. You won't pray before a meal in public because somebody might judge you. You won't speak biblical truth because you don't want to be that Christian. We shout on Sunday, but put emojis to the foolishness in the group chat on Monday. We are not afraid of the cross. We are afraid of being canceled. And you think you're protecting your reputation, but you're truly destroying your witness. Christianity has become an aesthetic. It becomes like a Pinterest mood board. And I can pick and choose what I like to do to fit the lifestyle I want to create. And that is not faith. That is branding. And that's precisely what we do. We know the whole gospel. We just const. We just choose to confess the parts that don't actually impact us. But can I tell you something? Christianity has to cost you something. Now let's look at Peter's response. He says, I don't know what you mean. That's called deflection. Deflection. It's not denial. It's distraction. This is Peter playing dumb. He doesn't say, no, I'm not with him. He says, I don't understand the question in the Greek. That's what it means. It means I don't understand the question. And family. That's how we deny Jesus in 2025. We are not denying Jesus with our mouth. We are denying him with our ambiguity. You think being vague keeps you neutral, but vagueness keeps you complicit. And notice what the text says. He denied it before them all. It's right there in the text. So it's not just the server girl, it's not just the guards. It's the other servants. It's the whole courtyard. Peter made a public denial to protect his private safety. If your faith requires the right audience to be activated, is it really faith or is it just performance? And here's the question I have to ask you. How many times have we denied Jesus publicly to protect ourselves privately? I'm going to read this here, and I want the team to put it on the screens, because I want you to capture this whole statement. As I thought about this this morning, I want you last night, I want you to capture this whole, whole statement. Out of a desire to be liked and accepted, we have, somewhere along the way, decided being liked was more important than being faithful. Being comfortable was more important than being called, and being accepted was more critical than being his. And now we're sitting by a fire that's slowly putting out our flame. We can feel it dying, but we won't move because at least we're warm. We love grace when it covers, but we resent truth when it confronts us. When did you start caring more about what people think about your faith than what God thinks about your faithfulness? You know this is a lie, but we say it anyway. You know it's evading, but you do it anyway. You know you're compromising, but you do it anyway. Because in that moment, comfort mattered more than conviction. And that's how it starts. Sitting leads to silence. Silence leads to evasion. Evasion leads to deflection. Deflection leads to outright denial. Denial leads to oaths, and oaths leads to curse. And before you know it, the man who walked on water is drowning in a courtyard surrounded by people he doesn't even respect. Denying a savior he genuinely loves. Because somewhere between Gethsemane and the fire, he convinced himself that distance was the same as safety, Proximity was the same as loyalty, and silence was the same as neutrality. And he was wrong on all three counts, and he knew it, and he did it anyway. And by now, Peter has crossed lines that he swore he would never cross. And then the story ended here, that this would be a tragedy but this is where I did it anyway. Meets God stopped me anyway. The next thing I see in the text, point number three, that sin escalates when it goes unchecked. Look at verse number 71 and 72. It says, and when he went out to the entrance, another servant girl saw him. And she said to the bystanders. Now, she said it to the bystanders, not to him. All right, this man was Jesus of Nazareth. And again, he denied it with an oath. I do not know the man. Now, let's pay attention to the geography here. Verse 71 says, when he went out to the entrance, in the exegetical context, every word matters. Peter moved. He did not stay in the courtyard. He went to the entrance. Why? Because he was trying to escape the conversation. He thought, if I move to a different spot, maybe they'll leave me alone. But family, you can't relocate your way out of conviction, and you can't move your way out of accountability. You can change churches and change denominations. You can change political parties. You can change cities. You can block people on social media. You can mute conversations. You can end relationships. You can change routines, you can change friend groups. But you're running from truth, and the truth will find you. Distance does not delete conviction. It only deletes, delays it. Let me ask you this. How far are you going to run before you realize the problem is not the location, the problem is you. Amen. Lights. Okay. Okay. Peter moved, and another servant girl finds him. And now notice what she says. This man was Jesus of Nazareth. She doesn't say to the. The Galilean that, like the first girl, she says jesus of Nazareth. She was being more specific. She was kind of narrowing it down. She was identifying who it was. And she doesn't say it to Peter. She says it to the bystanders. In the Greek, the word means to those who were there. So now it's not just one person. It's the crowd. It's. It's the. The persons in the group. And so the pressure is escalating. And watch Peter's response. He says, and again, he denied it with an oath. So Peter is simply saying, in layman's terms, he's saying, I swear to God, I don't know the man. That's basically what he's saying. He's invoking God's name to lie about Jesus. Now, that's just not denial. That's blasphemy. And here is the cruelest irony. Peter used the very gift of speech that God gave him to deny the God who gave it to him? He's using. He took the tongue God created for worship and weaponized it for self preservation. And I know that's not you. I know that you would not do this. But I'll speak for myself that sometimes even I weaponize Worship language to protect worship, worldly choices. I prayed about it. No, you didn't. Well, you know, God told me. No, he didn't. You know, I have a piece about this. When you really only gave your permission to yourself. The most dangerous lies are the ones wrapped in spiritual vocabulary. And the moment you use God's name to excuse sin, you stop worshiping him and you start using him. And when we create a version of Christianity in our own minds, we force God to fit into our agenda. And anything that challenges our comfort, we resist, deny, or we explain it away. It's not faith. That's simply idolatry with Bible verses. That's the second denial. It's not just evasion, it's religious manipulation. And then notice what Peter says. I do not know the man. He doesn't say, I don't know Jesus. He doesn't say, my Lord. He says the man. Denial always creates distance. Distance strips relationships. You don't just walk away from Jesus. You talk about him like you never knew him. Once we change who Jesus is in our minds, our hearts can justify whatever we want. You know, Jesus wouldn't judge me for this. You know, Jesus was all about love, not rules. Jesus hung out with sinners. So can I. And when we do this, we are not following Jesus. We are creating a version of Jesus that follows you. And Jesus you can edit is not a Jesus that can save you. Can I go deeper? The question we have to ask ourselves is when did we start editing the gospel to fit our lifestyle instead of editing our lifestyle to fit the Gospel? Verse number 73. A little while by the stand, bystanders came up and said to Peter, certainly you two are one of them. Your accent betrays you, Shatta. All right, look at the text. The Bible says after a while. In other words, there was time between both conversations. It was not back to back. It was a pause where Peter in that moment, could have clearly reconsidered his perspective. He could have gone back and clarified. He could have said, hey, I was tired, I messed up. That, you know, I should have said that. He could have confessed the truth. He could have repented, but he chose to save himself. Lat lets us know that compromising sin never happens instantaneously. It's a series of small choices that you make. That pause that he took was not silence. It was mercy dressed up as time. I'm gonna say that again. The pause that he took was not silence. The pause was mercy dressed up as time. God gave Peter space to reconsider, space to remember, space to turn around. But Peter used the pause to catch his next breath and to communicate his next lie. And some of us are in a little wild season right now. How many little whiles has God given you to turn it around? How many pauses? How many moments of conviction? How many warnings from the Holy Spirit have you ignored? A little while season is when God has defiantly decided to slow down the momentum of your sinful actions. He has given you a gap between the second and the third denial. And what we do in the gap determines whether we end up weeping in repentance or we weep in regret. The Bible says it was by the bystanders. And that means that there were people who were already with him watching. And they weren't speaking, but they were paying attention. Matthew doesn't distinctly name who they are. He doesn't even identify him. He just says, the ones standing by. Can I tell you something? Sometimes we don't know who's watching us in that moment. And arrogance assumes that we don't have eyes on us when we really do. And people are watching whether our confession matches our conduct. Yesterday I went to Costco to go look for some Christmas gifts for my children. And when I was in there, in my mind, I was in preaching mode. So, you know, I'm thinking through my sermon. I'm praying over it as I'm walking by. And I go to the Ninja. What was it? It was like a ninja air fryer. And I was like, oh, that looked good. Maybe I should. Maybe I should buy that. And then I went to the TV section, and I was like, oh, I like these TVs. Let me see if I can convince my wife to let me get a TV for my office, right? I'm just shopping, doing my thing, and then all of a sudden I hear, londell, who you talking to? You know what I'm saying? Like, who in Costco knows my name? I'm in the oldest pair of shoes I have. I got holes in my sweats and a hoodie over my head. I hoping that I would just go into Costco, pick up what I needed to pick up, and go home. And somebody called my name out. I turned around and it was a young lady who was there on tour with Costco, selling sunglasses. And she said, I just listened to your sermon. And she was telling me about her sister who has Cartercona similar to me and the experience that she said that she had. And she said, your sermon from just a few months ago blessed me, and here I am now. What if I was listening to rap music and cussing? What if I was on the phone talking about. Talking gossip about somebody? What if I was fussing out somebody because they cut me off with their cart? Somebody is watching you who's standing by watching you right now. Your co workers, your classmates, your neighbors, your children. And what are they seeing? Are they seeing someone who's been with Jesus or someone who's trying to blend in? Look at the text. Certainly you're one of them, for your accent betrays. You see, Peter was from Galilee, and Galileans had a very distinct pronunciation of the text. They were easily recognizable by the Judeans. And so with that being the case, the Judeans felt like that their accents were kind of unsophisticated, right? They felt like it was almost like a hillbilly accent if we were to Americanize it in this context. And so Judeans oftentimes look down on the Galileans because they felt like they were not smart. And oftentimes people with strong accents will code switch. What do I mean when I say code switch? When I was growing up, I was. I know, I'm from Compton, so I would hang out in the hood and we would talk, and we would have certain lingo, certain dialects, certain conversations. But my mother always said that when you go into certain rooms with certain people, you can't take that slang with you. You have to speak what she would call proper English. And she said at that moment, you have to code switch. You can't go in there acting like how you normally act. And you can't go in there speaking how you normally speak. You must code switch to fit the environment. You see, Peter's origin exposed him. He was. And he could not code switch his way out of his identity. You see, his accent, the way he spoke revealed where he'd been and who he had been with. In other words, Peter tried to blend in, but his origin exposed him. And that's the point where you can't code switch your way out of your purpose. Peter is teaching you and I that we cannot hide who we really are. His accent, something he could not control. It exposed him. Can I help you? If you've ever been with Jesus, you should have an accent, a distinct way of speaking, of thinking, of talking, of living that marks you as his. Your accent will betray you. You cannot hide where you have been. And if there is no accent, there is no evidence. If someone followed you for a week without you saying a word about your faith, would they know that you're a Christian? You cannot hide transformation. If you've been with Jesus, it'll show up. So here's my question to you. How many accents do you have? You got one for church, one for work, one for social media, one for friends. Let me push a little bit harder. Some of us don't have multiple accents. Some of us have lost our accents entirely. You've been around the wrong voices for so long that you've adopted their dialect. You've used to sound like you've been with Jesus, and now you sound like everybody else. And nobody is asking you anymore if you're one of them because they cannot tell. When was the last time somebody suspected you were a Christian without you telling them? And you know they can tell, but you hide it anyway. And some of us are not hiding our accents. The truth of the matter is some of us never had an accent in the first place. You'll get that when you get home. The accent is evidence. Verse number 74. Whew. We got a lot more work to do. And then he began to invoke a curse on himself. And he swore, I do not know the man. Peter hits his breaking point. He is not shaken by being recognized. He is so terrified by the truth about him surfacing that he crosses the line that he never imagined he would cross. The text says he invoked a curse on himself that eventually he's saying, may God strike me dead if I'm lying. And here's the thing. He curses himself and then he swears an oath. That is double reinforcement. Peter uses every religious tool he knows, cursing and oath taking, to distance himself from Jesus. Why? Because fear will always make you betray what you value to protect. In that moment, Peter feared people more than God. And it drove him into self destruction. Let me ask you something. What if the person you became to survive the night is someone you wouldn't have recognized in the morning? Okay, that's all right. And here's the question that you should be terrified for. Can you still recognize yourself? The Peter who cut off an ear in Gethsemane? Could he even look at the Peter who is cursing by the fire? And when you look in the mirror after you've compromised, do you see who you are or who you used to be? Because denial rooted in fear doesn't just change your reputation. It changes your reflection when you are more afraid of people than God. You'll destroy yourself to save your image. But what if the cost of fitting in is losing who God called you to be? You cannot hide who you are and try to hide it or eventually destroy you. Look at verse number 74, the second portion of it. It says. And immediately the rooster crowed. The rooster didn't crow when Peter denied him the first time. It didn't crow the second time. It crowed the moment Peter crossed the line he swore he'd never cross. In other words, we don't get to choose when God confronts us, but he always confronts us at the right time. My grandfather used to say it like this. He used to say, he's an on time God. Yes, he is. God will stop you even when you don't want to stop yourself. What if God brought you into 335Z or Greenbrier Parkway on this cold morning for you to hear a message, to serve as your rooster? What if God is giving you a moment of brutal clarity right now? And now you see it. Jesus said, before the rooster crows, you will deny me three times. The moment it crowed, Peter realized Jesus was right and I was wrong. The rooster is a divinely timed alarm clock, not to expose Peter, but to rescue him. And that wasn't timing. That was intervention. That was God stepping in before Peter stepped off a cliff he could not climb his way back from. Because here's the truth. Sin has momentum. It rolls it, compounds it, accelerates it. It carries you further than you intended to go and keeps you longer than you planned to stay. And Peter didn't plan a third denial. He didn't plan to curse. He didn't even plan to swear an oath against Jesus. But sin has a way of sweeping you into a current you cannot swim out of. But. But right in the middle of his spiral, right in the middle of this situation, Grace, help me, Holy Ghost interrupted the rooster crow. Felt like judgment, but it was mercy. God stopped Peter before Peter could go any further. Family, can I ask you, have you ever been in a moment where Grace interrupted you? Can I find 200 people in the room? Have you ever been a click away and something said, stop? One conversation away, and all of a sudden something said, stop. One step away. And something in your spirit said, don't do that. That wasn't maturity. That wasn't discipline. That wasn't you being a good person. That was the Holy Ghost, the grace that stopped you from your next mistake. It was the Holy Spirit grabbing you by the collar and saying, not this Time. Not this moment, not this direction. I love you too much to lose you. Because let's be honest, because if grace hadn't interrupted you, you would have gone further than you ever planned, stayed longer than you ever meant to, and lost more than you ever intended. Peter thought the rooster crowed to expose him. It actually crowed to rescue him. And somebody in this room. This message is your rooster. God is interrupting your sinful pattern. He's trying to break the momentum. Because God would rather interrupt you than lose you. Because mercy will embarrass you just to save you. Let me ask you, let me tell you why. Because grace refuses to let you become who sin was trying to turn you into. Let me show you the last thing I see in the text and then I'm gonna wrap up. Grace interrupts you before destruction. Verse number 75, it says Peter remembered the sayings of Jesus and he went away bitterly. Peter didn't move from denial to boldness overnight. He did this. Not in a moment. He was weeping. It was a turning point. Because conviction doesn't end the story, it redirects it. Now the text says that Peter remembered. And what did he remember? He remembered the sayings of Jesus. And Peter swore in verse 35, he said, even if I must die, I won't deny you. Peter, remember what Jesus said and what he said and. And now he sees himself in the gap between his promise and what he actually did. He sees who he swore he would be and who he actually became. And family. That is what conviction does. It forces you to see yourself clearly, not who you think you are, not who you pretend to be, not who you post about being who you actually are when the pressure is on. And the text says he went out weeping bitterly in the Greek it implies a deep, uncontrollable grief. This was not quiet tears. This was a gut wrenching, soul crushing, tear jerking weeping. Peter was broken. Can I ask you something? When was the last time you wept over your compromise? And just like that, baby, when was the last time you cried because of the pain of your sins? But don't worry, baby, I understand. It's all good. It's hot. Dry eyes and a dirty conscience don't go together. That's good. If you can reflect on your compromise without grief, you haven't seen it yet. You cannot weep over what you won't own. And Peter owned it. He didn't make excuses, he didn't blame the servant girl. He didn't say I was tired. He just wept. And let me tell you the difference between Remorse and repentance. Remorse says, I got caught. Repentance says I was wrong. Remorse says, I'm tired about the consequences. Repentance says it's about conviction. Remorse says, it leads me to shame. Repentance says it leads me to restoration. Peter didn't weep because he got caught. He wept because he saw himself and he hated what he saw. Peter remembered what Jesus said. And the memory triggered conviction and conviction triggered tears. And tears triggered conviction and transformation. And here is the Gospel. Peter knew that he would fail, but Jesus chose him anyway. Jesus told him, you will deny me three times. Not you might not if you're not careful. He said, you will. Jesus knew. He still called him. He still loved him. He still restored him. Because grace doesn't wait for you to get it right. Great meets you when you get it wrong. What if the reason Jesus is confronting you is because he's not done with you? You think you've gone too far. You think you've denied him too many times. But let me tell you about John 21. Jesus finds Peter by the fire, the Sea of Tiberius. He asked him three things. He says, do you love me? Peter said, yeah, I love you. He said, feed my sheep. He asked him again, do you love me? Said, lord, yes, I love you. He said, then feed my sheep. He said, do you love me? He said, lord, yes, I love you. He said, feed my sheep. Three denials, three restorations. Jesus didn't disqualify Peter. He restored him. Can I help you? And the same Jesus who restored Peter, the same Jesus who can restore you and me. But let me tell you something important. Peter didn't go from denying Jesus in the courtyard to instantly becoming the apostle who took the Gospel into Asia Minor. The same Peter who denied Jesus with his mouth is the same Peter who declared Jesus later on in his life. The same fear that made Peter run became the same fuel that made him preach. God doesn't waste your failures. He recycles them into your testimonies. I. I can prove it. I can prove it using the words of Peter. Peter, who swung a sword impulsively and was willing to kill Jesus later on, said, but you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation. The same Peter who says, I do not know the man later on says, for to this you have been called because Christ has also suffered for you, leaving you an example so that you might follow in his steps. The same Peter who chose to protect himself. It's the same Peter who said to cast all of your anxiety on him because he cares for you, the same lips that said, I don't know him. On the same lips that God entrusted to tell the world who Jesus was. Watch this. Peter disowned Jesus in public, but Jesus never disowned Peter in private. God still trust redeemed voices. Between his tears and his boldness, there was a process. And restoration is a moment, but sanctification is the process. And if you're in the process right now, if you've wept but you're not yet bold, if you've repented but you're still struggling, if you've come back to Jesus but you don't feel Peter at Pentecost yet, you're not behind. You're right on time. God is not finished with you. He's working on you. He's shaping you. He's preparing you. And the same grace that meets you in your failure is the same grace is walking with you in this process. Your worst moments does not get the final word. And what if the reason you haven't been restored, it's because you have not been real? You cannot get restored until you get real. Peter got real. He went out and he wept bitterly. And that's where restoration begins. In tears. A broken man who finally saw himself. He knows that we will deny him, but he chooses us anyway. He knows that we're gonna compromise, but he chooses us anyway. He knows at moments that we will be silent, but he chooses us anyway. Not because failure doesn't matter, because his grace is greater than our worst moment. And what if your failure isn't the end of your story, but the beginning of restoration? Do you believe God's grace is greater than your worst moment? How long are you going to punish yourself for something Jesus already forgave? He saw every denial before you spoke it, every sin before you committed, every. Every time you choose yourself over him. He still went to the cross. He still took the nails. He still gave his last breath. And he said, I did it anyway. Some of us are at a place where you have been beating yourself up for the choices of compromise that you have made and are currently making. And I want this. This. This. This sermon. God. God sent me this message to be the rooster crow in your life. To wake up, Say it's time. You've denied me enough. You've. You, you. You. You've spoken out against me way too many times. You. You've. You've used religious language to. To justify your sin. And grace is here. Mercy is here. In the gap between this sin and the next sin. I'm giving you cry to weep bitterly, to turn from your ways, to repent from your sins. The same Jesus who saw you deny him is the same Jesus who's waiting to meet you and somebody in here. You have been beating yourself up for so long for the mistakes that you have made. Listen, I am. I'm one of them. This morning in my prayer room, I started reflecting on all the things that I've done against God in adulthood. I remember the conversations and the moments and the times and the failures and the mistakes, the religious language that I use and the choices that I made and how I would learn from something and still make the same mistake just a few hours or months or years later. And I was so angry at myself. And I'm like, how could I do that? The moments where I said I would never work in a church ever again, that I'm not qualified, that my mistakes don't allow me to even step on a platform and preach the gospel. And in that moment of repentance, God reminded me that my mistakes do not define me, but that his grace is sufficient. And the same God who sat with me in my tears in moments when I wanted to end my life is the same God who stands next to me right now to preach the gospel. And so, in this moment, to seal this word, this moment, we're going to sing a worship song over this. We're going to. We're going to bathe the Word in worship. And listen to me. Listen to me. I don't want you to move, but I want you to move. I know it's cold. I know we want to get out of here, but. But we need to. We need to allow the Word to permeate in our hearts. We need to sit in the moment for just a second, just for 60 seconds, so that God can refresh our souls, so God can do a new thing.
- [57:44]
B
If the highest place I reach is at your feet, then I've done it all. If the best thing that I've seen is your glory, then I've seen it all. Your love has changed my life forever. Satisfy God, you are my everything. If one word is the only, the only thing you speak, then I've heard it all. If I feel your heart, never see your hand, I still have it all. There's no treasure, no treasure could ever satisfy God. You are, you are my everything. Say God, you are, you are my everything. Say God, you are my everything. You are my everything.
- [58:55]
A
Is there anybody in the room when a moment of conviction can say, God, you are my everything. You are the lifter of my hands, that you took stripes on your back, nails in your hands, and a crown of thorns on your head. And you bled for me. And all because you are a good, good God. Salvation is for all. But only if you choose. He's not going to force you into relationship with him. He will give you an opportunity. He will meet you with grace. And if you choose to follow, to be an apprentice of him to, to. To follow in his ways, to. To. To follow in his actions, his footsteps, his words, then and only then can he claim you as his. He said, harden not your heart. When you hear these words, when I knock on your heart, will you open the door? Salvation is the first step. Sanctification is the process. But there are people in this room today who are saying, I have finally gotten to a place where I'm tired of compromising myself for my own self gratification. I am tired of chasing after the same thing and making the same money mistakes over and over and over again. And I'm ready to turn my life over to him. I'm ready to confess with my mouth and believe in my heart and, and, and not just so I can say a prayer. And that's just it. No, no, no. It is a relationship. It's a relationship. If you believe in this moment right now that God is. He's calling you, that he's pulling you in. The enemy wants to stop you from saying yes. But God is giving you an opportunity with the rooster crow to say this is your moment to say yes. If that is you, I just want you to just throw up your hands right now. Throw up your hands right now. I see you. I see you. I see you. I see you, my brother. I see you. I see you, my brother. I see you. Hallelujah. Hallelujah.
- [61:35]
B
Hallelujah.
- [61:37]
A
The angels in heaven are rejoicing.
- [61:40]
B
If you can't rejoice for them, I'm.
- [61:43]
A
Gonna rejoice for them.
- [61:44]
B
Heaven has new angels.
- [61:49]
A
For when you close your eyes on.
- [61:51]
B
Earth, you shall be in heaven. And this is the gospel. In the highest place, in the highest place I reach. Then I've done it all. You are my everything. God, you are. You are my. You are God, you are my. Yeah. Oh, God, you are. You are my everything. God, you are. You are my everything.