Elevation Church Worship Team (18:12)

Wow, wow.

Larry Bry (18:14)

The first time he was just deflecting. Are you aware of your drifts? Are you aware of when you start deflecting things that God's trying to bring into your life? And now you start defending your things with an oath. On my mama's grave. So servant 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 crowd is very fickle. But what you see is it started with 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 like 5:30 in the morning. You see, he sat down at the fire at 2. And now the third denial's at about 5:30 or 6am because that's when the sun comes up and that's when the rooster crows. And a little later, 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 later, those who stood by came up and said to Peter, surely you are one of them, for your speech betrays 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 a 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 betcha. Yeah, yeah, sure, sure, uh huh. And when I moved to the South, I went to a grocery store and asked a woman, where do I buy the pop? 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 what we call you? Northerners? I said, no. She goes, we call you Yankees. And then she says, do you know what we call you? Yankees that move to the South. Those darn Yankees that's come on. 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 74. 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, disgusting himself, he says. Then he began to curse and swear, I don't know the man. And immediately the rooster crowed. Verse 75. And Peter remembered the words that Jesus had said to him. It was only nine hours earlier. How quickly we forget. Just nine hours. He forgot what Jesus said to him, but he remembered the words before the rooster crows, you will deny me three times. So he went out and he wept bitterly. I think he sat down at this point and he said, how did I get. You see what Shane wants to do? 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. You kiss your mama with that mouth. You're acting like you don't belong to Jesus. Because here's the reality. You will drift far enough that your tongue will become a Judas and betray the allegiance to Christ. 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. And that's what the enemy wants to do, 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. The shame, the weight. 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 failed. Look at what he did. That's what an ultimate failure like. It's easy to see his failure in that point. But did he really fail? And I went back to the text and this is the part that God really showed me in this sermon. If we go back to the encounter with Christ at 9pm Luke 22:31 says, Simon, Simon, Satan is asked to sift you as wheat. 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 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.

Steven Furtick (23:42)

Come on.

Larry Bry (23:43)

The Bible says the prayers of the righteous are powerful and effective. Jesus is righteousness. He gives us his righteousness. So the prayers of the righteous, the prayers of Jesus are powerful and effective. And if Jesus is praying for you, whoo. Maybe there's something greater than just me. Maybe it's not based upon what I think failure and success is. Cause I always thought that Peter failed. What's your definition of success? Cause you all and 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. Who gave you your definition of success? 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. Who gave you that definition for success? 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 that moment at the Last Supper and Peter would get it, would go through this thing till 6am and then he denied Jesus at 6am and then at 9am the next day on Friday is when Jesus would be nailed to the cross. And as the story continues to unfold In Luke chapter 23, it says this in verse 44, it was about noon and darkness came over the whole land until three in the afternoon. And what that darkness represents 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. And for three 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 darkness represents the shame. And it's coming on the world. And it's interesting because the Scripture says this. It says till three in the afternoon, verse 45. For the sun stopped shining. The sun was created to illuminate so everybody else could see. But it stopped shining for a couple hours. This was not an eclipse. This is a movement of God and it represents the shame of the world. The sun was created to do something. And when Jesus said, I prayed for you that your faith would not fail. The word fail 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 stop shining, it means 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 the text. We were created in the image of God. We are the image bearers of God. We are called to receive and reflect the glory of God in the world. Oh, you didn't catch it. 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 gonna do all that stuff, and yet I still picked you. I knew you were gonna have all 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 gonna 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. But when I think Jesus prayed for Peter, here's what I picture is that boat out on the lake being tossed about by the waves. 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 has so many feet of rope on it. 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 going to 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 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 were created to be the image bearers of God. Saint Irenaeus says it like this. The glory of God is man fully alive. In Romans, chapter 3, verse 23, it says this. It says, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. I was focused on the first half of that verse. All have sinned. It's easy for me to identify with humanity. For all have sinned and falls short of the glory of God. And I think when I look at that story of Peter and the failure and the success and all those things he says, peter, when you're sitting down in shame, you're not standing up, giving me glory. And so to me, failure is to say seated when God gave you the opportunity to stand up. A couple years ago, my son was doing a video shoot. His name is Corbin, and he was doing a video shoot for our youth. And I'm watching him do the video shoot, and I'm like, oh, I'm so proud of him. I'm just beaming with excitement. Come on. 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. And my heart broke. And I'm like, son, I'm sorry. I need to apologize. Cause 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 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. Because, Peter, I know you're gonna deny me. But 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 we read about him and he stood up. Yeah, we like that. And often will preach a message of, you just gotta stand up, meaning, I'm just gonna do it. My own strength, my own power, in 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 I 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 out in the parking lot because your speech betrays you. Some of you. The reason you're talking like that is you're so disgusted with yourself that rather than 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 dependent upon my behavior. Success is my recognition that Jesus still holds on to me. And if he is still holding on to 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 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 harder. Gosh darn it, New Year's resolution, I'm going to do it. 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. Cause 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 a face and he wept bitterly. And that represents Peter moving forward. And some of you have been sitting in this place for 22 years. You gave a part of yourself 22 years away, a part of yourself. 22 years ago, you said you were gonna keep sacred till marriage. And because you compromised that part of yourself, you'll feel so unworthy that 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. No, he's coming to you because if this were the end of the story, how depressing would that be? But the great God that we serve, Jesus shows up. Jesus comes back for him. Jesus remembers, oh, I am tied to his boat. He's not tied to me. And so Jesus is resurrected from the grave. Because you need three people. You need two people. To help you get up. We believe in a God that's a trinity. Father, Son. Each one is fully God. God the Father always has been and he always will be. God the Son always has been and he always will be. And God the Son took on flesh and he made his dwelling amongst us. And the sin that 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. And after three days, the Father looked at the Son and said, son, I created you for something. It's time for you to rise and shine. And Jesus heard the voice of his Father calling him from the darkness he had sat in for three days. And because Jesus sat down in it for three days, you and I don't have to settle for sitting down in it. 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. 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 he did. And God said, I knew it was gonna happen all along. And I still picked you. You still my first show in fantasy of 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. He says, I will only let you drift so far. I will only let you get so far away from me. But because my grace is holding onto you, success is realizing that he is holding on to me. And to fail is to think I gotta do it in my own strength. So the Father looks at the Son and says, jesus, it's time to rise and shine. And Jesus kicks the end out of a borrowed tomb. Cause 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 in. So Peter makes his way back into the shore going through the same waves of chaos that he was drifted away by. Isn't it 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 into the shore and he has this meal. And three times he asked him, do you love me? Do you love me? Do you love me? One for each of those 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 greater 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 this space here, I don't bring him glory. So when you go to work tomorrow, are you sitting down in something old or are you hearing the voice of God saying, stand up and glorify? So in Acts 2:14. 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. I wonder if Peter was dealing with some doubt, like, could you really use me, God? 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. And who better to explain the goodness of God than a man who had just disappointed and denied Jesus 53 days earlier. He didn't need to go to a class. He didn't know. He didn't need to go to a 12 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 2, verses 1 through 4. 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 Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. Suddenly the sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven. It filled the whole 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. And what I 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 clothes. It's time 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 gonna 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 to wash over you and clean you and make you a new creation. 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. The Holy Spirit's not a power or an energy. It's not a vibe or a feeling. It's a person. 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, or if success is more square footage, or if success is, you know, a corner office or certain amount of money in the 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. The Holy Spirit is a gentleman. He's not going to kick down the door, but he's going to knock and say, I'm still here. I'm not. I've not left you. I'm right in this thing with you. 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. To respond to that. Now the waves are going to be loud. The waves of disappointment and doubt and disgust, they're. They're just crashing. They're crashing. But the voice I'm talking about It's a whisper. Simon. Simon. It's a Hebrew term of intimacy. Because I'm close 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 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. And what I wanted you to hear today 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. Will you respond to it? 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. Would you bow your heads? Would you close your eyes at all of our locations and everybody online? And if you need to place your faith in Jesus, this is your prayer. Not talking about a commitment to try harder or do better. I'm not talking about a resolution to say, I'm just gonna give it one more chance. No, I'm talking about confessing. You are dead in your sins and you cannot save yourself. That is why Jesus had to die. And if that's you, I want to lead you in this prayer. And 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 and rose from the grave. Say, forgive me of my sins. 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 bowed and your eyes 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 there, without hesitation, I want you to boldly shoot your hand into the air. 1, 2, 3. Shoot your hand up all across the software auditorium. Come on church family. No, let's celebrate that.

Steven Furtick (45:02)

Thank you for joining us. Special thanks to those of you who give generously to this ministry. It's because of you that this ministry is possible. You can click the link in the description to Give now or visit elevationchurch.orgpodcast for more information and if you enjoyed the podcast, you can subscribe. You can share it with your friends. You can click the share button, take a screenshot and share it on your social stories and tag us Levation Church. Thanks again for listening. God bless you.

Ryan Seacrest (45:34)

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Elevation Church Worship Team (46:33)

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