← Jentezen Franklin at Free Chapel
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Hello, this is Jensen Franklin, and thank you so much for joining us for this week's podcast. Our goal is to provide you with biblically based teachings that will challenge, inspire, and equip you to live for Jesus. If you haven't already, I'd love for you to go ahead and subscribe today to this podcast so you can get the latest updates from us and you don't ever have to miss a new message. Let's go right into the service. Record it at Freechapel. I believe it's going to bless you today.
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Matthew, chapter 27. Do you have it? I've been waiting on you. Matthew, chapter 27. I'll begin with verse 31. Then Jesus said to them, all of you will be made to stumble because of me this night. For it is written, I will strike the shepherd and the sheep of the flock will be scattered, but after I have been raised, in other words, I'm going to be killed and I'm going to be raised. I will go before you to Galilee. Peter answered and said to him, even if all were made to stumble, because of you, I will never be made to stumble. I'm different. I am special. Jesus said to him, assuredly, I say unto you this night, before the rooster crows, you will deny me three times. Peter said to him, even if I have to die for you, I will. He's arguing with him, even if I have to die with you, I will not deny you. And so said the other disciples. And they come, they go to the garden, they leave that upper room, they go to the garden, they fall asleep, the soldiers come and arrest them. And all of the disciples, all of them fled, including Simon Peter. Verse 69. Now Peter sat outside the courtyard and the servant girl came to him, saying, you also were with Jesus of Galilee. But he denied it. This is the same night, this is a few hours later. But he denied it before them all, saying, I do not know what you are saying. And when he had gone out to the gateway, another girl saw him and said to those who were there, this fella also was with Jesus Nazareth. And he denied with us with an oath, a swearing, I swear by God in heaven, I swear on, on my life, on my children. He's swearing, he's going. He's going deeper on the second one, and I do not know the man. Verse 73. A little later, those who stood by came up and said to Peter, surely also you are one of them, for your speech betrays you. You have a southern twang to your because he was from south Israel and The Sea of Galilee is south Israel. And there's an accent different. You say you speak in Hebrew, but you sound like a Galilean. And here he goes again for the third time. And he began to curse, you see, it went deeper. It goes from swearing to cursing, cursing and bl. And blankety blank. Blankety blank. I don't know it. I don't know him. I do not know the man. And immediately a rooster crowed. And Peter remembered the words of Jesus who had said to him, before the rooster crows, you will deny me three times. So he went out and wept bitterly, preaching today on the power of getting back up. He was the boisterous disciple. Jesus is never impressed with our fleshly bravado, our arrogance and self righteousness. And they were sitting around when Jesus walked into the upper room having an argument of who's going to be greatest in the kingdom. And to make his point, he grabs a pail of water and a towel and he begins to go around our Savior, God in skin, washing mere men's dirty feet and drying them with the towel. And he says, this is the kind of leadership, humility is required. And then he changes. And he says after he serves them the meal that you just ate, the communion meal, he, he, he said to them, this night they're about to come for me. This night the shepherd will be smitten and the sheep will scatter. This night every one of you will will deny and run away from me. And I'm going to die and I'm going to be raised from the dead. And right in the middle of it, Simon Peter speaks up and he says, lord, these others may, but I'm special. You see it, he's still filled with arrogance. These others may deny you, but I will never deny you. And he does it three times. I don't know the man. I swear to God, I don't know the man. When another one comes and asks him. And then finally when the final group comes and says, your speech betrays you, you are definitely one of those Galilean disciples. And he cusses and says, I am not. I do not know the man. And the rooster crowed. And when that rooster crowed, there is another detail of Luke chapter 22 and verse 61 that says that in that moment Jesus turned the corner with the Roman soldiers. Now I want you to see this and just leave that up a moment. As he's turning the corner, they have just brought him from Caiaphas house where they beat him for the first time. They pulled his beard from one End to the other, off of his face. They beat him with their fists and slapped them with their hands. They crowned him with a crown of thorns. They put 39 stripes at the whipping post with the cat of nine tails, tearing him to pieces. His eyes are beaten. His lips are busted. His teeth are not, not crooked. His eyes are swelling. He's cut up. He's busted up. And then the Lord, when the rooster crowed, the verse before that says, when the rooster crowed, then the Lord turned and looked at Peter. Their eyes caught one another. He saw through the blood, Jesus looking at him. And it was a stare and a look that pierced his heart. And Peter, as they shoved Jesus off to now go to the ultimate place of death, to Golgotha we call Calvary, and nail him to the cross. The last look, eyeball to eyeball, as this man said, I'll never deny you, but I denied you three times. You would think when Jesus looked at him, it was not a piercing look, it was a look of, I still love you. I can prove that because he's going to use him again. And there they go and comes these words as Peter walks away and the crowd's moving, but he's. He's pierced in his heart. I denied him. I didn't do it one time. Two times. I did it three times. How could I do that? And he wept bitterly. He wept bitterly. The tears of Simon Peter. He's in good company. Throughout the Bible, the tears of men like in people like Adam and Eve. Most people think they died pretty quick. They lived another 930 years. They saw a lot of disasters and the results of the curse. How many times did they weep? And bitter tears. How bad did Adam and Eve cry when their first son, Abel was killed by Cain? In their own family, murder happened first. When their son was murdered by his brother, tears began. The tears of job. As his 10 children died in one day. He lost his fortune, he lost his health, he lost his best friends. And his wife said, just curse God and die. How many tears did he cry? The tears of Lot when he, through the seduction of Sodom and Gomorrah, took his family. And even though he held his love for God and held his standard, that was a. That was a terrible move. And he took his family to the wrong place. And when he came out, by the mercy of God, the angel let him out. His wife turned around and she looked back, yearning for what God had brought her out of. Be careful what you look back on and want again. And the Bible said she was turned into a pillow of salt. How many tears did Lot weep and cry for the rest of his life? The tears of Jacob when he hears that his precious son, his favorite son with the coat of many colors, has been killed, they tell him, by an evil beast and he'll never see him again. The tears of Aaron, the high priest, when he realizes when Moses comes down off of the mountain and he has built a golden calf, he's the high priest of heaven and he's. And of. Of. Of earth. He's the first high priest. And he built, in a moment of backsliding, an idol of a golden calf and taught Israel to bow down and worship and dance and carry on. How many tears did he cry over that? The tears of Samuel as he's weeping, weeping for King Saul, who was so anointed and so powerful, the first king of Israel, and yet he's now gone to a witch and as into communing with the dead and fortune telling and asking for direction, dealing with the dark arts and witchcraft. And God says, I'm finished with him. I'm cutting him off because it was a sin then and it's a sin now. And he's weeping. Samuel, the Bible said, wept the tears of David when his son Absalom was killed rebellion and was hung from a tree. And when the word reaches him, he cries out this famous prayer, absalom, Absalom. How many times, oh, I would give my life for yours. And he's weeping like a father for his dead son. The tears of Jeremiah. He preached for 40 years and never had one convert in the nation of Israel except for one man by the name of Baruch. That's the only person that got saved after 40 years of crying out and begging the nation to turn. The tears, maybe the most important tears, the tears of Mary as she's standing at the cross and she sees her son on that cross and she's weeping and she's crying. The tears of the apostle Paul when he encounters Jesus. And he realizes. And he asked Jesus when, When he showed up, he said, who are you? And he said, I am Jesus, whom you've persecut. How did he weep? How did he cry? The tears of Simon Peter now are so very real in this deep, deep valley of defeat and disappointment. And how could I fail God in such a way? The most important moment that. The moment of his. Of. Of his cruc. If he ever needed a friend, if he ever needed someone to stand with him, and I didn't do it. I want to preach that the story doesn't end when you fail God and you are crying bitter tears, God won't leave you in that place. God won't leave you there if you will hear his word today. Thomas Edison, all of us know, was the inventor of the light bulb. And he had 14,000 failures creating the light bulb. He said, no, I just found 14,000 ways it didn't work. But he kept on going. And in spite of the fact that he became one of the greatest inventors of all time, he was sent home one time a letter from his school and from his teacher to his mother. And he said that he saw his mother's shoulders sink and he couldn't figure out what was wrong. He knew he was in trouble at the school, but when he had his mother call him to read the note, she took the note and she began to say these words. The school sent this. Son. Your son Thomas is a very special boy. We don't feel that we are capable of helping him. His ability mentally is beyond us. And we don't feel that we can help with his special intellect. So we need someone else more qualified to take care of him. Since we can't help him, perhaps you can. She folded up the letter and she put it away, and she said, son, from now on, this house will be your school, and I will be your tutor, and I will be your instructor. Thomas Edison became one of the greatest inventors ever known. He changed the world. But it wasn't until his mother died a few years afterwards that he was in the process of sorting out some of the papers and packing up her belongings. And he was boxing up some of the letters off of her desk. And he saw one of the letters that he recognized. It was the letter from the teacher that had been sent home. He began to read it, and the letter said, we cannot help your son, Thomas. He's mentally deficient. He has major severe learning disabilities. And. And we have other normal kids and smarter kids that we have to take care of. Goodbye and good luck. And then when he realized that his mother had not read the letter, but she had believed in him, when everybody else said, he's a waste of time, he began to weep. It was his turn to weep. Vincent van Gogh has four paintings that have sold for over $100 million each. Yet in his lifetime, this artist was a mental and emotional failure. Tons of critics would criticize his paintings and say, he's worthless and his art has no value, it's trash. And he was so moved and upset by the criticism, it burned. It caused him to burn up all of his paintings, they don't know how many hundreds of his paintings because people said he's trash. People said he's no good, people said he has no talent. And he burned up. Can you imagine hundreds of those paintings, each one now worth a hundred million each. He burned them up because of the opinion of his critics. In this entire lifetime, he only sold one painting. And he was so despondent that he committed suicide. And his paintings then began to sell. Abraham Lincoln was in 1832, was 23 years old. He lost his job that year. And in the same year he ran for state legislature and lost it. Three years later, at the age of 26, he fell in love with Ann Lythridge. And it was the love of his life. But she died the same year in a horrible situation. Three years later, at the age of 29, he lost his bid to become the speaker of the House in the Illinois House of Representatives. Ten years later in when he was 39, he lost his bid to become the Commissioner of the General land office of D.C. ten years later, when he was 49, he was defeated in his quest to become U.S. senator. And throughout all of that time, for the next few years, he had failure after failure. His business went bankrupt. But he did manage to get a law degree. He was elected to the House of Representatives in 1846 and he introduced a bill to abolish slavery. It was rejected and it failed. But in 1861, at the age of 52, Abraham Lincoln became the President of the United States. The 16th president. And he decided to to do something about slavery. And he began to fulfill the destiny that God had given him. Aren't you glad he didn't listen to the failures? Aren't you glad he didn't listen to the critics? Aren't you glad he kept on going? Albert Einstein is known as a genius. And as a child though he could not. He's known as the genius of the 20th century. But as a child he never talked till after he was five years of age. All of the so called experts said he has major learning disabilities. He could not speak even at three. At four, he was five plus years old when he spoke for the first time. He had serious speech difficulties. Some of his teachers said, quote, he is mentally handicapped. As a teenager he failed much of his classes, but he excelled in amazing ways in math and physics. He applied once, he got through school to Zurich University and was rejected. And he went to work on those weak areas and finally barely got in. He did math and physics exceptionally well and began working when he Graduated in a patent office where he wrote two papers that he would win the Nobel Prize for physics. And he's become what would change everything with the law of relativity and his discovery in science and physics. All to a man who many wrote off and said, he's worthless. Thank God his mother didn't feel that way. Somebody believed in him again. If you. If you've ever read the Woman said it the other day, I'm just a simple preacher, so I want to just give you a simple message. The power of getting back up. When you were a little kid, you might have read a man by the name of Ted Giesel's book. One of them was called Green Eggs and Ham. Another one was called Cat in the Hat. His first book was rejected 27 times by publishers. You're not talented. You're not a writer. Your stuff is weird. You are a weirdo, and we don't want to publish your books. 27 times he was told no, until he got so discouraged, he took his book and threw it in the trash can and went to apply for another career and another job. And the man asked, where did you come from? And he said, I wrote books, but I can't get any. He said, let me read one. He said, I threw it away this morning. He said, go get it out of the trash can. He went home and got it out of the trash can, gave it to that man. The man read it and he said, it's weird, it's different, but there's something to this. I know a publisher. But he said, they won't take it because you've been a loser and labeled a loser 27 times. Let's change your name to Dr. Seuss and let's put it on this book. And the 28th publisher said, yes, I'll publish it. And he sold 600 million copies all over the world. I don't care what people say about you. God says you are of great value and of great worth. His name was Harlan David Sanders. He was 65 years old and bankrupt, living in poverty in Kentucky. All he had was a special recipe for fried chicken. Listen to me. This old man of 65 years old who was bankrupt was. Went to 1000 different restaurants trying to get them to take his recipe. And he said, all I want is $0.05 per piece of chicken. And they mocked him and laughed him and kicked him out of the restaurants. But on one day, he walked into one restaurant and they said, let's give it a try. It is good chicken, and the rest is history. Kentucky Fried Chicken Finger Licking Good is all over the world. Let me tell you the rest of the story. I have a pastor friend by the name of Bob Rogers. I've had him here and I preached for him many times in Lexington, Kentucky. Well, his father, he pastors the church his father founded. And his father was building a church, an assembly of God church in Lexington, Kentucky. And the contractor ran off, if I remember the story right, and took the money and he got all upside down. The church was about to lose the whole property and Mr. Finger Licking Chicken walked into his church and sat in the back and got gloriously born again. He was the foul mouth cusser. They said Colonel Sanders would cuss in every sentence. And he said that when he got saved, he never cussed again. And he baptized them in. And then the man said, how much money do you need to finish your church? And he said, a million dollars will get us out of debt and pay it off. And Colonel Sanders wrote the check for $1 million to come on. What if he had given up? What if he would have said, it's too late. What if he would have said, but everybody says I can't do it now. God knows what he's doing. His name was Babe Ruth. He was the all time home run hitter for many decades, but he was also the all time strikeout, strikeout artist is what I guess you would call him. So you got the home run hitter, but he's the strikeout king. He has the record for the most strikeouts and the record for the most home runs and he held the record for many decades. And then a guy by the name of Hank Aaron came along and he beat his record, but he also beat his strikeout record. I guess the message is you got to keep on swinging no matter how many times you fail, if you keep in it, keep praying, keep believing, keep trying, keep getting up, keep swinging. God will see that you get another chance. Come on, somebody, you've just got to keep going. You've just got to keep believing. We all know what it is to swing and miss. We know what it is to give it our best shot and absolutely fall on our face. Simon Peter got up to bat. He had his chance. I'll never deny you. I'll die for you if I have to. And here comes the first softball. It's an easy pitch, it's coming right across the plate and he swings and misses and says, aren't you one of them? No, I don't know him. Strike one. He moves to another place and another girl comes and she says, I know You. You're one of those Galileans. You're one of those disciples. And. And he says, I swear to God in heaven, I don't know the man. Strike two. He goes over somewhere else, and people come running, saying, hey, we heard your accent. And I know you're one of them because we can tell by your speech. Here's your big chance. You only get three. The bases are loaded. Come on. He swings and he misses. And you think God would leave him there. But read the story. When Jesus died and rose from the dead, he had somebody on his mind. Because when Mary got there, he said, you go tell my disciples and Peter that I'm alive and that I want them to get in the upper room. I'm telling you, the Bible said when Simon Peter heard it, he and John took off running to the empty tomb. And when they got to the empty tomb, John got there first, according to the scripture, but he wouldn't go in. But Peter came, and he was. He was so. So desperate for God. He knew the last time he saw those eyes, he was bleeding and in pain. And he said, I got to see those eyes one more time. And when he runs in, there's nothing there but grave clothes. But he goes to that upper room because someone told him. Mary told him. He called your name. Personal. I struck out. Me, I'm a failure. Me, I denied. And every time I hear a rooster crow, it's my past telling me how bad I messed up in front of thousands of people. I had a chance, and I struck out. And you would think that God would find him a new hitter. You would think God would find him a new person to hit. Fourth. You know, the fourth hitter is the one that you want when the bases are loaded. But on the day of Pentecost, in that upper room with 120, was a man named Simon Peter, who had denied him three times. But the Holy Ghost came upon him. And when the Holy Spirit came upon him, he stepped out of that upper room. And the Bible said. God said, I'll tell you which one I'll pick. I'll tell you which one I choose. I won't. That guy named Simon Peter. I want him to get one more chance. I don't know who I'm preaching to right now, but you may think God has given up on you and you failed so many times, and you've let him down so many times, but you don't know Jesus. You don't understand. He gets glory out of your. His strength is made perfect in your weakness. And when you Cry out, he says, give him the bath. He gets up on the day of Pentecost. He preaches a sermon like you wouldn't believe. You could read it in three minutes, but boy, he preaches. He said, this Jesus whom you crucified, God has both raised from the dead and made Lord. And then here comes the softball pitch. It's not that fast stuff. I mean, this is. This is a layup pitch, preach. It's almost like the pitcher has come off the mound and you're playing with your little grandson in the backyard, trying to hit stickball. He here and you, you almost put it on the bat for him. He's preached. And the people cry out, what must we do? And here comes the pitch. And I could see in my mind the angel saying, jesus, are you sure you want to put the whole church and its reputation on that man named Simon from Loserville? Are you sure you want to do that? He failed you so bad. He's the one. I believe in him. I know he's got it in him. I know he's going. He's going to come through this time. And here comes the pitch and I could see the devil and all his demons. You know, he had been having a bad 40 days. Jesus had risen and showed himself alive for 40 days. The devil's on Prozac. He's breaking out in cold sweat. What's going to happen today? He showed up on the road to Emmaus. He walked through the walls the other day and showed up. He's showing up all over the place. He showed up to 500 people. What am I going to do? And they said, it's all right, it's all right, Satan, guess who they've got hit and clean up is Simon Peter, the failure, the loser. Oh, good. We'll be all right. Hey, demons, go down there and stir up some of those chicken nests and get those roosters to crow in real loud. I'm going to preach it like I want to. Cause every time he hears the rooster, he thinks about his failure. You could hear them all over. They were going off all over the place. Come on. I'm working hard up here. Can you imagine? I bet everybody rooster in Jerusalem in every neighborhood started. He chose the foolishness of preaching. Hallelujah. You know, God could send an angel down here, but he says, I want some foolish preaching. I want somebody to get up and preach my word and watch me work miracles in losers lives. Watch me raise people up. Watch me use people the world throws away. Watch me use children that have been told Those children are not right and they will never be worth anything. Watch me take the gift. Watch me use the autism to do something and discover something. You know, Einstein had autism. Basically, just cause you stand up don't mean I'm done. So I am though. I want you to hear me. Here comes that pitch. What would you have us do? He pulled that back, back. And with all of his might, under the power of the Holy Spirit, he crack the ball starts soaring. I believe they probably come in from the outfield into the infield and everybody was laughing saying, if this is the cleanup hitter, we don't have any worries. But there goes that softball. When he stood and he said, you want to know what to do? Acts 2. 38 and Peter said unto them, repentance and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins. And you shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. For this promise is unto you and unto your children and to them that are afar off, even as many as the Lord. That ball is still reverberating and hitting free chapel this morning, right there where you're watching us. The power of the gospel, the power of the church, all from a loose loser. Can you see the other disciples coming up after that service was over and 3,000 were saved off a three minute sermon. That's a thousand a minute. They're coming up with the scroll of Joel because he preached from the book of Joel. This is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel. This is what they're saying. What is this? He said this is that. This is the outpouring of the Holy Spirit Joel talked about. Can you see them bringing a little copy, saying, would you give me your autograph right here. Same people who've laughed at you and mocked you. When God spirit comes on you, he puts something in you. You may can't do everything good, but he gave you something that when his anointing comes on you, you can do that thing and it will make a difference for the even if it's finger licking good frying chicken, it will touch and bless the world and the church. What about you? God's putting the bad in your hand. You don't have to be the strikeout king, you can be the home run king for the glory of Jesus Christ. He's not finished with you. He's not done with you. And just because you failed, you don't have to wallow in it. Tell the roosters to shut up and get up and say, but Jesus said that I can do all things. Through Christ who strengthens me. I'm going to ask you all over this room and at every campus, reverently to stand to your feet. And I'm going to ask you if you know this sermon is for you and you failed and you've messed up and you've denied and you've fallen and you know that God's grace is reaching for you. You're watching me right now, and you don't even know why you're watching. But the Holy Spirit sent you here today, young man, young lady, businessman, husband, father, dad, wife, mother, single lady, divorced, broken. Dealing with things, dealing with the fragments of what's left, of bad choices and failures. We are all human beings, and that's why Simon Peter failed. He was a human being, and so are you. God knows that we're just flesh. And he says, I still love you. I still got home runs for you. If you'll give me your life completely, every head bowed, every eye closed, if you would say, pastor Jensen, you're preaching to me and I want to get right with God today. I want to come running to the throne of grace and obtain help in the time of trouble. I want God to put the bat in my hand again. I want another chance. I need his grace. I need his mercy. I want to repent. I want to hear that loser's sermon and repent and be baptized in the name of Jesus and receive the Holy Spirit. I want that life. I want that forgiveness. I want that purpose. I want God to take my failures and use them for his glory.
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I really want to say thank you for joining us this week. If you haven't already, make sure you click on the subscription button and leave us a review. It helps this podcast reach even more people when you comment, when you give us your feedback. For more messages and inspirational materials, download the Jensen Franklin app. Or you can head over to JensenFranklin.org I want to thank all of you who give generously to help us produce weekly content like this to reach the world with the message of Jesus. God bless you, and we'll see you next time.