Peters Denial

big storm issues um at your house we were uh I guess the main thing at our house is we've been without internet for like two days so we've been living like primitive times um just not really sure what to do with ourselves without without internet but if you do know of someone who either has like a down tree or has some damage or just anything that we can help out with um just shoot an email to ransford and and he'll get you taken care of so um but seriously if you know someone who needs help Reach Out and um and we'll do everything we can

to to help them out but let's kick off this morning Luke 22 that's where we're going to be in our Bibles Luke chapter 22 we're still walking through the Book of Luke uh this is the 98th sermon in the Book of Luke and so um we're getting we're getting close guys all right we're getting close um we'll wrap it up right before we head into Advent so the last the last Sunday right around Thanksgiving will be when we wrap up the Book of Luke and um and it'll be good Jesus will Ascend and and then we'll head into to Advent uh but Luke 22 we're

going to be looking at verses 31 through 34 this morning and I'm going to read it for you and then we'll dive in to see what Jesus has for us this morning Luke 22 31-34 Simon Simon behold Satan demanded to have you that he might sift you like wheat but I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail and when you have turned again strengthen your brothers and Peter said to him Lord I'm ready to go with you both to prison and to death and Jesus said I tell you Peter the rooster the rooster will Crow or let me just start that one

over Jesus said I tell you Peter the rooster will not Crow this day until you deny three times that you know me have you ever had those like difficult conversations with somebody that you love but you have to kind of bring up something that's like a tension between the two of you or like a frustrating thing or maybe it's a rebuking thing or maybe it's calling out something in the other person that you've seen that's maybe off step with Jesus and you're just like I just I have to have a conversation like there's um in different staff settings that I've had we've always used it

as like I've got a number one which is like I've got an encouragement for you but if you were to walk up say I have a number two that's like this is going to be like a bad conversation or like a difficult conversation to have which is great because number twos are typically that way um but this is one of those types of conversations that Jesus is having with Peter where he's like hey I'm going to let you know something that I see um you don't see it yet because the reality is it hasn't even happened yet but this is going to be what happens

and of course Peter in the moment is like what are you talking about I'm never going to deny you three times I'm never going to betray you I'm I'm ready to go to prison with you I'm ready to to die even for you but in this moment this is as we as we've been seeing over the last few weeks it's in the setting of The Passover meal where Jesus is sitting down with his disciples he's now washed their feet he's encouraged them he's shared the Passover meal with them but he's even taking the meal and fulfilling it in himself he's now shifting it to become

the Lord's Supper in communion which is where we break bread and drink the wine or juice and um and and all in that setting Jesus then turns his attention to Simon and tells him hey just so you know when you fall and then turn again I need you to strengthen the brothers and again Peter's like what are you talking about I'm never going to fail I'm never going to leave you and that is typically kind of our response especially when we're like new Believers we're like I'm never going to to sin again like I am never going to mess up I'm never going to fail

like I'm all in on Jesus and again it's as if Jesus is looking at Peter with a smirk saying like no no no like before the night's over you're going to deny me three times you can be as gung-ho as you want right now but before the end of the night you're going to deny me three times when you turn again which means like after you fail and realize it and then turn back I I want you to strengthen the brothers so we're going to dive in a little bit to see what's going on here in this context I want to provide a little bit

of theology behind what's going on because it's also interesting this interaction between both the Lord and Satan as well as the Lord and Peter and then I want to show you a few things in in application but here we have this conversation that they are having and it's an interesting conversation because Jesus is revealing a couple of things he having a conversation with Peter while at the same time telling Peter that he's also had a conversation with Satan look at it Simon Simon behold Satan demanded to have you that he might sift you like wheat first of all some translations here reveal that this communication

between Jesus and Satan is one of subordination some translations say Satan has asked to have you he's asked to have you he's requested to have you other translations put it like this Satan has demanded permission to have you in other words Satan does not get to do whatever Satan wants to do and that's important for us to know as Believers like Satan cannot do whatever he wants Jesus is the only Sovereign ruler and Reiger of all things and Satan is his subordinate Satan wants Simon Peter and he also wants the rest of the disciples but he can't have them if Jesus does not allow it

to happen you see this type of interaction between Satan and the Lord at the beginning of the Book of Job when again Satan comes to God and says um can I have job and first God is like well I'm going to slowly lengthen your leash and allow you to have certain things but there's a reason why Satan is wanting to do this Satan is the prince of the air he is the ruler of this age but again he's on a leash that Jesus is holding and one day there will come a day in the future where Jesus Will re that leash in and cast him

into the sea of the Abyss you need to know that because what Jesus does allow Satan to do here in a moment we need to know at the end of the day who still has us who is still keeping us who is still praying for us and who is guaranteeing that whatever Satan does do will not in the end be our destruction or our demise Satan cannot win you he can't period so why then does Jesus allow Peter to get sifted like wheat why would Jesus do that why why does Jesus just tell Peter in in that moment when he says Hey Satan has demanded

permission to basically um create a lot of havoc in your life but don't worry I prayed for you like in that moment if I'm Peter I'm probably thinking okay hold on uh he's your subordinate why not just stop him don't let him sift me like wheat don't let him bring any type of suffering in my life or trials in my life or tribulations in my life or harm in my life don't let him do any of that ju just stop him but instead Jesus simply says I've prayed for you why let him sift Peter like wheat well first to answer that what does it mean

to be sifted like wheat the pract because this is more of an illustration it's an object lesson he's not actually doing the process of sifting him like wheat that process is the practice of sifting grains through a seeve or a strainer was designed to vigorously Shake in order to separate the good grain from dirt and other impurities Amos chapter 9:9 references this act of shaking the true from the false what Satan is aiming to accomplish is shake out the false disciples from the true ones as if it's going to prove something to Jesus that Jesus isn't as good as he thinks he is that his

followers aren't as following as Jesus thinks they are that somehow it's going to allow Satan to get a oneup on Jesus because he's proving to Jesus that Jesus's Effectiveness in Ministry isn't as effective That's what Satan believes he's going to prove to God by sifting Peter and the other disciples like weat he's already gotten a taste of Judas he's already sifted out Judas from the other 12 now he wants more he wants to go after Peter and the rest something that you need to see that's interesting here is when Satan sifts or when Jesus says that Satan has demanded to have you the plural or

the the original Greek word for you is plural so even though Peter and Jesus are having this individual conversation what Satan is actually demanding is all of the disciples but in Jesus having this conversation with Peter he's saying Satan is coming after all of you but you need to know first and foremost that I have prayed for you which then shifts from the plural you to the singular you and so that when he has sifted you and you actually do fall you need to know that you will turn back again and when you turn back again he then goes back to the plural you you

need to then strengthen your brothers and help them when they fall when they fall and so Satan is providing a test here and Jesus is showing the disciples that at the end of the day even though they are going to face failures in their future they will not be taken over by that failure like Judas did and eventually fall into the Despair and destruction of their souls and hang themselves instead there will be an opportunity for them to turn to the Lord and in returning to the Lord have it actually become a Triumph for them so Jesus has already told us that Peter is going

to fail the test and he's going to deny that he knows Jesus three times that very night but I want you I want to show you that actual interaction I want to show you where Peter actually falls because it does happen later that evening after Jesus is arrested so we're going to skip a little bit we're going to go down to verses 54-62 so you can see Peter's failure because what I want us to have by the end of today is at least a framework in our mind that when we fail it does not mean that our faith has failed and so let me start

off by just reading the account of Peter's failure starting in verse 54 Then They seized him that is Jesus and led him away bringing him into the high priest's house and Peter was following at a distance and when they had kindled a fire in the middle of the courtyard and sat down together Peter sat down among them then a servant girl seeing him as he sat in the light and looking closely at him said this man also was with him but he denied it saying woman I do not know him and a little later someone else saw him and said you also are one of

them but Peter said man I am not and after an interval of about about an hour still another insisted saying certainly this man also was with him for he too is a Galilean but Peter said man I do not know what you're talking about and immediately while he was still speaking the rooster crowed and the Lord turned and looked at Peter man you just imagine that moment like Peter remembered the saying of the Lord how he had said to him before the rooster crows today you will deny me three times and Peter went out and wept bitterly I think we've all been there we've all

been there we've all been in that moment where ours before Peter's experiencing one of the greatest moments in the ministry of Jesus where he's having his Lord wash his feet he's having the Lord's share with him the communion the Lord's supper and explaining to them his body being broken and his blood being shed he's experiencing the Lord pray for them as we see in John 17 like he's he's experiencing so much communion with Jesus that it's unfathomable in his mind that he would ever deny Jesus or sin against him or turn away from him but hours after that Peter acts as if he knows Jesus

not at all Peter acts as if he's not been walking with him for three years Peter instead of being concerned about what Jesus thinks of him he's concerned about what everyone else thinks the fear of man starts to creep in and all of a sudden now he's more concerned about their worship of him versus his worship of Jesus he's concerned about their perspective of him versus his perspective of Jesus he's concerned about what they will do to him more so than what Jesus can do for him and in that moment Peter fails now the only reason why Peter did not fall into the same despair

as Judas was because Peter belonged to Jesus I want you to see this failure does not mean that your faith has failed failure does not mean that your faith has failed just because you failed does not mean that your faith has failed faith and we got to know this Faith first and foremost is a gift that God gives you it's granted by God and it's given to us in order for us to believe in God and be kept by God faith is a gift faith is not something that when we are born as sinners in total depravity that it's just kind of hanging out in

our lives until we hear the gospel and then we like dive deep into our tool chest of what's a part of us and we say oh we've got that Faith let's now attach it to this new belief no it is granted to us Ephesians 2:8 and9 makes that abundantly clear that you were saved by grace and grace is of gift it's it's an Act of Faith and this is given to you by God it's given to you well for the disciples it was given to them it was given to all of them except for one Judas never had a faith believing relationship with Jesus Christ

there's not one scripture in all of the Bible that says Judas had a pure heart and motive behind why he was following Jesus any Scripture that you look up that that talks about the relationship of Judas in the ministry of Jesus is all for his own self-gratification his own self gain and him profiting off of the ministry of Jesus to see how much he can make for himself the whole thing which is why when it comes down to the Passover meal and it says that Satan has entered into Judas how is that possible if Judas was an actual believer in Christ Satan can't enter into

something that is already possessed by the Lord so all that reveals is that he was never one of Jesus's and so instead when Satan entered into him it was because Satan already had him already had him and he walked away and in Walking Away What Judas received in his failure was his actual judgment that was there's no hope for us apart from Christ Jesus and because he did not have Christ Jesus as his ultimate savior he received his eternal punishment in the form of his immediate self condemnation and his self damnation and he hung himself how come Peter didn't do the same thing because they

both betrayed Jesus they both walked away from Jesus what Peter did after he denied Jesus was he ran away he ran away he actually ends up going back fishing but his failure does not mean that his faith failed him he knows what he did was wrong and even though he ran away what we actually get in the most beautiful picture of the shepherd being a Shepherd to us is that even in one of his sheep Peter running away from him and denying him and going back fishing after and we're getting ahead a little bit but after Jesus resurrects from the grave and he's spending that

40 days where he is um revealing himself to his disciples he goes and he pursues Peter in Peter's failure and he has him basically catch a bunch of fish because he's gone back to being a fisherman again he has him catch a bunch of fish he has him then come to the the the shoreline and he has them make breakfast and as they make breakfast he sits down with him and he asks him three questions Peter do you love me and because Peter has faith that God's already granted to him he responds with not I don't know who you are but he responds three times

with I love you I love you even to the point where he says you know that I love you has he still failed yes does he still know that he loves Jesus yes his failure and his faith Collide and in that moment Jesus Cooks him breakfast and then restores him in that moment where his failure and his faith Collide and he's able to stand not in despair like What Judas did but in Triumph because Jesus kept him because Jesus told him I've prayed for you that not one that the father has given me will be lost I want to show you this this is this

is not only confirmation for us but but this is a strong conviction for us that even when we fail Jesus will not fail us even when we still mess up Jesus will not allow us to continue in our mess ups because he is keeping us and strengthening us this is that moment when again he's told us already in verses 31 through 34 that when you turn again strengthen your brothers how did he turn again again Jesus went after him he went after him in his failure this is why when you sin if you have faith you feel bad you feel guilty you feel ashamed you

feel like I shouldn't have done that Judas didn't feel that he didn't care it wasn't until after he was given over to his condemnation that all of the sudden he's like whoops but it's too late for him at that moment he hung himself with Peter he went away weeping bitterly but because of his faith Jesus went after him met him there restored him because again he already told him that he would do that he already told him look at this in John 17 verses 6-2 this is The Lord's Prayer so this is uh not the Lord's Prayer in the one that you real um but

this is when Jesus prayed for all of the disciples and the future disciples that God had ultimately given him but this is how Jesus really capped off again that meal that he had with his with his disciples before he was betrayed by G by Judas in verse six Jesus says this in his prayer I have manifested your name to the people whom you gave me out of the world basically that's just Jesus saying I showed up on on the scene and I reveal to them everything that you told me to reveal to them in your word and I have shown them the ones that you

have given me out of the world now hang on to that whom you gave me out of the world like Jesus is already telling the disciples that out of the world God has plucked out a people and has given them to Jesus just store that one away for confirmation that God does not lose what he gives yours they were and you have given them to me and they have kept your word now they know that everything that you have given me is from you for I have given them the words that you gave me and they have received them and have come to know in

truth that I came from you and they have believed that you sent me all that's just talking about salvation basically like they I have come to the world you've given me a people out of this world I've communicated to them the word of God they've believed the word of God because you gave them to me you gave them Faith to believe what I am teaching them like it's all this this literally marriage between the bride of Christ and the groom that God has set up like the best way to describe it is God arranged a marriage of a people from the world that would become

the bride of Christ and then God ushered her to Jesus and said here's your bride verse nine Jesus then says I'm praying for them which is always a good thing to just pray for your bride pray for your spouse pray for your husband that's a good thing to do I am praying for them I am not praying for the world but For Those whom you have given me for they are yours it's another way to say Jesus prayed for Peter Jesus did not pray for Judas all mine are yours and yours are mine and I am glorified in them and I am no longer in

the world but they are in the world and I am coming to you Holy Father keep them in your name which you have given me that they may be one even as we are one while I was with them I kept them in your name which you have given me I have guarded them and not one of them has been lost except the son of Destruction that the scripture might be fulfilled now if your brain is doing a little bit of circles of like wait is that saying that Judas was one of them and he got lost like I thought Jesus just said I don't

lose any that you give me Judas was allowed into the circle of the disciples to be the Fulfillment of the scriptures that there would be won to betray him but that does not mean that Judas was able to see and understand what the rest of them saw and understood he did not have faith like the rest of them did but he was allowed to be a part of their group in order to ultimately fulfill that one of them would guide or lift up the son to be the sacrificial lamb Judas was the one who brought the lamb to the officials that was his role and

so the only reason why Peter did not fail or fall into the same despair as Judas was because Peter belongs to Jesus and Judas never did he never did in other words Jesus never prayed for Judas as he prayed for Those whom the father gave to Jesus Peter was one that the father gave Jesus to be kept to be guarded to be discipled and that's exactly what Jesus did for Peter he kept him he prayed for him he discipled him he strengthened him so that Peter could then do that for the others so for us if you believe in Jesus genuinely then although there are

times like Peter that we fail that we fall that we deny him in our own way even though we do that we cannot be lost or cast out out from our Salvation because Jesus has prayed for us because Jesus keeps us and guards us even from ourselves you need to know that your walk with God is Not solely dependent upon your faithfulness do you understand that like your walk with God is not dependent upon you waking up in the morning and how many good decisions you make versus bad decisions it is not dependent upon that rather it is dependent upon Jesus and what he keeps

it's a dependent upon the faithfulness of him protecting you in strengthening you and so therefore failure can always be turned into Triumph failure can always be turned into Triumph listen this does not give us a license to just then say well if our failures never impact our faith well then we can fail as many times as we want to when Paul was explaining this to the church in galatia that was their first comprehension was oh well this means we can go on doing whatever we want to do it doesn't matter right one saved always saved therefore I can go and sin as much as I

want to sin and so Paul literally gets to a a point in Galatians where he tells them he's like do you think just because Grace abounds that that means sin can abound and he uses some very strict language that I can't say in here because it's a curse word but he tells them by no means can you have that mindset that just because Grace abounds that sin can abound all that reveals is that if you have the posture that I can go on doing whatever I want only reveals that you never had the Pure Heart to begin with it only reveals that I didn't love

Jesus to begin with it only reveals that I'm more like Judas than I am like Peter like we will fall and we will fail we will mess up because we have a flesh that has been trained throughout our entire life based on our sinful identity to sin but now that we have an identity in Christ that is based off of our faith it is training our flesh to not sin and to love the Lord and to worship him on a daily basis like we have to renew our minds every single day we have to preach the gospel to ourselves every single day we have to

see what the the the holy spirit is guiding us to live our lives and how to think how to act how to relate to other people how to work like the holy spirit is guiding us and showing us every single day there is a way to eat and drink that is for the glory of God and there is a way to eat and drink that is not for the glory of God and your flesh wants to do the one that is not for the glory of God but the identity that you have in Christ wants to do it for the glory of God and so

every single day you're going to be met with this kind of opposition this spiritual warfare in your own identity like in your own life where you're like I kind of still want to do this instant gratification thing and he's over here saying no go for the Eternal gratification Worship the Lord in how you eat and drink or whatever you do don't seek it out for yourself and so when you come to your senses when we fail when we come to our senses and we turn back to God from our failure scripture tells us to just get up to lift our heads to dust off our

sin to throw it off and then use it as an opportunity to strengthen one another so that as a body we are no longer weak but are getting stronger like that's what he's telling Peter when you fail and turn back again strengthen your brothers pray for them show them where they fall and show them that how that it's out of step with the spirit and then encourage them that hey was that good did you enjoy that did you feel like that was the Abundant Life that I've promised if it wasn't don't do it again you have the ability and the power to say no to

it because Christ lives in you you've already crucified the flesh you've already crucified your sin with him so it does not have dominion over you anymore you now have dominion over creation you can say no to it and you can say yes to following Jesus every single day so when you mess up it's an opportunity for us to turn back to Jesus and to help others do the exact same thing again a chain is only as strong as its weakest link a body is only as strong as its weakest member this is why discipleship is a process of every sing single one of us stirring

up one another to loving Good Deeds which means we are also getting rid of all the bad Deeds all the bad things like that's what we're cooking up if you want to say like when that's what we're doing when we're stirring each other up is there are bad in ingredients that we need to get out and there are good ingredients that we need to Fan in and Flame that like we need to we need to turn that on and we need to tell one another man this is how I see Jesus working in you you know what I I I I know that you used

to be someone who really struggled with patience and you would just fly off the handle at any little thing but I saw you interact with a child the other day and you actually like you got down on your knees and you like had a soft conversation with them you didn't just bend them over and start whooping them right in front of everybody like it was amazing like I saw Jesus working in you now if they need to be spanked every once in a while hey I'm just saying their children they have no idea they're just running all the time away from everything but there are

moments where we actually walk in step with the spirit of God and as a church we should encourage one another in that like the conversations and that's why I think when you look at Jesus's conversations with his his disciples throughout the three years not every single conversation starts off with hey idiots once again here you are doing something dumb when you look at Paul's letters to the churches now Galatians he does start out oh foolish Galatians because he's got some some things to work out with them but if you look at the start and the end of the majority of his letters he does the

the the grace sandwich some of the the best ways possible and what I mean by Grace sandwich is when you get down with someone and you talk to someone and you're you just you need to figure out all of the different ways in which they are following Jesus faithfully and call that out in them let them know not so that you're like giving them a reason to boast in themselves but that you're worshiping and honoring Jesus in what you see in them I see Jesus in you in this way and it's amazing and then if there is something that you have to talk about it's

great talk about it but like at the same time pray that they will be willing to hear whatever that thing is and and then just so that you know and they know that that wasn't the only reason why you have that conversation you then again sandwich it with more grace and more lavishing of love and more lavishing of encouragement on the back end of it like if the only thing we ever say to one another is what we see in each other that is sinful you will find a different church I'm just being honest I'll find a different church for that matter if all I

ever hear is everything I do that's wrong man that's awful but if what we always hear from one another is basically for every one hey here's where I see you out of step with the spirit if it's two to one encouragements over that man what a grac driven church we are what a what a safe place we become for one another to be able to fan in the flame that which is following Jesus correctly and and and again Paul is quick to always do that whatever he sees in the churches that's going well he is quick to let them know hey keep doing that keep

running after that like throw more resources at that and at the same time he's also willing to call out what needs to be called out the one thing I will say and actually I saw this in um like one of someone sent it to me in a sermon reel um this last week because I mean let's just be honest let's just call it what it is people love to swap churches when things are difficult let's just be honest when something is lacking in a church people love to go somewhere else to find it until they see that that one has something lacking and then they

go to the next one and then that one has something lacking and then they go to the next one here's the reality every single time Paul talks to the churches about their mess and what needs to be fixed he doesn't encourage the Corinthians to head over to galatia he doesn't encourage the Galatians to go check out the church in Ephesus like never once is anyone encouraged to leave the mess in order to go find something healthier instead all he says is this is your only option you need to stay and figure this out with them and there were some churches that again like if I

came into the church in Corinth and I was like okay everyone is aware that you know Tommy down here on the I was trying to think of a name we don't have we have a Tommy um uh Frank all right we don't have a Frank I think but Frank over here is sleeping with his stepmom and everyone's all right about it like you're actually coming up and preaching that God's grace is so good that Frank's able to sleep with his stepmom all right I'm going to go check out galatia like I'm not staying but what Paul is explaining to them is everyone stays and figures

this thing out with Frank you got to figure this out strengthen your brothers when they fail be there for them to strengthen them that's what like Jesus is looking at Peter knowing Peter is about to fail and is encouraging him to afterwards continue discipling and strengthening them like if you want to talk about Grace like that's insane to me there there's no category for any church that I am aware of right now that someone would come to the leader and say hey just so you know that like I mean let's just put me in the picture right now if you were to come to me

right now and say hey Dwayne's gonna literally deny Jesus publicly three times tonight um but in 40 days he's going to preach a message and 3,000 people are going to get saved there's not a church right now that I'm aware of that would not fire me on the spot even if they knew what was going to come up because failure's failure failure's failure there's no category for restoration there's no category for rebuke there's no category for helping one another out when we sin when we mess up man I'm not saying again this is not a license to just go and do whatever you want this

is seeing the Nitty Gritty of how Grace is worked out amongst a body of Believers that are not perfect that are not perfect Jesus knows Peter's not perfect Jesus knows this isn't the only time that Peter's going to fail so he's not even saying oh and by the way Peter um after you turn back and you strengthen your brothers and after you preach that sermon that saves 3,000 people and then after a week later you preach another sermon that saves 5,000 to 15,000 people um don't worry Paul's going to visit you at some point and he's going to call you out for being a racist

so let's go ahead and add that to your list and let like you're unqualified no in the moment he just says let's deal with this one you're going to deny me three times tonight and when you turn back strengthen your brothers strengthen your brothers why why because Jesus is the one that's helping him Jesus is the one that's prayed for him Jesus is the one that's keeping him and if Jesus is the one saying to all of us that there's nothing you can do that'll make him love you less there's nothing you can do that will separate you from his love there's nothing you can

do that will cause him to cast out then we can't say the same thing to each other what we should be saying is there's nothing you can do that'll make me love you less there's nothing you can do that would cause me to run away from you there's nothing you can do that will shock me to not want to be in relationship ship with you and because that's what Jesus does that's how Jesus speaks to his disciples and we are to be just like Jesus so to sum it up first just because you fail does not mean your faith has failed because if your faith

fails that means Jesus fails and second failure is always an opportunity for Triumph it's the gospel over and over and over again in your life it's the good news that Jesus has already paid the punishment for you so instead of hanging yourself like J Judas did get up and run to God like The Prodigal Son did and God welcomes you he lavishes you with love he strengthens you with a feast of Grace A Feast of Grace that's what God does For Those whom he has given to Jesus and so as we conclude this morning again 1 Corinthians 14 tells us that when we preach the

word of God that there there is a convicting of heart that the Lord does to us and so this might be one of those moments where maybe we've um pushed someone away because of something bad that they've done or something that they've wronged Us in before or something that they've sinned against us I didn't like the way that they talk to me or whatever it is and we've told them you cannot have fellowship with me or you cannot be in relationship ship with me anymore whatever it might be maybe this is one of those moments where we say are we being like Jesus maybe I

need to extend Grace and have a conversation with that person and say I'm sorry that I pushed you away I'm sorry that I did not love you in this dispute or argument or whatever it is that we've experienced but because Jesus loved me when done the worst against him I want to love you I want to love you in this moment this might also be an opportunity where there's someone in the room who has not seen this side of Jesus maybe they still feel like I was the Judas like I'm just I don't follow Jesus I didn't know I didn't follow Jesus I thought I

was following Jesus but I realized I wasn't and this is a moment where we can come to Christ through faith and believe in him for the first time and follow him truly follow him and become one of his Sheep by believing in what he accomplished for us in living the perfect life that we could not live and dying the death that we deserve to die but he did it in our place and then because the wrath of God that was due your sin was instead put on Jesus so that you could now have an eternity with God in heaven in his presence Jesus rose from

the grave three days later because that wrath that you deserve was paid him for maybe you believe that for the first time and today is an opportunity for you to like tell someone I believe that for the first time I believe that and so as we come to this time of communion this is one of the ways that we practice remembering all that Jesus has accomplished for us again in this same meal that Jesus is having this conversation with Simon Peter and explaining to him hey you're going to mess up by the end of the night you're going to deny me three times the reason

why Peter is actually able to be restored 40 Days Later is because of what Jesus is actually about to do by the end of that night in that moment I mean it's literally being played out as Peter is sinning Jesus is paying his penalty for his sin like as he's sinning Jesus is going to the Cross to substitute himself in Peter's place in Peter's place and that's what this meal reminds us of every single week is that though we sin his love is greater though we sin his grace is greater though we sin his forgiveness is greater because he broke his body he shed his

blood he already purchased everything that needs to be purchased so that God can look at you and say I forgive you when you turn again strengthen your brothers we may have sinned this week and this is the the the ongoing Grace over and over and over the gospel again the gospel again we may have sinned this week and right now our hearts feel that just as Peter went out and wept bitterly we might in our souls be weeping bitterly because once again that thing we said we would never do again we've done it again we do this every week to remind you who you are

in Christ that he is keeping you that he is protecting you that he is strengthening you that he is praying for you that your sin and your failure does not give over to your despair but instead becomes a Triumph that you stand out of that you set aside that you nail to the cross that you know that you are already forgiven of it and that you get to stand up and then strengthen your brothers you get to let everyone else know how good Jesus is because of what he's already accomplished for you that's why we do this every week is because it reminds us how

much he loves his bride what he was willing to do for his bride he he broke his body and he shed his blood so let's go aad and stand together we're going to have a moment a time of just reflection a time of response if you believe in Jesus for the first time and you want to let me know I'll be down here to my left your right you can come and tell me as everyone is coming down to grab the elements you will bring them back to your seat take a moment during the song to just do some work with the Lord again if

there's something that you're like I keep doing it over and over I keep sinning bring it before the Lord he's already paid it for you he's already forgiven you tell him how much you loved him just like Peter did three times because he denied him three times tell him how much you love him because he is keeping you he is strengthening you he is praying for you let this be an opportunity for us to do that with him now I invite you to come down get the elements and bring them back to your seat as the band leads us in song e e e e

e e e e for I receive from the Lord would I also deliver to you that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed he took bread and when he had given thanks he broke it and he said this is my body which is for you do this in remembrance of me in the same way also he took the cup after supper saying this cup is the New Covenant in my blood do this as often as you drink it in remembrance of me for as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes father

we thank you so much for this morning we thank you for this opportunity that we've had to just worship your son Jesus to treasure him and to help others follow him as well and Lord that's exactly what you have called us to do you have called us every single day to just treasure