Men of the New Testament: "Peter" by Jeremy Waddell - Part 8

Good evening, everyone. Greg was back here making faces

at me. I had to sit and watch him for a minute. So tonight

I'm going to be covering Peter. That's going to be the person that I picked.

Whenever they sent that list out, I was looking through the list and I thought,

who's going to be the easiest one for me to talk about? Who's going to

be somebody that I can relate to, that everybody's going to know? So there's going

to be tons of comments. And the only thing I'm glad I didn't do is

ask Barrett. Which one he thought because after he did

that to Caden, there's no telling what he would have done to mine. He would

have took mine too. So tonight's going to be Peter.

So hopefully this class, we're going to understand not only who Peter was,

but how God transformed him in his life,

major events of his life, and then some practical lessons

about how we can relate to him, about things that we can

do not only just to learn about him, But I always like to take

all of our Scripture, everything we read— the Bible's for us. The Bible

is for us to learn from, to help us through life,

to help us to understand things. So every time we

have a story about a different person, a different event,

no matter who it is, we need to figure out how can that relate to

us? What can we gain from that? And how's that going

to help us through life? And I feel like Peter, he is probably the most

relatable person in the Bible, for me anyways.

So if you had to describe Peter in one word, what would that be?

Your knowledge of Peter, what would you— how would you describe him in just one

word? Impetuous.

Okay. Impulsive.

Eager. Okay.

Anybody else? What's that?

Bold. Yep. Imperfect.

Those are pretty much my list. Passionate,

forgiving, he was a leader.

All those things, we can relate to those things.

We can be all of those things in some way or another.

Throughout Scripture, we watch him succeed greatly in

things that he does. We watch him fail publicly in in front of everybody.

We watch him repent pretty deeply.

He gets called out pretty good and has to repent.

Then we watch him become one of the greatest leaders of the church, of the

early church. So we can all put ourselves in some way or

another in Peter's shoes at some point or stage in our life.

So let's get into a little bit about who he was, his background, some things

about him. So originally he was named Simon. In John 1:40-42,

John 1:40–42

we'll read that real quick. Uh, one of the 2 who heard John speak and

followed him was Andrew, Simon Peter's brother. He first found

his own brother Simon and said to him, we have found the Messiah,

which is translated the Christ. And he brought him to Jesus.

Now when Jesus looked at him, he said, you are Simon son of

Jonah, you shall be called Cephas, which is translated a stone.

So Jesus immediately, as soon as He saw him, He changed his name. He said,

you're going to be called Cephas. You're going to be called Peter.

That means stone. That means rock-like. Jesus already

knew what Peter could become and He was planning on it.

He was expecting him to do that. Jesus knows

our potential in life long before we do. Long before

we ever figure out our potential, Jesus already knows it.

And he knows how we can use our talents, our abilities,

and the things that we can do. And it's up to us to live up

to that potential. There are characters in the Bible, there are people in the

Bible, there are people in our lives, and maybe it may be us,

that you don't live up to that potential.

You don't repent, you don't return, you don't go back to Christ.

But Jesus knew that Peter was going to be rock-like. He knew that he

was going to be a stone and he was going to be a pillar of

the church. He knew that as soon as he saw him. I think that was

pretty unique there, that first thing he said is, that's not your name

anymore. Now your name's this. This is who you're going to be. I think that

says a lot about Peter and the man that he was and is and

who we're going to read about and learn about. The next

thing, his occupation. He was a fisherman. In Matthew 4:18-20,

Matthew 4:18–20

he was working right alongside his brother Simon. He was working

alongside James and John.

Why is this important to recognize about Peter? Why is this so important to recognize

that he was just a simple fisherman? What does

it— what does being a fisherman require?

I don't know how many fishermen— where's Ethan at? Patience.

What's that?

Yep. Patience, hard work,

teamwork. If you're working on a boat, you got to have teamwork.

Sometimes long hours. You got to depend on each other when you're out there

on the boat. I went deep-sea fishing one time with a bunch of people,

and I tell you what, that's the hardest. I'd like to not made it back.

That's some of the hardest work I believe I'd ever done. It's kind of like

the perfect storm when we got out there. So Peter had to be tough to

go through that. You can ask Kevin. We got a picture of him. I wanted

to put it up on there. He was laid out on the floor. It about

got him. So being a fisherman is tough. You've got to be tough,

dependable, hardworking. Daddy always

said a dairy farmer was like this. A dairy farmer could do anything, not because

he was the smartest, because he had to. He had to be depended

on. He had to get the cows milked. Certain times.

What we do each day with our lives, the attributes

that we possess each and every day, they can, they will,

and they should impact our Christianity.

All of those things that we learn how to do, all the things that we,

we try hard to be good at, that type of mentality should

transfer into our Christianity just like it did his as a fisherman.

Any comments about that before I move on to the next one?

All right, so his family. Peter was married. It says in Matthew

Matthew 8:14

8:14, Jesus healed Peter's mother-in-law,

which means Peter had a wife. It later mentions Peter

traveling with his believing wife in 1 Corinthians 9:5.

1 Corinthians 9:5

So being married not only shows his dedication

It shows he's trustworthy, shows he's loving, caring, patient,

shows he's a leader. All the attributes that I'm sure

all of us husbands in here possess, just like Peter did.

That's what he was. He was a married man.

So I know we ask this question a lot, or make this comment a

lot, but it makes it relatable to each of us.

Why do you think Jesus chose these ordinary fishermen? Rather than these, the religious

scholars of the time.

Do what? That's right, he was going to ordinary

people, so to take— used ordinary people to get to them.

That's true. What other reasons?

Right.

Okay, so basically the Lord can use all of us. He can and does,

no matter our status, no matter what— how others may see us,

no matter what job we have, what we do.

Jesus can use all of us. I don't know about you, but if I'm training

somebody also, I'd like to have somebody that doesn't think they know everything already

if I'm trying to teach them something new. So I think there's a lot of

reasons why Christ used ordinary men

such as fishermen. He looked at the person, not what

the other— what the world saw them as. Um,

right. He taught them everything they needed

to know, right?

That's a good lesson for us too, and we'll get into a little bit of

that, kind of touch on that as well. With Christ, you can do anything

as long as you're keeping your, your eyes on Christ. If your faith is strong,

you can do pretty much anything, and we'll see that here in a few,

few points later on. So the next thing here was

Peter's personality. That was one of the main reasons

that I picked Peter, because I can relate to this guy.

I'm a whole lot like Peter in a lot of ways, and we're going to

see that maybe that's not a good thing all the time.

First thing there, Peter often acted first and thought

later. So we're going to look at some of his qualities that on the surface

seem a little less desirable, but they look familiar.

I know they do to me. So when Peter was walking on water, or Jesus

was walking on water in Matthew 14:28-31,

Matthew 14:28–31

Peter says, Lord, if it's you, command me to come out.

And then Peter actually walks on water. He steps out of the boat with the

waves crashing down. He steps out of the boat and he walks

on water. But then he notices all the things

around him. He notices the wind and the waves and

the crashing. He notices all that and takes his eyes off Jesus.

Faith can become fear when our eyes do leave Christ.

When we turn away from him, when we look the other direction,

when we lose our faith, things can get scary.

A lot of times life is scary, and decisions and choices that we have to

make are hard. But as we were saying, if you keep your eyes on Christ,

it's going to help us through it. And that's where his faith

kind of failed there when he took his eyes off and got to questioning things.

The next one, the Mount of Transfiguration in Matthew 17.

He didn't understand. He wanted to build 3 tabernacles,

one for Jesus, one for Moses, one for Elijah. He speaks up

before he truly understood what he was even saying.

I do that a lot. That's a hard thing. Sometimes you

don't understand everything going on and you want to speak out, you want to voice

your opinion, you want to change things or do your way.

And that's what he did right here. He didn't fully understand what was taking

place or what Jesus meant. And first thing he wanted to do was build

3 temples. When he cut off Malchus' ear

in John 18, he drew a sword, cut off the ear, and then Jesus

has to heal him. Peter was courageous but

sometimes misguided. Sometimes doing

something in the moment is not the best choice.

You need to think about things and try to really understand the situation.

Peter was very Courageous. He was always there to fight.

He was always ready to do something. But sometimes that's not the best thing.

So though on the surface these situations all seem like negative

things, but it causes me to think, what in the world?

What's going on with Peter? How can this be the pillar of

the church? How can this be somebody that is going to preach the first sermon?

How can Jesus call this guy the rock, the stone?

But there's positive qualities in all of these things too.

What are they? Like his impulsiveness that he— that we've talked about here,

what can— what kind of positive things can we bring out of that?

Right,

that was my first point here. His courage. Peter wasn't afraid to step out and

take on the waves, the guards, or anything else that

would stand in Christ's way. He went out of his comfort zone and He was

pretty courageous in a lot of things.

What were some more of them? How can his impulsiveness

be positive things?

Passion. He obviously believed in Christ,

believed deeply in the purpose, believed that this was the Messiah,

this was the chosen one, and that Christ

was the only way to heaven. So he had passion for Christ.

Apathetic, right? And bad things can happen.

He was willing to act. Yep. He had a love for Christ.

No doubt he loved him. No doubt he loved Jesus.

Whenever you do all the things he did, I'll be honest with you, I ain't

stepping out of the boat for nobody. If the waves are crashing down, I can't

swim that great, so I'm not stepping out of the boat. That takes some serious

courage, passion, love, trust. And he had all

those things because of the things that he tried to overcome.

His willingness to act, he was willing to do it. As you said, he was

the only one that did it. He was the only one that took that first

step, good or bad, needed or not,

he was willing to do it. And to me, that's a positive thing.

You got to be willing to get up here and teach class, good or bad.

Somebody's got to be willing to get up here. And a lot of times in

church, in jobs, in family.

We've got to be willing to act. We've got to be willing to, to do

what's needed to, to further the kingdom. And I

think that's who Peter was, and I think he demonstrated that a lot

throughout his life and, and throughout the Bible here.

All right, so the next thing, Peter's greatest failures. We're going to beat on Peter

a little while here. I mean, he's— he did a lot of things that We

probably do too, but we're going to go over some of them. In Luke 22,

Jesus predicts that he's going to deny him 3 times before the

rooster crows. Peter says, I'll never deny you. And he's—

only hours later, he did it 3 times.

He even swears he doesn't know him. So he denies him.

In Luke 22:61, this is almost one of the saddest

Luke 22:61

verses in the Bible, in my opinion.

When the Lord turned and looked at Peter, Peter remembered.

He went out and wept bitterly. This one hits

pretty hard if you really think about this situation, this scenario, what's taking

place, the story.

Jesus told him, you're going to do this. You're going to deny me. You're going

to turn your back on me. You're going to curse. All these things. He said,

I'm not going to do it. No way. But then he did.

And can y'all imagine what that look would be like when Jesus

turns and looks at him? They— my little girls,

they act pretty well. They're pretty well behaved.

They don't do a lot of things wrong. I don't think I've ever had to

whip them because all I gotta do is look at them. And if I look

at them the right way, they know. And I just think about this kind

of— because that's how it was with my daddy. My Papaw, all they got to

do is look at me and I know, hey, I messed up. I did the

wrong thing. So imagine getting reprimanded by Jesus.

Imagine that look that would come from Jesus knowing

that you just did what he said, what you told him, there's no

way I would do that to you. I love you this much. There's no way

that I would deny you.

That's pretty tough when you really think

about it. But Peter overcame that. We're going to

see later on through here, Peter got back up.

Yeah, Peter messed up. Yeah, Peter got called out. Yeah,

Jesus was hurt by this. He denied Jesus.

But failure doesn't always have to be final. Whenever you fail,

you can get back up. Many people quit as soon

as they fail, and then you can't do that. Peter is a good example of

that. Peter repented from what he did.

Judas regretted what he did. And Peter

returned. There's a big difference in that. So what is the difference

between guilt or regret and repentance? I think as

Christians we have to really understand the difference in

these 2 things. What is the difference

in that? Changing direction.

Right. I think that's where a lot of people

in Christianity, in life, in a lot of things get confused.

The difference in, you know, I messed up, I got caught,

I feel guilty for what I did, but repentance is

change, like you said, changing directions and going the other way and doing just

the opposite of what I did. And I

think that's the hardest part. A lot of people can feel guilt. A lot of

people get caught. A lot of times we all sin. We all have things and

shortcomings that we have. But it's that repentance that

brings us back to Christ. It's that repentance that changes us and gets

us back on track. And I think that's where Peter was

different. Than Judas and other people throughout

the Bible. Any more comments or

questions about that?

Right, that's true.

Like I said, we're all going to sin. David and Saul are another perfect example

of that. Saul wasn't sorry. Saul did not

want to turn from it. David did. David saw his wrong. David saw that

What he did was wrong and he repented and turned back just

as Peter did. We need to remember that. You can fail.

You're going to fail. There's no ifs, ands, buts about it.

But it's how you respond to that that changes everything.

That goes back to those attributes of a fisherman— being strong, being dependable,

having to do things on your own. And you could always do that, but spiritually,

sometimes that's hard. That was a new thing for him that he had to

overcome. That's right, I never thought about that.

Anybody else? Okay,

so we're going to move on to Peter's restoration in John 21.

This is going to be after the resurrection of Jesus. Peter is going to meet

Him by the sea out there, another sea. And there is going to be another

miraculous catch of fish.

And as they are eating breakfast, Jesus looks at Peter 3

times and asks him, do you love Me? He asks him 3

different times, do you love Me? And each question corresponds perfectly

with Peter's 3 denials. He just denied Him. Not long before this,

and now he's asking him 3 different times, do you love me?

So Jesus restores him publicly and gives him a mission.

He told him to feed my lambs, told him to tend to my sheep

and feed my sheep. So Jesus didn't merely forgive him.

He didn't just forgive him and say, okay, you're forgiven, let's move on.

He gave him responsibility. He told him what he wanted him to do.

Hey, you're forgiven now, Let's get back to work.

Grace restores people for service.

Whenever— this is a good lesson for us, and I think this is one that

I struggle with. I'm sure you do too. When someone

repents, they're forgiven. When they turn back,

they're forgiven. There's no trial period. There's no,

well, I don't know, that person, we might ought to let them wait a little

bit. If they truly repented and they've said,

hey, I repent, I'm sorry, I'm ready to get on,

there's no trial period. Let's get them back to work. They don't

have to prove themselves again. And that's what Peter did here.

Jesus didn't ask him to prove himself. He didn't ask him to wait and then

later on, hey, we'll figure out something for you to do. He gave him a

job. He got right back to work. Beating on

himself forever. It's like, I didn't—

Peter, right? I don't know why that's specifically go tell Peter too, he wants

me there, right? I don't

know if that always counted, but even if we are repentant of the thing,

right, that tells us this— Peter showed us

that it's still— that's true. A lot of times we are harder on ourselves Even

though we are forgiven, we've repented, maybe others have even forgiven us and moved

on, but we've got to do that for ourselves as well. I think that

goes back to showing just how strong mentally,

physically that Peter was, because like

I said, that look that Jesus gave him, and he repented,

he turned, and he was stronger for it. He kept moving.

And we have to do that for ourselves. We have to forgive ourselves as well.

Anybody else?

So Peter after Pentecost, we're going to kind of summarize a few

chapters that mention Peter, talk about Peter.

He has a lot to do with a lot of these, but we're going to

summarize a few of these. In Acts 2, this is one chapter that we all

know very well. This is where the fearful fisherman

becomes the fearless preacher. He preaches the first sermon here.

The first gospel sermon right after Jesus' resurrection tells everyone

how to be saved. Acts 2:38,

Acts 2:38

about 3,000 souls obey the gospel in this chapter.

That's pretty big. He went from

the things that we've just discussed to now he has preached one

of the— probably the best sermons there ever was.

In Acts 3, he heals the lame man. He starts performing miracles in

these chapters. Acts 5, many more people are

healed. Acts 9, he raises Dorcas, Tabitha, from the dead.

He goes about working hard. He doesn't

take for granted anymore. And he takes the mission that Christ gave him for

real. He takes it seriously. He gets out and gets to work.

In Acts 10, he opens the gospel to the Gentiles here when he talks

about Cornelius. He learns

here that in verse 34 and 35 of Acts

10 that God shows no partiality. There is no partiality in the

church. This became one

of the greatest turning points probably in Christian history right here where

it kind of makes it known it's for everybody. It just gives us another

example of how the gospel salvation is not for a certain set

of people. It's not for certain people. It's for all of us. And that's how

Christ set it up. That's how God wants it to be so that we can

all share in salvation one day.

Any comments about that?

Alright, so getting into some of the letters that Peter wrote.

Y'all may be getting out of here early today. Some of the letters. 1 Peter.

So the theme of this is hope during suffering. Some of the

key verses: 1 Peter 1:3-9, 1 Peter 5:6 and 10.

1 Peter 1:3–9 1 Peter 5:6

Hope through suffering in life, the things we have to endure, the things that we

have to go through. He talks about how we can get

through those things. There is light at the other end of that tunnel.

2 Peter, growing spiritually, warning against false teachers.

So many things that we have to overcome. That he had to

overcome. Just like you said, he's physically a really strong

man, probably. Spiritually, he had some

things to learn. He had some things he had to overcome mentally, spiritually,

to get the way to be that stone, to get where Christ wanted him

to be. 2 Peter talks about that. 2 Peter 1:5-8

2 Peter 1:5–8

talks about faith, virtue, knowledge,

self-control, perseverance, godliness, brotherly kindness, love.

All the things that we need to possess as Christians.

And no doubt, I think he did. I think he possessed those, those characteristics.

He showed them a lot of ways throughout his life and throughout

Scripture here. Then as far as his legacy,

as far as what he leaves behind, what we, what we remember about him and

what lessons that we can learn from him, from his life and

his teaching, One, as we've said, Jesus uses imperfect

people. Peter failed repeatedly, but God still used

him greatly throughout his life in so many different ways. So that needs

to remind us that no matter how many times we fail, no matter how many

times we sin, we can get back up just like he did.

We don't have to regret. We can repent and we can

move on and we can get back to work. We're all imperfect,

just as he was from the very beginning. But God

still uses us just like he did him.

Boldness grows through faith. He was naturally bold,

man. Peter, I'd say he— when he came in a room, you knew it.

I'd say he was one of the louder ones in the room. He was a

pretty bold man, it seemed like. But until his boldness

became Spirit-directed, didn't do Christ any good.

But Christ saw that. He knew some of his talents. He knew who he

was and how he could use him to further his gospel.

His talents and personality became a tool that was used

for good to carry out God's will. We all possess those same things.

We all possess different attributes about our personality,

about our lives, about what we do, about what we can

do, and God can use all of those things in one way or

the other. It's up to us to live up to those potentials.

The next thing, as we've discussed, repentance changes

everything. That changes your whole course of life. That changes everything

about your life if you're willing to repent.

His story, his example,

it could have ended whenever he denied Christ,

whenever Jesus turned and looked at him and

basically said, I told you so. This is what I told you was going to

happen, and that's what you did.

Peter's story could have been over right then. And if

I'm being honest with you, it might have been over for me right then because

that would have been a hard pill to swallow to come back from that.

But quitting, that's the easy way out. That's the easy thing to do is

give up, quit. Hey, you know what? I messed up. I'm done.

Maybe a lot of days we feel like doing that. And you know what,

every now and then we might quit for a little bit, but if we keep

our eyes on Christ, stay focused on that,

once we repent, we're forgiven. Like Joey said,

let's, let's don't beat up on ourselves. Let's get back to work. Let's, let's forget

it and let's move on.

Right, that's true.

You know, uh, you Since you bring that up, I've thought about that a

lot. Like whenever God was talking to the devil about Job,

whenever he said, hey, when you recovered yourself, Jesus was thinking about him.

How many times is— this is all— this is completely off this right here,

kind of. Well, kind of. How many times does God mention our name throughout

the day? How many times does God look down and think about us and say,

he'll get back up, he'll be all right, or we can move on from this,

or Maybe test him a little more or what. I mean, right.

Anyway, that's just something I think about a lot. I wonder if God mentioned my

name today. Did I do anything for God to mention my name today?

I think about that a lot. Anyways, something completely different.

Anybody else on that one?

1st or 2 Timothy 4:17. This is one of my favorite verses:

2 Timothy 4:17

I fought the good fight, I finished the race, I've kept the faith.

I think as long as we can say that almost every day and

at the end of life, I think that's, that's pretty important. I think that's

the, the goal there is to do that.

One more thing there: leaders are servants. Peter eventually

wrote in 1 Peter 5, shepherd the flock of God.

The impulsive fisherman He became a humble servant. He became

a humble shepherd. Everything he had to endure,

he did. And he got through it. And it made him

more humble. It made him a better servant. It made him a better follower

of Christ. He understood the mission. He understood what

it took through the things he had to go through.

Alright, so just kind of a summary there of Peter's timeline.

Matthew 4, he was called by Jesus. That's whenever he

got his name, the rock, the stone.

Matthew 14, walks on water. Matthew 16,

confesses Jesus as Christ. 17,

witnessed the Transfiguration. Luke 22

is when he denied Jesus.

John 21, it's when he was restored by Jesus.

Acts 2, That's when he preached the sermon at Pentecost.

Acts 3, starts healing people. Acts 10,

Cornelius was converted. Acts 12, he was imprisoned

and freed. And then later on in his ministry is when he wrote 1 and

2 Peter and the books that he wrote.

So that's a rundown. That's a summary. That's a kind of an overview of

Peter there. Go ahead. On the legacy,

I think, that he has. In Galatians

2, who had said God's no respecter

of persons, withdraws from the Gentiles when James and the others come from Jerusalem.

And Paul withstands him to the face, dressed him down,

rebuked him. A lot of us don't take that very— we aren't

told in Galatians 2 how he responds, but some of those very

last words that he writes on the second coming, he says, and some of these

things are hard to be understood. And Paul, our beloved brother Paul,

talks about this. This is at the very end of Peter's life.

So instead of holding that against him, you know, being irritated

and causing a schism, he had a forgiving spirit.

And it may have been because Jesus had forgiven him so

freely and so deeply. Right. But for somebody who's impetuous,

you might think they'd be surprised. But that's humility.

Maybe that's why he made such a good shepherd. Right. And that's a legacy I

think all of us— that even when somebody has to tell us enough to be

able to see the bigger picture, resent them. Right. That's a

good point right there. That's— say the same thing, that conflict.

Right. And maintain a strong— despite

that. Right. He felt confident.

Right. So not only was he strong and willing to repent, he was also willing

to forgive. And I think that takes about as

strong a man as the other way of it. Which one? Go ahead.

Right.

Never mentions again, never thinks about it, and keeps rolling.

Right. What do you got, Tommy?

Right. No doubt

that would be tough, and it's tough in the church today. Everybody wants to,

to be recognized, to be seen, to be, hey, I know that guy, or I'm—

I can do this, or I'm this person. It's part of being a

humble servant though. I think that's where we all have to to look

at ourselves and know that, you know what, it ain't about us. It's about Christ.

It's about furthering, furthering his gospel,

his message, and it's not about us no matter

what. And there could have been some of that. There could have been some jealousy.

There could have been, but we don't know that. We just know

that he was a humble guy. He was a strong person

that, that Christ chose to build the church

on to, to help further things.

Yeah, he was right.

That's

right. That's what he did, and that's what we're supposed to. So some questions

here. You can answer if you want. But ask yourself these questions, and if

you don't want to answer, that's fine, but answer them to yourself about yourself.

What ways are you most like Peter? And all the things we've talked about here

about his personality, the man he was,

the things he did— are you more like his negative

things, his positive things? Do you use your negative things for

positive? What ways are you most

like Peter. Kevin, I guess he knows

me well enough, the first thing he said was impulsive. I guess whenever I said

I'm relatable to Peter, not to Kevin, but to Peter,

I guess that's the first thing he thought of was impulsive. That's how I am,

man. I'm ready to jump. Well, I know you were,

but I'm relatable. I'm pretty relatable to Peter. I'm pretty—

not repulsive, impulsive. Get up here.

I'm gonna get my words turned around here in a minute. Go ahead, Rod,

you start talking before I say something. We ask ourselves,

I guess my— how am I not like— at

the end of John's Gospel, he said in this book, and I always—

right, more information. What I'd really like to know,

we don't have much about that in Acts 1. What went

on in Peter's mind between that conversation with Jesus and

the time he delivered later such an effective leader? I don't know about that.

Yeah, I'm aggravated at John. I'm also aggravated

at Luke. Tell me more. You can voice that when you get to heaven,

Roger. Come, you needed to know more. But yeah,

he definitely, from the time he had that conversation and Jesus gave

him basically, hey, this is what I want you to do, feed my sheep,

tend to my flock, all that stuff, um, to go and he

took it seriously. I mean, when he gave him that command, when he gave him

that that job, he went at it hard,

right?

That's true. He swam all the way, didn't he?

Yeah, he didn't learn his lesson too well on a few things, did he?

Or just observe, he has to just blur that in a lot of ways

too. I'm right there with you. Alright, a couple

more. What fears keep

you from boldly serving Christ? Think about your fears.

Think about all the fears that he probably had starting out. They didn't

keep him from serving. They didn't keep him from trying to do what was right

for the furtherance of Christ. But think about your fears

and how to overcome them. Um, how has

God used your weaknesses to strengthen your faith?

Think about your weaknesses that you have in

the church, in your abilities,

maybe in your willingness to do things.

And how's this— how can you strengthen your faith with that? How can

God use those things to strengthen your faith? And I think it's just

where we've got to do what we need— know we need to do,

try to live up to that potential that we know we have.

And then let's see, biggest thing

right here: what does Peter's restoration— whenever

they were on that beach and basically Jesus publicly restores

Peter— what's that teach us about extending grace to others?

We need to remember that, that Right here, this is

Jesus, this is the Son of God that got denied, that got

beaten, hung on the cross, died,

and yet he still restored Peter.

He showed him grace. He loved him.

He didn't hold it against him. He put him to work. He gave him a

job. What does that tell us about

when somebody does us a little wrong or somebody hurts our feelings or somebody says

something? We ought to be showing that same grace to everyone.

If we're going to be like Christ, and that's the goal, that's what we're

supposed to be, we're supposed to be like Christ in all things,

we need to be showing that same grace to those around us in

the church, in family, in our jobs,

throughout life. That's our job, that's our mission.

That may be one of the hardest things that we have to overcome is extending

that same grace to those around us.

Alright, so a couple takeaways here. Obviously Peter was an ordinary fisherman transformed.

He was one of the greatest shepherds, servants, preached the

sermon, did it all. Just an ordinary fisherman. His failures,

they didn't define him. His repentance did.

He became a courageous leader who preached Christ despite persecution,

despite all the things he had to go through. He kept the faith.

He kept moving forward. His life demonstrates that

God, as we've said, uses imperfect people. He uses

everybody no matter what. We can get that from Peter's life.

Peter's journey reminds us that faith is not about never

failing. It's about continually trusting

Christ, repenting when we fail, and faithfully following

him. We're all going to fail. It's just a matter of how we respond to

it. We all need to repent. We all need to stay on the straight

and narrow. We're not going to do it every time, but we can get back

on the right path through repentance. So a

scripture to close us with, 1 Peter 5:6-7.

1 Peter 5:6–7

We've got a song we sing, humble yourselves under the mighty

hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you, casting all

your anxieties on him. Because he cares for you. He loves you.

Man, that verse, you could almost sing that song and say that verse every day.

Humble yourselves in the sight of God, and he'll lift you up.

He, he'll take care of you in all things.

So Peter's life wasn't a story about a man that never failed. It was

a story about a disciple who kept getting back up, kept staying on

the right path, kept following Christ.

That's all I got. Thank you all.