Jesus’ Last Day and Our New Year: Failure and Forgiveness

Do you love me?

Do you love me?

Tend my sheep.

Feed my sheep.

We're all on a journey.

God is meeting us at different places on that journey.

Some of us are doing really well.

Some of us kind of wonder what we're doing.

I have to tell you that for me, part of the journey, the hardest part of the journey sometimes is being a dad and a father.

I feel like, especially in these last couple weeks, I've been learning over and over and over what it means to fail.

I know we don't like talking about failure in Hong Kong, but I've been learning that.

You know, it's easier when you're a single person, if you're honest.

Now, you singles are going to hate me for saying this, but it was easier when I was a single person than when I failed.

Because when I failed as a single person, it was my roommate.

We just kind of looked at each other and went, okay, let's grab a beer.

You want TV?

Yeah, okay.

Now, I know it's different with girls because guys can do that, but girls, there's something inside of girls,

and they kind of, my girls are telling me, you know, they X each other out, and they're no longer friends and things like that.

But that's not true with guys.

Guys, you can just, you can just, you can be a jerk, and you can be selfish, and you can fail,

and the next minute you're good friends with each other.

But you know, when you're a dad, and you're a husband, sometimes failures are a lot harder.

Because you don't just see it in yourself as a single person, but you see it in the mirror of your spouse.

You see it in the mirror of your children.

You see the failure.

You see the brokenness.

You see the depth of what you do and how it affects other people.

Man, last, yesterday, I failed big time.

And this is a fear.

Sometimes we get up to preach because we worry that, I grew up in a church where I looked at the pastor.

I thought, well, he's perfect.

There's nothing wrong with that guy.

He's perfect, and I can never be like him.

And you know, that's my greatest fear that you would think about that, like, for any of us here.

Because we're not perfect.

Because when you're perfect, and then you do make mistakes, you never forgive that person.

And so yesterday, I was trying to be a good dad, and I went to my kid's basketball game.

And in their basketball games, there was a tournament all day long.

And I was part of that tournament, and I was watching, and I wanted to encourage them in their games.

Because they had just lost, both of them, Becca and Kip had just lost a game.

And in the middle of this, I went to them, and I said, well, how are you doing, and what's going on?

And within 20 minutes, both of them were crying.

By how I asked them questions, and what I expected of them.

And I was just passionate.

Okay, you got to do this, and you got to block the ball more, and you got to get in there.

When that guy comes in there, you step in there.

And what I saw as good and wanting to encourage them, they saw as criticism.

And I walked away just saying, man, I'm a loser.

I failed.

You know, you worry about that sometimes.

And one of the things I continue to learn in this journey that we're on is that God, for his children,

God is doing everything he can to get us to take our eyes off of ourselves and to put our eyes on him.

One of the things I'm learning in my journey is that God is doing everything.

He's taking everything.

He's taking the failures.

He's taking the success.

Sometimes he has to take the failures because they're more powerful than the success.

But he's taking everything that he can to take our eyes off of ourselves and to put our eyes on him.

And that's what this passage is all about, putting our eyes on him.

If you've been with us for three weeks now, we've been looking at this series called Jesus' Last Day and Our New Year.

And we've been talking about these things that are happening in Jesus' Last Day and how we can apply them to our new year.

We said two weeks ago that we need to, as we go on our journey, make sure that we live our lives in light of eternity.

That the now is not our home.

That now is not our final destination.

That the present is temporary.

And that if we don't live in light of eternity, we will always have unrealistic expectations of people.

People will always be failing us.

And we will always be failing ourselves.

That we will lose perspective if we live for the here and now and think that this is our home.

We said last week that as we go on this journey this year, that success, that we're going to be challenged to produce success in our work and in our homes and in our environments.

But we said that there's two types of success.

There's a worldly success and there's a kingdom of God success.

And we said that the kingdom of God success is measured in serving.

In serving other people.

We said that our pride and our ambition are going to prevent us from doing that.

But we will ultimately find success in God's eyes if we serve people.

Not if they serve us.

I challenge you to think about how are we equipping our children?

How are we educating our children?

Are we educating our children so that a lot of people will serve them?

In God's word that says they would be a failure.

Are we educating our children so that they will serve other people?

In God's word that says that's greatness.

That's success.

And today we come to this passage and we're just walking through the book of Luke like we've been doing for three years now.

So we've been in Luke for three years.

We're at Luke 22.

We're finishing it off.

And we come to this passage in Jesus' life.

And we think about this new year.

And this passage is all about failure.

If you look at it, really.

I mean, if you go deeper, it's about something greater than failure.

But it's about failure.

And I realize that in Hong Kong, we don't like to talk about failure.

I mean, we live in a culture and a world that doesn't accept failure.

I mean, sometimes I walk down the streets and I think of that Top Gun movie.

You know, and they're in Top Gun and Welcome to Top Gun.

And oh, yeah, by the way, there's no points for second best.

And I think that's what Hong Kong is kind of like.

There are no points for second best.

But you have to succeed.

I mean, we don't want to talk about failure unless it's somebody else's failure.

And we only want to talk about our failure if it wasn't fully our fault that somebody else caused us to fail.

But what we don't realize is that the Bible is a book of failures.

Did you realize that?

That the Bible is a book about people who are failures.

Men and women who go on these journeys, and on these journeys, they make these massive, horrendous mistakes.

They do things that destroy people's lives.

They destroy history.

I mean, they're just failing.

And all amongst that, we have this God who's passionately and unrelentlessly pursuing us.

Because he loves us so much.

His mercy's poured out.

His grace is poured out.

And we come to this passage today, which is probably the greatest failure in the New Testament.

You probably didn't know that.

But it is probably the greatest failure you're going to see in the New Testament.

We put together about four or five different verses from different Gospels.

Because this is a very complex story in this telling this failure story.

But it's the last night of Jesus' life.

It's Good Friday.

Jesus has had the ceremony.

He's washed your feet.

And we talked about it last week because everybody was arguing about who's the greatest.

They've gone to the east of Jerusalem from the upper room.

They've gone, and they're in the garden of Gethsemane.

And they're worshiping.

And Jesus comes to his disciples and says, hey, you guys, you need to pray.

Make sure you're praying.

Because something bad is going to happen.

Make sure you're praying.

Make sure that you're praying and you're trusting the Lord.

Make sure that you're praying and taking your eyes off of yourself and you're putting your eyes on God.

Because something big is going to happen.

Something major is going to happen.

The soldiers show up with Judas and they take Jesus and they pull him away.

And as you read in this story, they go to the southern part of the gates of the city where there's this house.

And you could go there if you go back with us to Jerusalem and Israel in two years.

It's Caiaphas' and Ananias' house.

And in this house is this elaborate structure.

And then there's this courtyard that's spread out there.

And we're told that Jesus is taken to the second room and he's questioned by the government officials and by the religious officials.

And as he's being questioned there, we're told that he's being asked, are you the Messiah?

He's being beaten.

He's being spit upon.

He's being mocked.

He's being hit over his head.

They're doing everything to humiliate him.

And in the courtyard down below, we're told in this passage that Peter comes in.

It's really cold.

They start a fire.

And he sits down there and he starts to warm himself.

He starts to warm himself.

And as he's listening to these things, he realizes what's going on in the upper room.

He realizes that Jesus is being tortured and beat.

And he's thinking about that.

And I wonder what he's thinking about.

And the passage says to us, this is what happens.

This is what happens on Peter's greatest night.

This is Peter's greatest failure.

And there's three things I think we can look at and learn from this.

And we're just going to talk about them.

I know this is the beginning.

We've said that we're on a journey.

And Watermark's purpose is to help everybody take the next step.

Not to get to the goal.

Not to get it all in your head.

But the next step.

And so as you look at this passage, the next step, what I want us to talk about, think about, are three things.

About failure.

The first thing is this passage says really clearly that we're all going to fail.

That we're all going to make mistakes.

That we're going to fail in massive ways this new year.

And you know what?

The passage says that God knows it.

And not only does God know it, but he expects it.

The second thing we're going to learn from this passage is that God doesn't allow us to stay in our failures.

But God does something amazing with our failures.

He takes our failures and he covers them in his grace.

He takes our mistakes and he covers them in his blood.

And the third thing we're going to learn here is that even though that we today, this year, the rest of our life, we're going to fail God.

We're going to see in this passage that God never fails us.

God never fails you.

So let's look at the passage.

First we see in this passage in verses, we see this idea that Jesus knows that Peter is going to fail.

We see it in verse 31 of Luke 22.

Jesus predicts to him, he says, this is what's going to happen.

And we see it happen in verse 60.

I mean, the passage says several times that you're going to fail, you're going to fail.

And he says there's several things involved in that failure.

Did you read the passage?

Would they listen to it when they read it out loud?

He says first that there's going to be this demonic component.

That as you and I walk through our days today, the devil is trying to slip us up.

The devil is actively involved in throwing things against us.

The Greek words to sift actually means to tear apart.

And so he says here that as we go through our day, there's this demonic component.

And the devil is active in God's people.

Now, I don't know what you think about that.

I know that there are a lot of people who don't believe in the devil.

And there are a lot of people in church who don't believe in the devil.

But you know, Jesus believes in the devil.

The Bible talks a lot about satanic and demonic activity.

And in this passage, we see that often our failures happen because of these things.

It's important to note that the devil has to go to Jesus and ask permission.

As God's people, the devil never comes into our life and just starts tearing it up.

But God is in control.

I mean, the Bible basically says that everybody works for God.

Even the devil.

So there's this demonic component that we need to be praying about and thinking about

and realizing that there's things in our lives that are going to try to trip us up.

The second thing we see is that there's this Tobin or Peter component.

And it's called pride.

And we see in this passage over and over in verse 33 and Mark 14, 31,

that Peter continually denies it.

He says, there's no way.

I'm not going to fail you.

This is not going to happen.

I'm stronger than this.

I'm going to die for you.

I mean, Peter is basically, in the Greek, he's basically swearing an oath.

He's swearing an oath to Jesus.

And he's saying in this oath, I am with you until the end.

I'm never going to let you down.

I'm never going to fail you.

I'm totally confident.

I mean, what you see in this passage is that Peter is totally confident in his strength.

He's totally confident in his ability.

He's totally confident in his education.

He's totally confident in his loyalty, like a lot of us are.

He's totally confident in that he's going to be able to do it.

Remember, Peter was a strong one.

Remember when Jesus walked to them on the water?

Peter was the one who said, hey, I want to get out there with you.

Can I go with you?

And Peter says, bid me come and I'm going to come.

And so he had courage.

He had strength.

He knew and understood that he could do this.

But what we see in this passage is something really interesting.

That often when we fail, we're going to fail in our strength.

Often when we fail and we make bad choices, we're going to make bad choices and we're going

to fail in our competence.

I mean, it's true of Peter.

He said, no way.

I'm going to be there.

I'm strong.

I'm going to be confident.

I'm going to be there to the end.

And in that strength, he fails.

The Bible says a lot about people failing.

I mean, Moses was told that he was the meekest man among men.

Meekness meant strength under control.

But when we read Moses' life, he loses his control.

He kills the Egyptian and he goes on the run.

He loses it at his greatest strength.

Abraham was the father of faith.

He left everything to go to the new land.

But then we're told he gets to this new land and the Pharaoh really likes his wife.

And he's worried about, is he going to live or is he not going to live?

And so he tells the Pharaoh that the wife is his daughter, his sister.

And he fails.

He fails at his greatest strength, which is faith.

David does the same thing.

David is a man after God's own heart.

What does David do?

A man after God's own heart.

David doesn't follow God's heart.

He's up in his building, in his house, when kings should go to war.

He looks down and he sees a woman.

He lusts after her.

He commits adultery.

They have a child.

And he ends up killing the lady's husband.

His strength was his heart for the Lord.

And in his strength, he fails God.

They all fail in their strengths, not their weaknesses.

I mean, we think that we're going to fail in our weaknesses.

We think, well, I've got to watch out for this because I'm not very good at this.

I've got to watch out for this because I've got to be reading the Bible more.

I've got to be praying more.

These are some weaknesses I have.

I've got to do these things.

But the scripture says that where we're going to fail this week, where we're going to fail this year,

where we're going to fail in our lives are in our greatest strengths.

Because sometimes in our greatest strengths, we just don't think about those things.

I mean, they're unguarded.

We don't worry about those things.

And so we see this passage of Peter talking about his strength and talking about his strength,

but he doesn't realize how weak he really is.

He doesn't realize how weak he really is.

So the question we have to ask ourselves today as we go into this new year is,

what is our strength?

What are we competent in?

What are we good in?

I mean, what are we sure that there's no chance of anything bad happening in this area?

What are we saying that I got this handled?

Don't worry about that because I'm really good in this area.

And the passage says, and the Bible says it,

in that area is where we're going to fail.

And we need to be very careful of that.

Luke 22, 54 through 62 tells this amazing story.

And in this story, Peter is in the courtyard,

and they've set up this charcoal fire, and they're burning this.

And Peter is surrounded by people.

I mean, we know that Jesus is upstairs.

We don't know exactly what the upstairs looks like.

There's probably a window or some podium up there that he can see them.

But he's downstairs, and in the middle of this time,

he's warming himself up there.

And we're told in the passage in verse 56,

this little girl comes to him, and she says,

aren't you one of them?

Strength.

Peter says, no way.

In fact, in the Greek, he says, I do not know him.

I know him not.

Sam, I am.

I know him not.

A little time goes.

It's interesting because some of the transcripts say,

the minute he said that, a rooster crowed one time.

Kind of like a kick countdown.

We're told he goes on a little while longer,

and all of a sudden, another person, another girl,

comes to him, and she asks him the same question.

She says, hey, aren't you one of them also?

No, no, no, no, no.

I'm not.

No, not me.

I'm not that.

I don't even know him.

And then an hour later, we're told,

in verse 58 and in verse 60,

someone comes to Peter and says, don't you know him?

And you're dressed like him.

You sound just like him.

You got this big hat on.

You're slopped up with suntan lotion.

You're saying good day in water.

Surely you're an Australian.

No, I'm not an Australian.

Australian.

The passage says, they look at him, and they say,

I had to put that in there for my Australian friends.

But you see the irony?

Because the people look at him, they see how he's dressed,

they see his accent, they know what he's saying,

and they say, surely you're one of those people.

And then in verse 60, the Bible,

the Bible says something that it doesn't want us to hear.

I mean, in Mark, the words are so harsh

that when they translated it,

they were worried that we would be offended by it.

And it says that when Peter denies Jesus the third time,

he actually calls down curses on Jesus.

He starts cussing Jesus out.

The language is very specific.

It means he amathetizes him.

He says, may Jesus be cursed.

Basically, the wording says that he's doing this

so that he is in fear of his life.

He doesn't want to be associated with him.

He wants to show everybody that he's not one of the disciples.

It's a massive and public display that I'm not with him.

No, I don't know him.

Pliny, who is a Roman historian,

one day was talking to the Emperor Trajan.

The Trajan came to him and said,

we're having this trouble with all these Christians.

And the problem is we can't tell if people are really Christians or not.

How do we tell if a person is really a Christian?

In Pliny and his writings, you can go back and read it.

He says, this is what you do.

You stand them before you,

and you ask them three times,

do you know Jesus?

Do you know Jesus?

Do you know Jesus?

And he says, if they say no,

the final thing you need to do is you ask them to curse Jesus.

Because a Christian, a follower of Christ,

will never, ever curse Jesus.

And if they can curse Jesus,

you know that they are not a follower of Christ.

Peter curses Jesus,

and we're told in the passage immediately,

a rooster crows.

I think about this often.

Can you imagine being there in the courtyard?

Can you imagine what Jesus looked like?

Beat up, bruised, face swollen, blood coming out.

And the passage says that somehow,

immediately after Peter said, no, I do not know him,

somehow, Jesus' face met Peter's face.

Whether Peter looked up,

and he saw Jesus up there,

and he saw this,

or Jesus walked by the courtyard

being carried off to somebody else.

But it says somehow,

Peter met Jesus' face.

And in those wordings,

it says Peter said,

failure.

failure.

What it says in the Greek is that Jesus looked at him,

and loved him.

He had concern for him.

He had compassion on him.

He worried about him.

One commentator says this in his whole story.

He says this,

and I think it's very interesting.

He says that Mark wrote this way,

because he wanted us to see

that every day,

and in every setting of our lives,

we're on trial.

And the question is,

will we be a witness

for Jesus?

He says every day we give an oath.

Every day we give an oath,

and we show people,

and tell people who we are following.

We give an oath at home,

by our actions,

in our words.

We give an oath in our family,

by how we care,

and love,

and serve.

We give an oath at work,

by what kind of workers we are.

We give an oath at lunch.

We give an oath on the computer,

when we're trying to decide,

should we look at things,

or not look at things.

And the passage says,

and the question is,

will we be identified with Jesus?

Will we speak up for the truth,

no matter what the cost?

Will we say,

yeah,

I follow him?

or will we swear an oath

to somebody else?

The passage says here,

that Jesus saw Peter,

Peter failed.

And the passage says,

that you and I

will also fail.

You and I will also fail.

The next thing we see in this story

is that,

the passage shows us

that God wants us to do something,

he wants to do something amazing

in our failures.

I mean,

I've been thinking about this

for a long time,

it's taken me about 30 years

to get my head around this.

I'm still trying to think about it,

I was worried about how

I was going to share this,

would it make any sense?

But it seems to me,

in this passage,

in all the Bibles,

that God wants to do something

incredible with our failures.

I mean,

in verse 32,

he says,

Peter,

once you have turned,

then go strengthen

your brothers and sisters.

In verse 15 and 16

and 17

of John 22,

he says,

feed my sheep,

feed my lambs,

tend my sheep.

And what I think

this passage is teaching us,

and what the Bible

continually teaches us,

and what I think

is so hard

for most of us

in Hong Kong

in this day and age

to understand,

is that every time

we fail,

every time we sin,

every time we stumble,

I mean,

everything that we do

in our lives,

God

takes that

and he does

something amazing

for his purpose

and plan

for our lives.

I mean,

the passage says

that God

uses even our failures,

even our sin.

He uses all of these things

to show his glory

and his grace

and he continually

comes to us

as his children

and he does amazing things

when we're at our worst.

Have you ever thought

that before?

I didn't.

I mean,

I came to Christ

and his gospel

and that's great

and the rest of my life

I kept living my life

to earn favor

and earn points with God.

And if you were to ask me

what my life was like,

it would be this big bucket.

And I kept filling stuff

in this bucket

with good deeds

and good things I did

and things I accomplished

and hoping that I'd get

this bucket high enough

that God could use me.

But then I make a mistake.

Then I treat somebody poorly.

Then I look at something

I shouldn't look at.

Then I do something

I shouldn't do.

Then I date somebody

that I shouldn't date.

Then I just am mean to people

and things get poured

out of that bucket.

And I feel gross.

And I feel worthless.

And I feel useless.

And I think that's the way

most of us feel.

I think most of us,

if we're really honest,

we feel like we have to produce

and do

and be

add to

what Christ has already done

in our life.

And if we don't do that,

if we fail,

if we make a mistake,

then

we're not useful anymore.

But the passage says

that Jesus

takes our failures

and he covers them

with his grace.

and he does something amazing

in our lives.

The passage says

that our failures

are never for our destruction.

As God's children,

our failures are never meant

for our destruction.

I mean,

it might feel like that sometimes.

It might feel like

when we make mistakes

that God has his hand against us,

that nothing's going on,

that we're in trouble,

that we have no hope.

that these trials

and temptations

are hitting us

and they're unnecessary.

But the scripture says

that all of these things

God is using

in your life.

And what he wants to do

is he wants to take

those mistakes.

He wants to take your failure.

He wants to take your sin.

And he wants to wrap them

in his grace.

And he wants to develop

something incredible

in us.

How do you feel about that?

When you hear that,

is that good news?

That's making you

kind of uncomfortable.

Because you feel like,

well, I got to do something.

I got to perform.

I mean, if I don't,

if I don't do the right thing,

God's not going to love me.

God's not going to use me.

God's not going to be

happy with me.

God's not going to bless me.

I think often

so many people in Hong Kong

walk around

with this massive fear

that they don't do

the right thing.

God's not going to bless them.

And if they're being blessed

and it's proof

that they're doing

the right thing,

this passage says,

no way.

No way.

No way.

The passage says

that God takes our failures

and he does something

incredible in our life.

The psalmist says it this way.

The psalmist said

that even when I fall down,

even when I fall down,

it's not for my destruction

because God

has a hold of my hand

and he wants to do

something amazing in my life.

Seven times

a righteous man falls down

and seven times

he's picked up.

How is he picked up?

By his own strength?

He's picked up by God

because God comes amongst him.

I mean, think about it

in this passage.

If Peter hadn't failed,

what would have happened?

I mean, because Peter failed,

he knows now

that he can't trust himself.

He knows now

that he can't trust his strength.

He knows now

he can't trust his pride.

Because Peter failed,

he has this massive understanding

of the depth

and breadth

of God's grace.

He understands forgiveness.

He understands restoration.

He understands redemption.

If he hadn't failed,

he would probably not understand

those in the same way.

Now, I'm not telling you

to go fail

so that you get more

of God's grace.

I mean, Romans says that, right?

He says,

how can we continue to sin?

May it never be

because we understand

God's grace and mercy.

But what we need to understand

is that God

takes our failures.

He takes our mistakes

and he wants to do something

amazing in our lives.

But often when we fail

and we make mistakes,

we just kind of walk away

and we give up.

And we don't realize

that God is working

and that his grace

is being poured out

in our life.

Because Peter failed,

he's different.

The passage says,

because he failed,

he's different.

And now,

God says to him in John 21,

because you failed,

because you've experienced change,

because you've experienced grace,

because you've experienced mercy,

now I want you to lead my people.

Because all these things

have happened to you,

now I want you to go do it.

Because now I know, Peter,

you're not going to be prideful.

I mean, you're going to continue

to struggle with that,

but every time you do,

you're going to hear

this roaster crow in your ear

and you're going to look up

to this upper room

and you're going to see

Jesus' face swollen.

You're not going to be perfect,

but you're going to continue

to struggle.

But every time you struggle,

now you're going to hear

that rooster.

Because Jesus came to Peter

in his favor,

God used Peter in mighty ways.

So the question I have for us

is this.

How do we respond

to God's grace and forgiveness

when we fail?

When you fail today,

this week,

one month from now,

how do you respond

to this passage?

Maybe another question is this.

how do you respond

when other people fail you?

When people who love you

the most

fail you?

When people who love you

the most

betray you?

When people who you expect

a lot out of

because they are the rock

and they're going to lead

everybody.

What do you do

with grace and mercy

when other people

in your life fail you?

The passage says

that Jesus wants to show us

that he will take

our failures.

He will take our sins.

He's going to cover them up

with his grace

and mercy

and he's going to do

something amazing

in our life.

The question is

will we let him do that?

Will we let him do that?

Finally,

the passage says

that

even though we fail

Jesus,

Jesus never fails us.

In Luke 22,

54 through 61

we see this story

of Peter

after he fails

in the courtyard

and Jesus is on the

second floor

and he's being beaten.

he looks to him

and in that look

we see love,

we see compassion,

we see concern.

In Luke 22

at the very beginning

in verse 32

we see this statement

that says

Peter,

I have prayed

for you

that your faith

may not fail.

Do you realize

right now

that Jesus

is praying for you?

Do you realize

right now

that the passage

says,

the scripture

says that

Christ is in heaven

and the word

is intercede.

He represents you.

He is a law term.

He steps in front of you.

Jesus is here.

God is here

and you're here.

And when God

looks at us

to see our sin

and our mistakes

and our failures,

Jesus basically says

he steps in front.

God.

And so when God

looks at us

he sees his son.

And the passage

says in Luke 22

that Jesus

continually,

continually,

1 John says

Jesus continually,

continually.

Jesus is before God.

He speaks

about us

to God.

He represents us

to God

and no matter

how much we make mistakes,

no matter how much

we fail,

no matter how much

we disappoint

those around us

that we will never

disappoint him

because he just shows

his scars

and his blood.

And God says

forgiven.

Forgiven.

C.S. Lewis

said it this way.

He said

a really interesting quote.

He said that

though our feelings

come and go,

Jesus' love for us

does not.

Jesus' love for us

isn't worried

or wearied

by our sins.

His love for us

isn't indifferent

because we're indifferent.

But Jesus' love for us

is relentless

and is determined.

He is determined

that he will remove

the curse

of sin

from our lives

no matter

what it takes

in our lives

and no matter

what it takes

in his life.

He is determined

to remove

the curse

of sin

in our lives

no matter

what it takes

in our lives

no matter

what it takes

in his life.

Finally,

we see in John 21

at the charcoal fire.

It's at this charcoal fire

that Jesus

meets Peter.

Remember,

Peter's failed him

three times

and he's wandered off.

And it's in this charcoal fire

that we see

forgiveness,

we see repentance,

we see renewal,

we see forgiveness.

And the question is

because the passage

is really clearly

and the rest of the text

is really clear

that God has a charcoal fire

for us.

and he's asking us

to join him there.

He's asking us

to come before him

and to receive forgiveness.

He's asking us

to come before him

and to repent.

He's asking us

to come before him

and to confess.

He's asking us

to come before him

and be renewed

in our lives.

In the passage

he says

no matter how badly

we've failed,

no matter how much

we've messed up,

if we've messed up

like Peter's pride

in cursing Jesus

or we've messed up

at the workplace

by not speaking up

when we should have

or maybe we've messed up

as a dad

who's been a little

too passionate

at a basketball game.

The passage says

that no matter

how bad

we've failed God,

that God

will not fail us.

and the question is

will we meet him there

and experience

his forgiveness?

Will we experience

his redemption?

Or will we walk

through life

oh man,

I made a mistake,

God can never use me.

There's two ways

you do it, right?

Either you go

oh I made a mistake,

God can never use me,

I'm going to go hide

in my hole for a while

and then there's

the other way

like some of us do,

I made a mistake,

so what,

God's going to forgive me.

Both of those

are wrong, right?

There's a third way

and that third way

is out of charcoal fire

where we see

a Savior

who shed his blood

for us.

The passage says

that this year

you're going to fail

a lot.

The passage says

that God takes

our failures

and more often

than not

he does something

amazing in those

failures.

Even when we cannot

believe it

and we want to

run and hide.

It's in the failures

of our life

that God changes us.

The passage says

that even if we

make mistakes

over and over

and even if we

forsake God,

God

will never

forsake his children.

the big component

of failure

is forgiveness.

In your chair,

I put a little

three by five card

and I think

on this card

because I don't

have one with me,

it says something

like this.

How do you need

to ask God

for forgiveness

in your life

this year,

today?

I think the second

question says

something like,

who do you need

to ask for forgiveness

for in your life?

The third question

says,

who do you need

to forgive?

My experience

in Hong Kong

with Tobin

who grew up

in a shame-based

family and culture

that often

the hardest question

for me to answer

is the third one.

Who am I going

to forgive?

Because when people

let me down,

I want them

to know it.

The passage says

we have a Savior

who's not like that.

He pours out

grace in our lives.

I'd like for you

to sit down

in your chair

and just think

about those

three questions

and I'll come back

up in a minute

or two

and I'll close

this off.

The passage says

in the house

there's two trials

going on.

It's a trial

of an innocent man

on the second floor.

He's being accused

of things

that he's not

guilty of.

There's a trial

of a guilty man

on the courtyard.

He's being accused

of things

that he is

guilty of.

One of the men

denies everything.

It's not me.

It's not my fault.

It's not my fault.

The innocent man

says

yes.

One of the men

denies

the innocent man.

The innocent man

will never

deny you.

He will never

deny you.

As his children

he will never

give up on you.

You're going to

fail this year.

God knows that.

God wants to

take that failure

and do something

amazing

in you

and all the people

around you.

and he loves

you so much

that he's not

going to let you

stay where you're

at.

He's doing

amazing work

in your life.

It's called

grace.

It's called

mercy.

It's called

love.

The question

is will we

accept that

or will we

say no?

Father we

know that

there are

people in

here who

on their

journey

they haven't

taken a

step with

you and

they're

wondering

maybe what

some of

these things

are about

and they

don't feel

like they

need

forgiveness

and they're

not that

bad of a

person and

they're really

not that

bad but

when we

compare

ourselves

to a

holy God

we're all

really

guilty

and failures

and I pray

for my

brothers and

sisters who

are on that

part of their

journey.

They would

ask somebody

around them

what it

means to

experience

grace.

What does it

mean to

forgive?

What does it

mean to be

forgiven?

What does it

mean to love?

And to know

that we have a

God who never

gives up on us.

He never fails

us.

He never lets

us down.

Father for the

rest of us who

are on this

journey that

we've come to

the fire for the

first time and

we've invited you

into our life but

we've just

we've grown

cold.

We've grown

distant.

We've forgotten

the look.

We've forgotten

the rooster.

We've forgotten

mercy.

We've forgotten

grace.

We've forgotten

love.

And we just

wander.

Lord we need

you.

We just come

before you and

just ask your

forgiveness.

We beg your

forgiveness.

We repent of

our selfishness

and our

self-servingness

and our pride

and our

self-reliance

and all those

strengths that we

count on to

make it through

our day every

day in Hong

Kong.

We repent that

we have our

focus on

ourselves and

we don't have

our focus on

you.

And Lord we

just ask that

we would

that you would

use all these

things to help

us put our

focus back on

you.

Father we pray

for our

church that we

would be a

church that's

not focused on

ourselves that

we're focused on

others that we're

focused on your

son.

Help us to love

the people well

that we come in

contact with today

and at our work

tomorrow.

Help us to

realize even

amongst the

failures and the

backstabbing and

the things that

they've done to

us that you've

done and you've

taken all of

those things and

you've poured

mercy and grace and

forgiveness on us.

show us what it

means to forgive

them like you

forgive us.

Show us what it

means to give

grace to those

who offend us as

you've given grace

to us over and

over and over.

And as we do

that Lord we know

that your spirit

will move.

That Hong Kong

will be changed.

People will fall

in love.

They'll fall in love

with your son Jesus.

So pray Lord for

us that this year

going into this

new year that we

would be different

people.

We need you.

We pray all these

things in your son

Jesus holy name.

Amen.