The Resilience Test

We are in a series right now that we're calling the master's degree.

We're looking at leadership development through the ultimate leader, Jesus.

We know Jesus was fully God and fully man, so it's hard to argue with his leadership.

But at the same time, we see that Jesus, while he was pouring himself into and investing himself into all kinds of people, he very intentionally focused his leadership development on 12 apostles who ultimately he would entrust the book of Acts and the things that he would set into motion that would make its way all the way to us here and now.

And so we're looking at how to be better followers of Jesus and we're looking how to be leaders like Jesus.

And so we've been in this for a few weeks now.

I want to give you something here that I hope will be a resource that you can keep with you.

I've I've used this not only in each message in this series, but I've used this multiple times just in interpersonal conversations to help people to navigate change.

Well, we've been using this chart here in the beginning is what we would call normal.

So you're going about your normal life and something happens, an addition or subtraction, something's added or taken away.

We just had a big addition in our family.

My nephew and his wife just had identical twin boys.

Okay?

Pretty wild, pretty awesome.

I'm now a great uncle.

Come on.

A great uncle.

Never been one before.

Any great uncles out there?

All right.

Not everybody knows what we go through.

All right, it's not easy.

But uh, I'm a great uncle.

You know, I was went and held the boys the other day, you know, and I'm posing with the you know, my two great nephews, okay?

Well, how many of you know my my niece and nephew, they had no kids.

From zero to twins, come on, add them to your prayer list, y'all.

I mean, this is a lot.

So, I mean, it's exciting because something and people were added, but man, that's overwhelming.

And so, so what happens?

Well, something changes and it's chaos.

Okay, this is what my nephew and niece are dealing with right now.

It's crazy town.

And so, but this is normal for change.

When something's taken away from you or added to you, a promotion or or or maybe a loss, whatever it is, it's disorienting.

And most people don't stick around for the disorientation.

We look for off-ramps.

Okay, I want to get back to new normal.

Why?

Because disorientation doesn't feel like development, it doesn't feel like growth, but if you'll stay in there and you'll pray, process, and persevere, pray.

Lord, help me see something I haven't seen, and the Lord will give you revelation.

But also process, you know, sometimes you got to talk it out with a mature person, a trusted friend.

Is this me or God or whatever?

I get into God's word.

Does this line up?

So if I'll keep praying, processing, and persevering, eventually the disorientation will turn into orientation.

And in the orientation, I get good answers and I get good questions, and and um, you know, it doesn't mean that uh all the answers I like, but I start to come to the answers, and eventually I'll get into a new normal.

And that new normal isn't bliss, but it is peace.

You might have lost something you can never get back, but you come to peace, and it looks like strength, and it looks like growth, and it looks like maturity.

And so this is what Jesus uh invites the disciples into, and it's one iteration after another.

And we've been looking in the scripture at what some of these look like.

I'm gonna give you another one today, and um, here's what I'm gonna give you.

Uh go ahead and you can just look at it on the screen.

Mark chapter one.

This is a verse we already looked at.

We looked at it in week one, but go ahead and bring the verse up.

Basically, this is where Jesus tells the fishermen, put down your nets and follow me, and I'll make you fishers of men.

And so they put down their nets, and it's the beginning, it's their first disorientation.

Everything that they knew about themselves was gonna change, and and and and so that was what they did there.

And when it says them, it's actually in that text is talking about Peter and Andrew, who were fishermen.

And then we're gonna jump to another text, which is John 21.

John 21, Peter says, Let's go fishing.

Okay?

So in Mark 1, he stopped fishing, put down his net.

In Mark 21, he goes, says, Let's go fishing again.

In between Mark 1 and John 21 is failure.

And today we're gonna talk about the leadership lesson of what do I do with, how do I respond to, how do I steward well?

Failure.

Um, we need to get good at failure for really two big reasons I can think of, and maybe you can think of more, but I can think of two.

The first is it's inevitable.

You can run, but you can't hide.

So you you can try to, I mean, be a perfectionist and you can try to think it all out on the front end, right?

Risk, I heard somebody say one time, risk is what you're left with after you've thought of everything you could think of.

You know, you thought of everything you could think of, but you're left with risk because I don't know what's gonna happen.

Failure's inevitable.

Doesn't matter how hard you try, doesn't matter how good you are, you're gonna fail.

The second thing about failure is that it's a it's a part of growth.

Like you're not gonna grow without some failing, okay?

And failure helps you define reality.

Uh when I was training my voice to harmonize with Brian McKnight at the Brian McKnight concert, no, this is a true story.

I I I took my wife, I went into the kids' college fund, and I got tickets on the second row of the Brian McKnight concert, and and I had Blaze Johnson Jr.

train me on the harmony, the low harmony for back at one.

This really happened.

I got we got together and I said, Man, I need to know the low harmony because uh it's gonna be my moment, and I've always wanted, and I'm gonna impress my wife, and I'm gonna impress Brian, and I'm gonna hit this low harmony.

And so we went in and we began training, and what he did was help me find my range.

Me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me.

We kept going until what?

I failed.

And then he goes, There we go, there's your range right there.

I'd have never known the extent of my capacity had I not been willing to go push myself to failure.

Turns out my range wasn't that impressive, but anyway, I learned how to work within my constraints, and I did, I'm proud to say, I nailed the low harmony at the concert.

It is what it is, okay?

Sometimes you gotta own your successes.

Um, all right.

Failure, inevitable and it's part of growth.

So if it's inevitable and it's part of growth, we better get good at it.

Uh, failure, the nature of failure, I can think of three uh kinds of failure.

Again, you can probably think of more, but this is just I'm trying to help help us out.

Three kinds of failure.

The the first kind of failure is my best wasn't good enough.

So this is just like you gave your best.

Like you can think back and go, what would I have done different?

I mean, I don't know.

If I knew then what I knew now, I'd do something different, but if I knew then what I knew then, I'd do the same thing.

And I tried, man.

I gave my all to that relationship.

I gave my all to that project, I gave my best to that company, I gave everything I could to that job to be responsible in that role.

And my best wasn't good enough.

Yeah, I'm the man in the arena, and I've got dirt on me and blood on me and whatever, but I still failed.

My best wasn't good enough.

I had a friend, talented friend, one time tell me that it wasn't until years later as a mature man that he realized subconsciously, all through his childhood and teenage and young adult years, he never fully gave himself to anything.

He never threw his full weight into anything because he was keeping uh an escape clause in his mind that if he failed, he could say, Well, I didn't give my best.

Well, I didn't try my hardest.

If I had tried my hardest, I probably would have.

He he was doing it subconsciously to try to protect himself from the the terrible feeling of I gave my best and it wasn't good enough.

Um, so that's one type of failure.

I gave my best, it wasn't good enough.

The second kind of failure is I knew better.

I knew better, I knew better.

You can't say you didn't know because you knew.

You knew better, but you did it anyway.

For some reason you lacked the willpower or the discipline or you got short-sighted or you hit your pain threshold or whatever.

For some reason you just you thought you could get away with it, you knew better.

The third is you failed me.

And the reality is our lives are interconnected to other people, and your wins are connected to other people's wins, and your losses are connected to other people's losses.

Maybe you gave something away, delegated it, trusted it to somebody else, and they failed, and their failure is now intertwined with your failure, and so we have failure.

We're gonna look here at the Apostle Peter, and we're gonna see some really relevant things that not only show up for Peter that Jesus takes him through, but I believe what Jesus is still taking disciples through to help us to handle our failure and to get the most out of it.

Let's look at probably what's the most well-known one of Peter's failures.

We're gonna turn to Luke 22, and this is uh Peter's failure and his denial of Jesus.

Um I want to set up a little bit of context before we start reading.

We're gonna read in verse 54, but um when Peter fails in his denial of Jesus, he has had a very, very long day.

Luke 22 is a long chapter, 71 verses in Luke 22.

And along the way, you'll see that uh Peter, uh, they have like the Last Supper, right?

And Jesus predicts at the Last Supper, hey, one of you is going to betray me.

And Peter, with all the sincerity in the world, says to Jesus, it won't be me.

It won't be me.

Might be one of these suckers, but it definitely won't be me.

You can count on me.

Uh I love you more than these.

It won't be me.

He said, if you go to prison, I'll go to prison with you.

He says, verse 33.

If you go to prison, we're going together.

If you die, I'll die with you, he says.

Okay?

Jesus, like Peter piped down.

Calm down.

Before tomorrow morning, you're gonna deny me three times.

You have no idea how intense it can get.

Well, when you read on from there, you'll see Peter goes to the Mount of Olives with Jesus, and Jesus begs Peter and a couple other guys, hey, can you guys stay awake with me?

Just stay awake.

And the Bible says in verse 45, they could not stay awake because they were exhausted with grief.

Essentially, they were emotionally wiped out.

Have you ever been so tired you couldn't keep your eyes open?

Physically, emotionally, you're just and they literally couldn't stay awake.

I mean, he was they they were exhausted with grief.

Okay, so Jesus wakes them up, then they go through, and of course, this is at the Last Supper.

Jesus has this sort of look, let's just be honest, a kind of weird conversation.

He says to him, He says, Hey guys, it's about to get bad.

And he said, Do you remember?

Uh, you do you remember?

He doesn't re give the reference, but he's talking about Matthew 10.

He says, You remember when I told you, don't take a coin person, don't take a change of clothes, and don't do that?

Yeah, this is different.

He says, sell your stuff and buy swords.

They're like, he's like, How many swords you guys have?

They're like, two.

He's like, well, that should be fine.

So he primes them with the word sword.

Well, they get out to where Jesus is being arrested, and Peter's like, and he gets in a scuffle and cuts a man's ear off.

Okay?

So he's emotionally fried to the point of grief.

He's been primed with the word sword.

He cuts a man's ear off.

Jesus heals the man's ear, is like Peter.

Come on, man.

Now Peter's doubting every.

I mean, I don't, what in the world am I supposed to do?

You told me sword, I don't know what to believe about Jesus.

I guess I don't trust my own instincts because my instincts said, fight for good, fight to defend your friend, fight to keep Jesus from being handed over.

I'm confused.

Okay, this is where we pick up in verse 54.

So they seized him, him being Jesus.

He cuffed him and they led him away, bringing him to the high priest's house, and Peter was following from a distance.

I don't want to take a long time here, but I do think it's worth pausing in verse 54 where it says Peter was following from a distance.

I think this often is the beginning of us getting to a place where we fail, getting to a place where we're weak.

Why?

I'm confused about Jesus.

I'm tired.

Uh, you know, I'm not sure.

Like, yes, I've seen him walk on water, and yes, I've seen him raise the dead, and yes, I've seen him do all this, but he's looking weak right now, and and this just feels different.

Something feels different.

So he starts trailing Jesus.

He starts following from a distance.

And I just want to encourage you, if you're a bit confused by what's going on, hey, I my instincts seem like they're off.

Everything I do is wrong.

I'm tired, I'm worn out.

Don't give in to the instinct to put distance between you and Jesus.

Stay close to Jesus.

Stay close to Jesus in your disorientation.

Verse 55, it says, and when they had kindled a fire in the middle of the courtyard and sat down together, Peter sat down among them.

And then a servant girl, seeing him, look at this, she sees him as he sat in the light, looking closely at him, said, This man was also with him.

But he denied it, saying, Woman, I don't, I don't know him.

He uses that here in the translation the Greek word is oida.

Oida is the same word that Paul uses in the last book he writes, 2 Timothy, when he says, Um, hey, I'm about to die, and I have a lot of unfinished business and a lot of uh loose ends, but he said, I'm not worried about it because I oida, I know whom I have believed.

And I'm persuaded he's able to take care of all of it.

Okay.

The same knowing that Paul claimed to have of Jesus, Peter claims not to have of Jesus in this moment.

I don't, woman, I don't know what you're talking about, I don't know him.

A little later, someone else saw him and said, You're you're also one of them.

But Peter said, Man, I am not.

So think about this now.

Look at just the slight difference in these two denials.

The first denial is you know him, you're you're with him.

And he says, No, I don't know him.

But the second is they say you're one, you are one of them.

And he says, I'm not.

This isn't just I don't have academic knowledge of this person.

I don't know, I don't know who you're talking about.

This is I'm not in relationship, I'm not with him.

I'm not one of him, I'm not one of them.

Verse 59, after an interval of about an hour, still another insisted, saying, Certainly this man was with them, for he too is a Galilean.

But Peter said, Man, I do not know what you're talking about.

And immediately, immediately while he was speaking, a rooster crowed, and the Lord turned and looked at Peter, and Peter remembered the saying of the Lord, and you know, before the rooster crows, you're gonna deny me three times, and he went out and wept bitterly.

Um I love the imagery that we get from Luke that Peter's trying to hide himself.

He's trying to hide himself, and yet he's at this fire, and the fire is lighting up his face, and this girl is like, are you you?

He's like, No, I'm not me.

She's like, You sure?

You look a lot like you.

No, no, no, no, no, I'm not me.

And it just makes me think about if you've ever been trying to hide yourself, you've ever been trying to conceal yourself, I I don't want anybody to know who I am.

I don't want them to know who I really am.

I don't feel safe here.

I don't know what's up with God here.

I I don't know.

I prayed this prayer and it didn't happen.

I cut off someone's ear, Jesus scolded me, although he told me about a sword.

I I I don't know.

I all I know is I'm tired to the point of grief.

I can't keep my eyes open.

I all I know is a lot's going on and the chaos and going, I don't want anyone to see the real me, but people are looking at you real close, looking at you really close.

It says uh actually, when Matthew tells this in the book of Matthew, chapter 26, verses 73-74, it says, those standing there, look at this, went up to Peter and said, Surely you're one of them, your accent gives you away.

Matthew 26:73–74

And then he began to call down curses and swore at them.

So, so they're going, Man, you can't deny it.

I can hear your accent.

You're from Galilee, dude.

You're one of them.

And Peter pulls a classic move.

When he's caught, he decides to carpet bomb with anger and swear words.

If you ever witnessed one of these scenes, have you ever been in one of these things where you're caught?

You're out of logic.

I gotta, I can't so what am I gonna do?

I'm gonna carpet bomb with anger.

I'm gonna power up with anger.

I'm gonna try to create confusion.

I'm gonna try to overwhelm them.

I'm overwhelmed in my situation.

I'm overwhelmed at who is God and who am I?

And I'm denying and I'm starting to spiral out of control, but people are starting to sniff you out.

You got some servant girl looking a little too close.

Who are you?

Are you sure you're not him?

And you got people starting to catch on to who you are.

Your accent's leaking out.

You're trying to hide your hometown, you're trying to act like you're not where you're from and you haven't been where you've been and done where you've done.

And yet people are on to you.

They're onto you, they're getting close.

And as they get close, you go, you know, maybe if I get angry enough and I cuss loud enough, I'll freak them out where they'll want to change the subject.

Maybe if I can, maybe if I can curse loud enough, the truth and the lies will all get lost in the confusion, and they'll want to change the subject.

They'll want to move on.

This is exactly what Peter's doing.

And he's starting to spiral.

He's starting his death spiral, he's going down, tail spin.

Mayday, mayday.

He's going down, and in the middle of him, of this going down, the rooster crows.

And the rooster makes a noise that jolts him out of his spiral.

And as he hears the rooster crow, right after that, he locks eyes with Jesus.

And he sees Jesus.

And this, my friend, is the beginning of Peter going from his most recent iteration of disorientation to orientation.

So disoriented, I'm in here.

I don't know who I am.

I don't know who Jesus is.

I don't know who God is.

I don't even remember, I'm not even thinking about all the miracles and all the things that have happened and all the many conversations that have been documented and not documented.

All of that, I am so short-sighted, and I'm so grief-stricken, and I'm so incredibly exhausted.

And it's in the wee hours of the morning in the darkness, and the light's on me, and like Jesus said in John 3, those who do evil don't like light.

It's much better in the darkness, but when the light hits, their evil deeds are exposed, and now I'm being exposed and I'm overwhelmed, and I cut a guy's ear off a few hours ago, and I don't know what's gonna happen to me because I'm sort of at large, maybe.

I don't know what.

And in the middle of all this, a rooster crows and begins a process of orientation.

The beginning.

I'm gonna tell you this.

When you are in a tailspin, 100 miles an hour in the wrong direction, God will send a rooster.

I'll prove it to you in the scripture.

It says in 1 Corinthians 10, 13, it says, the temptations in your life are no different from what others experience.

If you read it in the King James, it would say, No temptation has seized you except what is common to man.

Okay, what he's saying here, he's not saying this to be insensitive.

It's meant to keep you from feeling isolated.

What you're going through is not different from what some others others have gone through.

It's not in the spirit of suck it up, buttercup, it ain't that bad.

It's it's it's in the spirit of you're not alone, and others are going through similar things to you, or they have gone through maybe exactly what you're going through, and so that we're not alone.

You're not the only one who's been sneaking around in dark places.

You're not the only one with skeletons in your DMs.

You're not the only one who's terrible with money.

All right.

You you look like money, you smell like debt.

You're not the only one who sabotaged a good relationship because you don't know how to be in one.

You're not the only one who's botched up a conflict.

You're not the only one uh who's been caught lying.

You're not the only one who fell off the wagon.

You're not the only one with homicidal thoughts.

You're not the only one whose pride ever got in the way.

He said, There's no temptation that seized you except what is common to man.

And God is faithful.

Look at this.

He will not allow you to be tempted more than you can stand.

When you're tempted, look at this.

He'll show you a way out so you can endure.

When you're tempted, he will send a rooster to crow, to shock your system, to pull you out of your tailspin.

Will you receive it?

He'll give you an exit.

There'll be something.

Think about what is a rooster.

All right, let's think about what is what is a rooster.

Well, actually, it reminds me of a message.

Uh, I one of my favorite messages I've ever done at this church.

I I preached, I preached this this guy.

Some of you have been around long enough, too.

Some of you weren't here for it, so I'll give you the cliff note.

Okay, this.

This rooster crows.

And when I preached it the first time, I walked around this thing and I I tried to crow like a rooster.

But I went back and watched it back.

And I sounded like a hound dog, actually.

It was really bad.

I and I was really felt like I sounded like a rooster, but it wasn't.

So I'm not I'm gonna spare you.

But um the message was this Peter hears a rooster crow, and of course it says he locks eyes with Jesus and he remembers what Jesus said.

And so for Peter, he's reminded of his failure.

And if Peter's not careful for the rest of his life, every time he hears a rooster, what's he gonna think about?

Failure.

But roosters don't crow, and this was the oh, this is my favorite part of the message, you know, whatever it was years ago.

But my favorite part of the message is this roosters don't crow to tell you about failure.

Why does a rooster crow?

Because it's a new day.

It's a new day.

And this was the beginning, and this the message still applies.

This was the beginning of Peter going from a disorientation to orientation.

It was a new day.

It was a step one, not the last step.

But I want you to think about this now.

A rooster.

What is a rooster?

Because God is still sending roosters to people who are in tailspins.

Well, a rooster could be a few things.

One, uh, a rooster could be a memory.

So so when it says when he heard the rooster, he remembered what Jesus said.

When he locks eyes with Jesus, he remembers who Jesus is.

With all the I'm I'm around unfamiliar people.

I'm denying all this.

All of a sudden he looks and now he sees Jesus' eyes and he remembers Jesus walking on water and Jesus pulling him up when he started to sink.

He's remembering Jesus turning water into wine and feeding the 5,000 and raising Lazarus and the many conversations they had had on their long boat rides and all of this.

Okay, it was a memory.

And I think sometimes in a moment you you're short-sighted, there's life's happening fast, you're overwhelmed by the threats, and God will send a memory to you.

It might be a video you see, it might be uh something you wrote in a journal, it might be an old picture, it might be something that it conjures up a memory.

You know, we tend to say in church, hey, you know, I know I'm not where I want to be, but thank God I'm not who I used to be, right?

That's good, and sometimes that's true, but sometimes who you used to be is better than who you are today.

If you're being honest, you regressed.

I used to be a good husband, I used to be a good wife.

I used to, my truth, my words used to mean something.

I used to tell the truth.

I used to be somebody you could count on.

I used to be humble and receive uh correction.

I used to be dependable.

And yet I'm looking at my life now and I'm a wreck.

In fact, sometimes it's a picture, maybe, of somebody who's deceased, who's passed away.

And when you look at that picture, it's a rooster crowing at you, saying, if they could see me now, I would I'm glad they can't see me now.

For some of you, the rooster crowing might be a conversation.

You need to have at a tombstone with some flowers to go back to a memory of who you used to be, because you're not who you used to be.

It's gone the wrong direction.

And those memories are helpful to define reality, to calibrate, to pull you out of who you're becoming right now.

Sometimes it's a a memory, sometimes it's um, sometimes it's a person.

It's a person.

I talked to a guy recently who was in the military, and he did several tours, and he summarized his time there, saying he saw some of the most horrific things a person can see in his time in battle.

And so he came home and now he's a husband and a father, and he's trying to adapt to civilian life, and he's got some PTSD, and he's got some emotional things, and he's got some mental things going on.

He got a lot of stuff going on, and he was telling me about a dark place that he was in a dark moment to where he was in a dark room with a revolver, trying to figure out what he was going to do.

Dark moment with a revolver in a state of disorientation, in a tailspin.

And he said, in a moment where he was in a dark place capable of some very dark things, his young daughter walked in the room and and essentially was a rooster.

He said he took the revolver and stuck it under his leg and hid it, and he and he and he made it through another night.

But he realized, man, I gotta find some orientation.

But but that moment, God sent a person.

Think about this now.

Peter locks eyes with Jesus and he sees a person.

Sometimes it's a person, sometimes it's a memory, sometimes it's a situation that you cannot avoid.

It's like this the subpoena was a rooster.

Got served papers, it was a rooster.

The lawsuit was a rooster, the pink slip was a rooster.

It created a reality you couldn't hide from.

You had to face it.

It's not going away.

And so, what is it?

It's something that while I'm in my tailspin, I can't deny.

I have to face up to.

And so, so what does Paul say?

Paul says, hey, look, man, we we go through the same temptations, but God will send a rooster, he will provide a way out.

Um it says in verse uh Luke 22, 62 that after the rooster crows and he locks eyes with Jesus, he goes and weeps bitterly.

He weeps bitterly, which I think is also a part of orientation.

One of the reasons why we tend to want to stay in denial is because do we really want to look fully at our reality?

Because to look fully at reality would be really, really painful and cause us to weep.

And I don't want to weep, and I don't want to even think about it.

I want to push it down.

But in that moment, we're starting to see some steps of orientation.

Snap out of it with the rooster, lock eyes with Jesus, and weep bitterly.

Weep bitterly isn't always bad.

You know, I think we could learn from our mistakes and our failures more quickly if we didn't take so long to admit them.

Like one of the things that just keeps you from actually taking this failure and turning it into growth or moving past it is just this unwillingness to admit it.

And why don't I want to admit it?

Well, who wants to admit it?

It's painful.

And yet, Peter, you you like, don't miss this.

This is a gigantic step.

And his orientation is his willingness to look in the eyes of Jesus and to actually weep.

There is a time for weeping, there is a time for feeling the gravity of reality, there is a time for dealing with this, and Jesus had no intention of leaving Peter there, but you can't skip the step.

You can't restore yourself, but you have to participate in your own restoration.

You can't do it all by yourself.

God will take you through that process.

Sometimes he'll use other people, but you are not a bystander to your restoration.

You have to participate in it.

And part of Peter's participation was his willingness to weep bitterly.

For me, in this most recent reading of Luke 22, the part I find myself grabbing and gravitating to the most is when Peter locks eyes with Jesus.

Often when I'm reading the scripture, I'll really try to put myself in the character's eyes.

And I imagine what I would be thinking.

Jesus told me I was gonna do it.

I'm so stinking tired, I can't even stay awake.

I tried to be a hero, but I cut somebody's ear off and I did damage, and Jesus corrected it.

And then I started trailing, creating distance.

Man, I want to have all faith in Jesus, but something feels different about this.

Now I'm being exposed and I'm afraid and I'm denying, and then I lock eyes with Jesus after the rooster crows.

What I would be thinking is, I'd be asking myself, what is he thinking?

What is Jesus thinking?

Because we we live with human beings and human beings are good at failing, which is why when Peter, remember conversation Peter has with Jesus?

Jesus, when people fail me, how many times should I forgive?

Remember this?

Jesus is like, Well, Peter goes, how about seven?

It'd be noble.

Jesus goes, No, man, not even close.

70 times seven.

People are good at failure, so you better get good at forgiveness.

Of course, Peter at that point was talking about other people failing him.

Here's him failing Jesus.

Now he's in the other seat.

Now, here's the thing: in our world, we understand human beings have a threshold.

Some point you push them far enough, you fail them often enough, or you hurt them badly enough, you get cut off.

Cut out, canceled, shut down, unfriended.

He's gotta be thinking, did I just hit that threshold with Jesus?

Right?

Jesus is a human being.

Did I just hit that threshold?

What is behind those eyes?

We know what was behind those eyes.

What was behind those eyes was love for Peter.

What was behind those eyes was grace for Peter.

What was behind those eyes was forgiveness for Peter.

But what was behind those eyes was that he wanted the best for Peter.

And what sometimes is the best for somebody is to allow them to weep bitterly and then to walk through the painful process of restoration.

Now I gotta go fast.

So hang with me.

Brings us to John 21.

I'm gonna summarize.

You can go look it up.

Peter says, let's go fishing.

Why?

Off ramp.

I failed.

Maybe I'm supposed to take an off-ramp, but go back to what I was doing when I met Jesus.

Maybe I've disqualified myself.

What we tend to do is we want to run from our failure.

If you failed with a person or you failed at a place, you don't go back to that place.

When's the last time you went back to the facility of the job that fired you?

You're not like, you know, I'm gonna come back.

Hey guys, I'm back.

I just have a for what?

Oh, I just want to hang out.

You feel like a failure.

So we tend to run from those environments.

And he was running from the place of failure to go to what he knew how to do, which is the fish, but that's what Jesus called him out of to go do something else.

I don't know, man.

I'm just coming through.

I'm trying to reorient, dude.

I'm trying to reorient.

And of course, Jesus comes, and it's just such a great story because Jesus goes, Hey, have you guys caught anything?

What?

Did you catch any fish?

No, throw your nets on the other side.

And what he's doing is Jesus is recreating, it's almost tongue-in-cheek.

He's he's recreating the miracle that he did when he met Peter.

Remember, Peter had been fishing all night, they hadn't caught anything.

Jesus goes, try cast your net on the other side.

They're like, dude, we're fishermen.

You're a carpenter.

Go make a chair.

Like, we're we fish.

This is what we do.

We know all about this place.

We know exactly how this works.

Like, don't talk to us about our business, okay?

Okay, like we don't Jesus, like, just trust me.

Like, they throw the net on the other side, their nets are ripping.

They're ripping.

Remember that?

John 21, he does the same thing.

Throw your net on the other side.

They throw it over, nets ripping again.

The ripping sound is reminding them of the initial miracle in their introduction to Jesus.

They come to shore, they're eating breakfast, and Jesus says, Peter, do you love me more than these?

He's like, Yeah, Lord, you know I love you.

It's like, feed my sheep.

And the second time he says, Peter, do you love me more than these?

Yes, Lord, you know I love you.

Feed my sheep.

Peter, do you love me more than these?

And the third time it says, Peter's hurt.

And Jesus isn't hurting him to rub salt in the wound or to be vindictive or try to get even.

What is he doing?

Oh, he's doing a beautiful thing.

He's taking Peter back to his denial and he's giving him a chance to deal with it, to learn and extract every lesson he can learn from it, and to have it be a formation of his character and his wisdom.

Man, we got to get you to wisdom and maturity and peace.

You got to make peace with it, but you got to get smarter about it.

And what's he doing?

He's giving him a chance to with the same mouth that he denied.

With the same mouth that he tried to cuss his way out of the situation, with the same mouth that he was disoriented.

You're gonna take that same mouth and you're gonna declare your love.

You're gonna take the same mouth and you're gonna restore.

We want relief.

Jesus wants restoration.

I just want relief.

I'm just gonna go back out here on the boat and pretend like nothing.

No, no, no.

I'm gonna take you back into the scene of the crime.

We're gonna go back to the space so we can deal with it, get peace, we can learn and get stronger.

Why?

Because you have to know how to restore a relationship.

Peter, I want to use you as a leader.

Peter, I have big plans for you, man.

I got big plans.

And those big plans are gonna cause you to have to restore relationship with God, restore relationship with yourself, and restore relationship with other people.

So Jesus shows him, Jesus initiates with him, and he gives him the chance.

And he wouldn't let him blow it off.

Peter, do you love me more than these?

Yes, Lord.

Could have left it right there.

The initial.

If Jesus only asked him one time, Peter probably doesn't even remember this.

Probably doesn't even make it in here.

It's a non-event.

Jesus, do you love me more than these?

Yeah, Lord, you know I love you.

Stop.

Second time, do you love me more than these?

Now he's got to think about it.

Think about that in the scripture.

Anything emphasized two or three times.

Verily, verily I say to you, pay attention.

Two times.

He asked him the third time why.

First time you didn't even think about it when you answered.

The second time you thought about it, the third time you'll never forget it.

Do you love me more than these?

And friend, I want to tell you, just like God had a big plan for Peter.

He's got a big plan for you.

Big plan.

And for some of you, you've been in this process of disorientation.

You don't know whether to trust your instincts or not.

You don't know whether to trust God or not.

You don't know what to think, what to do, and you're in this tailspin.

And today the Lord has brought you a rooster.

The Lord has brought you something to capture you, to catch you, to shock your system.

Sometimes it's a memory, sometimes it's a person, and sometimes it's a word from God in season in a moment.

And today I want you to know God wants to take you back to that place.

Not to wound you, not to get even with you, but so that you can find peace with it, you can let go of it, you can grow from it.

Don't choose relief over restoration.

Let God do the deeper work He wants to do, amen.