April 27, 2025 Rooted Wk. 1- "Peter's Journey: From Denial to Devotion"

One of the things that I've been thinking about a

lot this week and the last couple of weeks is Peter actually preparing for this

next series and what it must have been like to have his denial of Jesus forever

memorialized in God's word.

If you think about that, as Ben was reading the passage there when Jesus was

talking to him, and Peter didn't quite get it yet.

When Ben was reading there, and right after that, he says, but what about this one? What about John?

What's going to happen to him? And Jesus tells him, if I want him to live forever,

he'll live forever. It's not about you.

It's not about him. It's about you. And it's about you loving me,

liking me, and also willing to die for me.

And as you read later on, as we're going to be looking today and then throughout

the next several weeks in Peter, as he was winding down his time on this planet.

You hear a different voice when you're reading through Peter.

You don't hear the voice you do with Jesus, right? When he was super zealous

and just kind of put in his mouth a lot.

But you hear him talk about how suffering is actually a good thing.

And the reality that the evil one is right there trying to annihilate us and tear us apart.

So if you go in your Bible, or you can look at a couple different passages,

we have throughout Scripture God talking, and he tells us about how we are to

elevate his word and use his word in Joshua 1, 6 through 9. We'll focus on verse 8.

This book of the instruction, Rebekah's book of the law must not depart out

of your mouth, but you are to meditate on it day and night so that you may carefully

observe everything written in it.

For then you will prosper and succeed in whatever you do.

In Psalm chapter one, how happy is the one who does not walk in the advice of

the wicked or stand in the pathway of sinners or sits in the company of Instead,

his delight is in the Lord's instruction, and he meditates on it day and night.

He is like a tree planted beside flowing streams that bears its fruit in its season forever.

And its leaf does not wither, and whatever he does prospers.

Where we're going today, in the next several weeks, and the challenges is to

equip ourselves now with truth so that we can fight with truth later.

To be rooted in God's Word, we need to equip ourselves now with truth so that

we can fight with truth later.

As Ben was sharing about Peter, Peter talks about the evil one and how he is

there prowling around like a lion.

And a lion, Bubba, what is a lion? Do you ever see a lion go after his prey? What does it do?

Does it hold a sign and say, I'm coming after you? No, right? What does he do?

He attacks. He crawls around in the weeds, right? He looks for the weak and

he waits. he always plays the long game.

And what happens when that lion puts his grip on his prey?

He eats him, right? He doesn't let go.

And that's exactly what Peter warned us about.

Peter now is in the last phase of his life as he's writing to the church.

He's about to give his life for Christ, as Ben was sharing.

And he's warning the believers, he's warning the church, look,

this guy Nero, who's in charge right now, he doesn't like Christians.

And Nero did some horrible things to Christians, and he was literally warning

the church, look, you may have to actually give your life to follow Christ.

If you name yourself Christian,

a follower of Christ, little Christ, the follower of the way,

if you do that, there's a good possibility that you might end up on a stake.

You may end up having your head cut off. You may have your family completely disown you.

This is a reality, and Peter is warning the church about this.

So in 1 Peter 3, he writes now to the church, who then will harm you if you

are devoted to what is good?

Even if you should suffer for righteousness, you are blessed.

Do not fear them or be intimidated, but in your hearts regard Christ the Lord as holy,

ready at any time to give a defense to anyone who asks for a reason for the hope that is in you.

Yet, do this with gentleness and reverence, keeping a clear conscience,

so that when you are accused, notice the.

This isn't going to happen, but it's when you are accused, those who disparage

your good conduct in Christ, will be put to shame.

For it is better to suffer for doing good, if that should be God's will, than for doing evil.

Jesus, I pray now, as we look at your word, God, we thank you for Peter and for his life.

Jesus, so many of us can relate to Peter.

That's why you included him and scriptures.

We can relate to Peter. We can relate to not thinking things all the way through.

We can relate to everything about him, that he wasn't perfect.

He wasn't overly qualified, but you chose him to build your church,

and that's why you named him Peter.

So Jesus, I pray that we would see your word come alive this morning as we look

for just a few minutes at your truth.

God, I pray that your word would be brought home by your Holy Spirit,

that these are your truths. These are your words that you gave us that we might have.

So God, I pray today that we wouldn't just read them, but we would actually apply them.

And we would not live our Christian walk for what others see,

but what you see, because that's all that matters.

At what you see and how we stand before you. So, Jesus, I pray now,

please let your word work in me.

Please let your word work in my brothers and sisters. And if there's one here

today that doesn't know you, God, I pray that you would do a work and bring that one to know you.

In Jesus' name I pray. Amen.

So, in understanding God's word, understanding what it means to be a follower of Christ.

Peter warns the church. I'm going to start these and just want to hand one out here.

They're going to be passed around. We'll get to it in a second.

Peter warns the church that suffering is inevitable.

The attacks are coming. They're going to continue.

They're always going to continue. They're never going to stop.

And so because of that, we want to equip ourselves with truth, the truth of God's word.

Now, for those of you who are in the older bracket of life,

I'm going to use a word here or saying that our younger generation will know exactly what it means,

but we may not know what it means it's not

vulgar don't worry but it's this term level

up have you ever heard the phrase level up if you're if you're over 40 do you

have you heard of level up you have wow who is over well you don't have to over

40 who could not a kid tell us what level up means the video games isn't it

or in any hard zone game i think.

I don't know if it's how long I'm not thinking of it. Yeah.

Yes, be able to fight the next level. So that word, Bubba, have you heard that

word level up? You know what that means?

Abel, I'm sure you know what level up means, right? Yeah, right.

Duh, where the, and just so you know, the kids call anyone over 40 boomers,

even if you're not a boomer, just so you know.

But to level up is really what we're talking about, to prepare yourself for what is next.

That's what Peter is talking about. God is telling us we are to be rooted.

My memory, one of my good memories of Ben is when we first got started and we

are talking about the evil one.

And he's like, be prepared. It's coming. The attacks are coming.

The attacks are real. and they're coming.

And we actually asked Ben to come pray over the church house.

And he went room by room with Ginny, room by room and praying over each room

and bringing scripture into each room.

And Ginny made sure that he went to every room, even the bathrooms.

He went to every room and even down the stairs. He wanted to get out of there

faster, but Ginny's like, nope, We're going to do every single room.

And you know what Ben did? Ben went through and he prayed scripture.

He prayed truth back to God.

Remember ben after he had been visiting family last spring he'd been away for a couple weeks,

or a month or so i think and he came

back i thought he was gonna fall scared me

half to death he had gotten some new sneaks and he

just popped by to see how how the project was going

there at the house and he had just been

to visit some folks or something and he's like man i

i'm not like these folks that just complain about

everything like i just want to go and i'll remember it

he's like i want to go out kicking and

he wants to fight the evil one to the day he dies and that was so impactful

and then so you get the stairs there and then he's got these new shoes on and

he like jumps just like this down there and he scared me half to death he's like I'm fine.

But I will remember that. Ben brings our mind back to Scripture.

What God is telling us here is what he wants from us.

And we don't have time today, so don't worry, we're not going to go through

all of it, because this is such a powerful passage in Scripture.

But if you look at your little handout there, or your thing that you could actually

keep in your house, keep in your dash, wherever you want.

Any word that'll keep God's word right in front of your face.

Because God says here, he's speaking through Moses right before they're about

to go into the promised land.

They had just been, the children of Israel had just spent 40 years of punishment,

wandering the wilderness, and he gives us instruction.

Deuteronomy 6, 4. Listen, Israel, the Lord our God is, excuse me,

the Lord our God, the Lord is one.

That's powerful all by itself. We don't have time to unpack that.

But he gets into love the Lord, your God with all your heart,

with all your soul, and with all your strength.

These words that I am giving to you today is what God calls us to do.

They are to be in your heart.

Repeat them to your children. Talk about them when you sit in your house,

when you walk along the road or go to work, when you lie down and when you get up,

bind them as a sign on your hand.

Let them be a symbol on your forehead.

Write them on the doorposts of your house and of your city gates.

God telling us to do here? He is telling us, you're to love the Lord your God

with all your heart, with all your soul, and all your mind.

Completely allow this love for me to permeate, and then take these truths that

I am giving to you and put them everywhere.

Talk about them every time. It should be part of your ecosystem.

It should be constantly, you should be constantly, as a younger generation says,

leveling up, as we would say, constantly equipping ourselves with truth.

Because the battle, Peter says, is coming.

It's not an if thing, it's a when thing. The evil one is going to attack.

And if you don't think that's true, then you are oblivious and he's already won.

Because the reality is the evil one doesn't stop. The evil one,

his desire is to, as we see through scripture, that God calls him Satan or the

chief adversary, the chief person against God's plan.

And he wants to take you apart bit by bit.

Little by little, he wants to tear you down. His goal is to destroy you.

Little piece of you to the point where you just want to throw your hands up and give up.

It's like that bratty young sibling of yours that maybe you're back in the day,

Ben used to play with blocks.

They play with Legos now or car tracks and you, you build something and you're so excited about it.

And your little brother comes along and starts to dismantle it.

Right. That's annoying. Isn't it, Bubba? Right.

That's really annoying to do. And that's exactly what Satan wants to do.

Satan is the chief adversary of God's plans.

And so every plan that God is putting forward, Satan is there to try to destroy that plan.

And you're included, and I'm included in that plan.

Satan wants Char to be discouraged. Satan wants Ethan to be discouraged.

Satan wants Abel to be discouraged.

The evil one, his desire is completely to tear everything down.

So then, as we look at Scripture and we think about what full allegiance to

Jesus means, full allegiance to Jesus means that we are at war with the evil one.

So we need to know the core root is know the enemy.

The enemy is there seeking who he wants to devour.

He did it to Simon. Jesus warns, remember, Simon, Simon, look out.

Satan has asked to sift you like wheat, but I have prayed.

Remember, we looked at that. It's already done. He had already prayed for it.

He said, and then when you have turned back, when you have repented,

strengthen your brothers.

And that's what Peter did and that's where Peter left this world doing that,

then Peter could write these words be sober minded,

be alert your adversary the devil is prowling around like a roaring lion looking

for anyone he can devour resist him firm in the faith knowing that the same

kind of sufferings are being experienced by your fellow believers throughout

the world what is God saying here through Peter?

He's saying look, you're not the only one you're not

the only one and you know the reality is your suffering is

probably less than someone across the globe because i guarantee no one america

has someone coming into your house yanking you out and hurting your loved ones

in front of you we won't get that graphic but that's happening in the world.

Is saying, look, through Peter, look, be sober-minded.

Resist, verse 9, resist him firm in the faith, knowing that the same kind of

suffering are being experienced by your fellow believers, by your fellow Christians.

So know your enemy.

Satan wants to sift, your Savior wants to save.

Satan wants to sift and your Savior wants to save So going back And we'll close,

Our call this week And our walk with God Is to equip ourselves with truth To

equip ourselves with truth,

And I'm going to put some of these things at the back You can grab one if you

want to It's interesting what Dusty was talking about earlier And how the Holy

Spirit works We'll close with this verse,

talking about the idea that Jesus literally holds time in his hand.

He holds time in his hand. Think about that.

When Ethan was born, his time was started, right?

On planet, on earth. And he'll go to whatever year.

When Norma was born, she started out crying and breathed her first breath.

And her time started.

Same thing with Ben. Dusty discovered a couple weeks ago that he's half of Ben's age.

And that's time. But the reality is, think about this. It's going to give you a brain headache here.

God created time. Time literally exists within his hand. He created the concept of time.

So you have several verses on that, but there's one that I'm going to draw our minds to.

Revelation 1.17 When I saw him, I fell at his feet as if I were dead.

He laid his right hand on me and said, Don't be afraid.

I am the first and the last.

I am the living one. I died.

But look, I am alive forever and ever, and I hold the keys of death and the

grave. Isn't that amazing?

Suffering is inevitable. And as you go through it, remember,

God is right there, and God tells us right there in Deuteronomy,

Love me with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind. Be rooted in me.

Peter says to be able to give a defense, which...

Been doing as he's talking about all these outside proofs of truth.

That's where the word comes from, apologia. Be able and ready to give a defense.

The evil one wants to attack you. The evil one wants to attack me, and he doesn't stop.

So how do you fight against it? Abel, what do you do? You level up. Bryson, what do you do?

You level up. Aidan, what do you do? You level up. Paul, you equip yourself.

Ben, you equip yourself. Daryl, you equip yourself with what?

With God's word. Put it everywhere. Talk about it.

It should permeate. It should just be in every area of your life.

Dusty should wake up talking about it. He should go to bed talking about it. That's what God wants.

Jesus, I pray today that you would be first and foremost and preeminent in our

lives. God, I thank you for Ben and his life.

Jesus, you tell us through your word that it is a good thing to honor those

who've been faithful to you, Jesus. So today we honor Ben.

We thank you for him. We thank you for his life. So Jesus, I pray today as we

celebrate him and maybe talk to him and just give him hugs and share personal things with him,

God, I pray that he would know that the work that he did through your power continues on.

As the evil one would want to discourage Ben and ask, why?

Why should I do this? Why should I continue on? Why don't I just go out and

enjoy retirement like everybody else?

God, I pray that you would continue to encourage him and help him to know that

he has been used by you and is being used by you.

So Jesus, we thank you for your truth.

May you get all the honor. May you get all the glory.

And Jesus, may we equip ourselves with your truth now that we may be able to

fight against the evil one later.

In Christ's name we pray, amen.

All right, we're going to get the kids up here. So Adeline, you want to go get

the kids and we're going to sing happy birthday to Mr. Ben. We'll do it in here.

We have stuff for floats as well and ice cream that we'll bring over in a second.

Let's stand if you're able to. And while Adeline's getting the kids,

I think we can do holy, holy, holy by heart.

Maybe, hopefully, while the kids are coming up here.

And Ben will even do it. You ready? Just for you, Ben, Oregon.

Music.

Dusty, would you close us in prayer, and then we'll sing happy birthday. Thank you for your word.

Thank you that we've been open the enemy out. We can face trials in our head,

and we can face the future.

Yes. We can control all that has happened, all that will happen,

all that's currently happening.

Our hearts and our souls and our strength. Yeah. Simply declare to us that whatever

you have before us will be best for us, and the best for you,

and the best for your life.

I see what all of us could do this. Be your boy in this week.

Amen. All right, kids, you got to come up forward to the front.

You're going to help lead us in happy birthday. It has to be the loudest version

of happy birthday you've ever sung in your entire life.

There we go. We're going to sing happy birthday. So you're going to help lead us.

I think we got the video too on it. Here we go. So you got to be nice and loud.

Give me a nice loud voice. Ready?

Loud. loud. Oh, it's got to be super loud. So if this is here,

you got to go all the way up here. Ready? You ready?

A little louder.

There we go. Here we go. Happy birthday to you.

Happy birthday to you.

Happy birthday dear master ben happy birthday to you.

Music.

All right ben y'all can go first and we'll bring the desserts to you we got

all kinds of goodies for you.