My Failure His Faithfulness

Well, way back in February, we started something called Following Jesus.

We have been going through the book of Matthew all year long.

In fact, our elementary school kids, uh actually, I think kindergarten all the way through high school has also been going through the book of Matthew with us.

So they're they've been on the same pace that we've been on, same stories.

So us with all the kids at the church, we've been just diving deep into who Jesus is since February.

And honestly, we kind of do that all the time.

Jesus is kind of a big deal here.

I don't know if you guys have noticed that.

We have a statue of him in front.

Like we're big fans of Jesus.

But this year, it's just had a different level of focus.

Our whole point from the get-go has been we want to better understand Jesus.

We want to know him better because it's really hard to have a relationship with someone that you misunderstand.

And no one has ever been more misunderstood than God.

Now, we're people, he's God.

We can't fully understand him.

But it's really easy to misunderstand God.

And when you misunderstand God, when you miss it big time, it just throws everything else off.

And many of us have experienced that, where you might say that you've had a moment in your life where you realize, man, I've had God wrong all this time.

Some of us who maybe are new to church, sometimes you might be intimidated.

You're like, I don't know any of this stuff, this is all new.

And in some ways, you guys kind of have a leg up on those of us who maybe grew up in church because depending on your experience, you maybe have to unlearn a lot of things if you grew up in church because you maybe got a version of Jesus that you found out later in life, that's not the real Jesus.

And it's hard sometimes to untangle that stuff.

But no matter where you're coming from, new, been a follower of Jesus for years and years, what I have found in my life is that I never have him fully figured out.

Every time I think I do, there's something else that I see, some little wrinkle, it breaks the box, and I have to rethink him in an entirely new way, and I just want to know him better.

In fact, I think we need to know him better.

That has to be a hunger that we never let go of.

Because he's God.

He shows us exactly what God the Father is like.

In fact, a few scriptures for you, really simple but powerful verses.

Colossians 1.15 says that Christ is the visible image of the invisible God.

Hebrews 1.3 says that he is the radiance of God the Father's glory and is the exact representation of his nature.

In other words, if you want to know what God is like, you just look at Jesus.

Because he's God.

And he shows us the nature of God, the character of God, the heart of God, the power of God, the wisdom of God.

Jesus shows us all of that.

And so all year long, we've just been following Jesus, trying to learn as much as we can about him.

And I'm so excited about today because we're at a moment in the story where we learn, we learn a lot.

You learn a lot about people when they're in really tough situations.

You learn a lot about yourself when you're in a tough situation.

Sometimes what you learn you don't like.

If you're like me anyway.

But today we're gonna see Jesus in as difficult of a personal situation as you could possibly be in.

And his character and his love and his heart that shines through all of it, it's it's incredible.

It is something that's deeply relatable for all of us.

All of us are gonna are gonna say at the end of our talk this morning, wow, I have a lot in common with Jesus, I maybe hadn't even realized.

But it's more than just being deeply relatable, it's it's deeply relevant because what we're gonna learn about who Jesus is, it informs us a little bit about who we are and how we can relate to him.

And so essentially, what we're gonna do today is look at Jesus experiencing betrayal by his closest friends.

And there's really four different levels of betrayal that he experiences.

We're gonna go through those.

The first is malicious, murderous betrayal.

Malicious, murderous betrayal.

That's that's a big one.

Um, this is Judas, one of the disciples, and Judas is, as you know, even if you haven't grown up in church, like you know Judas, right?

No one names their kids Judas anymore.

That name has fallen on heart.

People just go, that's I don't like that name.

Judas, he's gonna betray Jesus, and he's gonna do it intentionally, and it's gonna lead to Jesus going to the cross, and Jesus already knows that's gonna happen.

He's that's the plan in many ways, but Judas isn't doing it to cooperate with Jesus.

And honestly, we're not gonna explore that in great detail because I think that would take an entire Sunday, and um, and maybe I've missed the boat, but do any of you have malicious, murderous intentions this week?

Anyone at all?

That that's like the plan?

Because if it is, I would just tell you don't.

Just don't.

And if if not, we can move on.

Um, but no, we're gonna record a podcast actually tomorrow or Tuesday.

We'll post it on Wednesday.

We do this uh a little midweek podcast, we put it on YouTube on our our all the podcast apps, and some of you guys listen to that.

And we're gonna do a deep dive into Judas and this whole section so that we can really explore it.

So listen to that if you're interested.

But I think the next three are a little bit more personal for each of us.

So, the next three categories.

We're gonna see Jesus experience his friends just letting him down.

Sometimes people let you down.

They just don't live up to the expectations that you have of them, even if those expectations are fairly low.

So Jesus is gonna be let down.

That was a personal laugh.

That was like a nervous laugh.

Because the word I just said wasn't funny at all.

Uh I get it.

So we're gonna see Jesus have his friends let him down.

Hey, beyond that, we're gonna see Jesus' friends cut and run.

They're gonna abandon Jesus and leave him alone in a time when he really needs them.

And then finally, we're gonna see Jesus' friends break his heart.

They're gonna break his heart.

Now, it's important on the front end of this to know that Jesus sees all of this coming.

None of this catches him by surprise.

We pick up our story in Matthew chapter 26.

Matthew 26 · chapter mention

It says, Meanwhile, Jesus was in Bethany at the home of Simon, a man who had previously had leprosy.

While he was eating, a woman came in with a beautiful alabaster jar of expensive perfume and she poured it over his head.

The disciples were indignant when they saw this.

What a waste, they said.

It could have been sold for a high price.

The money could have been given to the poor.

But Jesus, aware of this, replied, Why criticize this woman for doing such a good thing to me?

You will always have the poor among you, but you will not always have me.

She's poured this perfume on me to prepare my body for burial.

He knows exactly what's coming.

I tell you the truth, wherever the good news is preached throughout the world, this woman's deed will be remembered and discussed.

Now, when Jesus does this, it says the disciples are upset, they look at it, they go, What a waste.

And we're actually told in another version of this account that Judas himself is especially upset about this, and this is sort of what prompts Judas to go and betray Jesus.

And he ends up getting paid 30 shekels of silver by the Pharisees, by the religious leaders, to agree to hand Jesus over.

Later this day, Jesus meets with his disciples and they have dinner.

In fact, next week we're gonna explore the Passover dinner that Jesus has with his best friends and his last evening with them in the final hours of his time before the cross.

We're gonna do that next week.

But while he's having this meal in Matthew chapter 26, verse 20, it says, When it was evening, Jesus sat down at the table with the twelve.

Matthew 26:20

And while they're eating, he said, I tell you the truth, one of you will betray me.

Greatly distressed, each one of them asked in turn, Am I the one, Lord?

And he replied, One of you has who's just eaten from this bowl with me will betray me.

For the Son of Man must die, as the scripture declared long ago.

But how terrible it will be for the one who betrays him.

It would be far better for that man if he had never been born.

Judas, the one who would betray him, also asked, Rabbi, am I the one?

And Jesus told him, You said it.

But it's not just Judas.

Jesus goes on.

Verse 31 says that Jesus tells his disciples on their way to this garden called Gethsemane, tonight all of you will desert me.

For the scriptures say God will strike the shepherd, and the sheep of the flock will be scattered.

Now, if you know Peter, uh Peter likes to do something that I don't ever recommend doing, just disagree with God.

Peter does that a lot.

Peter argues with Jesus quite a bit.

And so when Peter hears this, he disagrees.

Verse 33, Peter declared, even if everyone else deserts you, and mind you, they're all together.

Peter says, Even if all these idiots desert you, like, I will never desert you.

And Jesus replied, I tell you the truth, Peter, this very night before the rooster crows, you will deny three times that you even know me.

No, Peter insisted, even if I have to die with you, I will never deny you.

And all the other disciples vowed the same.

So none of this is gonna catch Jesus by surprise.

He systematically goes through and tells the disciples exactly what's gonna happen.

He gets anointed at Bethany, this town right outside of Jerusalem.

And he says, Hey, this is like an anointing for my burial.

You know, they always think he's talking a metaphor about that, but he's being very literal.

And then he says outright, one of you is gonna betray me, and it's Judas, but it's not just Judas, all of you are gonna scatter, you're gonna leave me, and they're like, We would never do that.

Peter says, I would never do that.

And he says, Peter, you're gonna deny that you even know me.

And Peter is one of his closest, closest friends.

Peter's part of this inner circle that Jesus has of three of his disciples, and they're extremely close.

Jesus knows what's coming.

But sometimes, even when you know something really difficult is coming, it doesn't take the sting away.

And so we see Jesus for the course of the next few hours experience just letdown after letdown.

And let's start with that first category that I mentioned.

Sometimes people let you down.

We're gonna see Jesus be let down by his disciples in a pretty simple but but hurtful way.

Matthew 26, verse 36 says, Then Jesus went with them to the olive grove called Gethsemane.

Matthew 26:36

And he said, Sit here while I go over there to pray.

And he took Peter and Zebedee's two sons, James and John, that's the inner three.

And he became anguished and distressed, and he told them, My soul is crushed with grief to the point of death.

Stay here and keep watch with me.

He went on a little farther and bowed his face to the ground, praying, My father, if it's possible, let this cup of suffering be taken away from me.

Yet I want your will to be done, not mine.

Then he returned to the disciples and found them asleep.

He said to Peter, Couldn't you watch with me even one hour?

Keep watch and pray so that you will not give in to temptation, for the spirit is willing, but the body is weak.

And then Jesus left them a second time and prayed, My Father, if this cup cannot be taken away unless I drink it, your will be done.

And when he returned to them again, he found them sleeping, for they couldn't keep their eyes open.

So he went and prayed a third time, this time by himself, saying the same things again.

Then he came to his disciples, Go ahead and sleep, have your rest, but look, the time has come, the Son of Man is betrayed into the hands of sinners.

Up, let's be going.

Look, my betrayers here.

And Jesus stands up and he walks to meet his betrayers face to face.

Jesus is awesome.

You know, Jesus isn't asking much, right?

He's saying, Hey, can you just pray with me?

And they've just said, we will never deny you.

You can count on us.

We're here for you, Jesus.

Nothing could stop us.

And all he says is, just stay up and pray with me.

I am struggling.

I need some help.

Pray with me.

And they can't even do that.

It's not too much to ask.

Jesus experiences this moment what it's like to just be let down by the people around you.

All of us can relate to that.

This, by the way, this is the feeling I have, although in a much less important way.

Every time I walk upstairs in my house, I have three boys, and the three boys all live upstairs.

I've talked about this before in varying details, but uh, you know, they're just gross.

They're wonderful kids.

I love them.

But it's not that about three or four times a year, I will just take it upon myself to go upstairs and deep clean and organize and set them up for success.

And I'll say, guys, look, here's the way it works.

It's not hard.

You know, this goes here.

Nothing goes in the floor, by the way.

The floor is not a receptacle for anything.

We have bins, we have baskets, we have all kinds of stuff.

So just, and I'll just ask, please, I spent hours on my day off cleaning your room.

Please, just help me.

And it's a it's amazing what they can do in two days.

Like, it's incredible.

You guys, some of us who are a certain age, you guys remember like uh movies in the 90s and the 80s, like old movies.

Some of you are offended that I called those old movies.

But uh, but they are like like Back to the Future?

Okay, he goes from 1985 to 1955.

That would be like going from today to 1994.

Guys, yeah.

That movie is as close to the end of World War II as it is to us.

So just think about that.

If you're like, that's my movie, you're old.

All right, we're old.

But like, 80s and 90s movies would very often have this dynamic that was pretty common, like it shows up in a lot of movies, where the parents will go out of town and leave the children, which I didn't even know was an option.

And I was watching movies like, wait, you can do that?

Because I should have been doing that for years.

It's so much less expensive and more fun, honestly.

Uh, and you say, no, they'll make memories, they don't care.

But whatever, all right.

My bitterness is showing.

Um, but you know, in those movies, the parents will leave and they'll leave the kids at home.

And the same thing always plays out.

The kids are like, let's throw a party, but let's keep it kind of on the down low, and then somehow flyers get made, and the entire school descends upon the house, and there's a live ban for some reason.

They're just there with, and then the cops get called and everyone scatters, and it's like two hours before the parents come home, and the kids are sitting in this house, and it has been utterly destroyed, right?

That's like a that's in a lot of movies.

And that is what my boys' rooms look like every two days, no matter how I clean it.

And so I'll walk upstairs, and I just I just feel like hurt.

Like I've I literally get my feelings.

I walk and go, guys, what did I ask?

I just I just asked you not to put things in is this too much to ask?

And Jesus experiences what it's like to have people just let you down.

Obviously, in a much more serious moment in life, but it's just people failing to live up to the basic low-level expectations.

But it goes further than that.

Because not only does Jesus experience his disciples letting him down, he experiences disciples just cutting and running.

They just they abandon him.

They cut and run.

In verse 55, Jesus stands up and he's gone to meet his, is it's we're gonna meet Judas and the soldiers that Judas has with him face to face, and they're armed.

Verse 55, Jesus said to the crowd, Am I some dangerous revolutionary that you come with swords and clubs to arrest me?

Why didn't you arrest me in the temple?

I was there teaching every day, but this is all happening to fulfill the words of the prophets as recorded in Scripture.

And at that point, all the disciples deserted him and fled.

They ran.

They just ran.

They abandoned him.

And I'm sure that's something most of us can relate to.

Last little goofy story to add some levity to the morning.

Um, when I was in eighth grade, I picked a fight with a kid I couldn't beat.

And it was just because I was mouthy.

As a surprise for some of you who've known me well, I was very mouthy in eighth grade.

And no, I just I was on the eighth grade basketball team, we scrimmaged the ninth grade basketball team, and we beat the ninth grade basketball team.

And when you beat the ninth grade basketball team as the eighth grade basketball team, you shut up.

But I felt confident.

And so I mouthed off to this kid, his name was Kelly.

There's a dude named Kelly.

I thought that was funny, so I made a mention of it.

Kelly was like 6'2.

I don't know what I was thinking.

And I didn't know Kelly at all, but my friends told me, hey, Kelly's like a bad dude.

You shouldn't have done that.

And I kind of was like, ah, whatever.

And then Kelly started saying that he was going to find me and beat me up.

And our school was seventh, eighth, and ninth grade, so the ninth graders were at our school.

Um, and so, you know, what I should have done was just humble myself and be like, hey, I'm really sorry.

I shouldn't have said that, I'm a jerk, and please forgive me.

But instead, I decided to be like, yeah, bring it.

You know, because I was an A, I was trying to, that's what I thought.

I was I was terrified on the inside, but outwardly, I said that.

And I had two friends, Travis and Lee, and I don't know why they might be listening to this, they live in Wisconsin, but if they are, dude, guys, they promised they would be there.

They said, hey, it's okay.

If Kelly comes to you in the hallway, we're we there.

We've got your back.

And I believed them.

I was like, thank you.

Sure enough, that happened.

Kelly walked up to me, Travis and Lee, and they just kind of backed up.

And uh, and I proceeded to get just annihilated in front of all my friends, my girlfriend, it was great.

Um, I learned a lot of lessons that day.

I learned a lot of lessons.

And I'm not even mad at Travis, well, okay, I'm not mad at Travis because I don't think it would really help, to be honest.

But uh Lee went on to play Division I college football, and I think he could have done something.

That would have been nice to have Lee.

Mostly I'm just mad at myself.

Because it was all my fault.

But I I did learn that day that sometimes your closest friends, even if they promise you we'll be here if it gets tough, they're not.

They just abandon you for a variety of reasons.

Maybe they just feel awkward, they don't know how to talk to you or be around you because of what you're going through, and all of a sudden you feel alone.

Jesus experienced that.

You can relate to Jesus.

His friends cut and they ran.

Sometimes people do that.

Sometimes people cut and run.

Third category: breaking your heart.

This is after Jesus has been taken to the home of the high priest, where they kind of put on this sham of a trial before they take Jesus to Pontius Pilate, the Roman governor.

In verse 69, it says, Meanwhile, Peter was sitting outside in the courtyard and he's abandoned Jesus, but he's sticking around.

He's trying to sort of see what happens.

A servant girl came over and said to him, You were one of those with Jesus, the Galilean.

But Peter denied in front of everyone.

I don't know what you're talking about, he said.

Later, out by the gate, another servant girl noticed him and said to those standing around, This man was with Jesus of Nazareth.

Again, Peter denied it, this time with an oath.

I don't even know the man, he said.

A little later, some of the other bystanders came over to Peter and said, You must be one of them.

We can tell by your Galilean accent.

And Peter swore, A curse on me if I'm lying.

I don't know the man.

And immediately the rooster crowed.

And by the way, this would have been like a trumpet.

They had a certain type of trumpet called a cock's crow, and it's what the soldiers use to change the watch each night, just a little interesting detail.

This is probably like 3 a.m.

in the morning.

Suddenly, Jesus' words flashed through Peter's mind before the rooster crows, you will deny three times that you even know me.

And he went away, weeping bitterly.

Obviously, Peter's heartbroken, but so is Jesus.

Peter's his closest friend, one of his closest friends.

He spent three years pouring into Peter, like he's plucked Peter out of obscurity as just a fisherman, and he's told Peter that he's special, that he's a leader.

He said to Peter, You're the rock I'm going to build my church upon.

And some people interpret that as Peter himself, and others as the declaration that Peter made that Jesus was the Messiah.

Peter's the first of the disciples to say that, you're the Messiah.

I mean, Jesus has spent so much time, he's showed Peter so much, and Peter denies three times.

Says, a curse on me.

And to the Jewish people, that's a big deal.

Like you don't throw that around loosely.

A curse on me, I don't even know the man.

And like the heartbreak Jesus had to have had, knowing that Peter would do that.

I'm not going to share any funny stories, I don't have any funny stories about heartbreak.

But all of us know what that feels like.

All of us have had our hearts broken.

We've had someone that we really loved, really cared about, really trusted.

And they betrayed us.

And it just hurt so much more than if it had been like anybody else.

And Jesus experienced that with Peter, and so if you've ever experienced heartbreak, Jesus can relate to you.

Sometimes people break your heart.

Sometimes people let you down, sometimes they cut and run, and sometimes they break your heart.

Now, I said at the beginning that not only is this aspect of who Jesus is deeply relatable, it's good for us to remember the things that Jesus went through and recognize that, hey, he gets us.

That's actually really important.

But it's more than just relatable, it's it's relevant.

Because the hard truth is that we're all people.

And sometimes people let other people down.

Sometimes people let God down.

And we've all done that.

Like I told stories of people letting me down, but I've let so many people down.

I've let so many friends down over the years.

I've fallen short in so many different ways.

You know, the number of times that I've told people, I'll be honest, I've told people I will pray for you.

And then I just forgot.

And then I've had people reach out and say, Thank you so much for praying for me.

And I'm like, you're welcome.

You know, like, and it wasn't intentional.

I didn't go like, I'm not gonna pray for that person.

I didn't do that.

I just forgot, you know, I didn't write it down or whatever, but they were depending on me for prayer, and I let them down.

I've made promises to my kids, to my wife that I haven't followed through on.

We all do that, and we don't just do it with each other, we we do it with the Lord.

I've let God down.

There's so many times that I've I've made commitments to God, and in my heart, I'm like, Lord, I'm gonna I'm gonna do this and I'm gonna do it better, I'm gonna be more intentional in this way, and I just don't.

But it's the way that Jesus.

Jesus responds to these failures.

It shows us who he really is and it gives us hope.

So what does Jesus do when his friends let him down?

When they just can't keep their eyes open.

He says something really interesting.

It was in verse 40.

It said that he returned to his disciples and found them asleep, and he said to Peter, Couldn't you keep watch with me even one hour?

Keep watching pray so that you will not give in to temptation.

He's like, this prayer is for you too, not just for me.

He says, For the spirit is willing, but the body is weak.

That's a very interesting statement.

I love this so much.

It's actually been extremely helpful for me just as sort of a paradigm to understand myself and life and failure.

You know, we we have uh we have a spirit, and if you give your life to Jesus, Scripture says that the Holy Spirit comes and joins with your spirit, makes its home in your heart, that the Holy Spirit lives inside of you and you have a a new life because of that.

That's what we celebrate with baptism in many different ways.

But we also have flesh.

That's what Jesus is saying.

Your spirit's willing.

I know that in spirit you guys want to do what's best.

You intend to, but your flesh, that human part of you, it's just it's weak.

It's not able to fulfill what the spirit desires.

And that's the that's the true of all of us.

We are all spirit and we're all flesh.

And you have to understand that about yourself and give yourself some grace because Jesus gave grace to his disciples.

He was frustrated, he was hurt, that he didn't curse them, he didn't kick them out.

He he recognized the issue is that, man, I know, I know you guys want to, but you just don't have it.

And if we're honest with ourselves, that's where we find ourselves a lot in life.

Yeah, I want to, I want to do what's right, I want to do what's good.

Paul wrote about this in Romans chapter 7.

Romans 7 · chapter mention

I want to do what's good, I want to do what's right, but then I don't.

Galatians chapter 5 talks about how we have this war happening within ourselves of our spirit and our flesh, and they battle and they desire different things.

Galatians 5 · chapter mention

And man, it'd be great if the spirit won every time, but a lot of times the spirit doesn't.

The flesh is just there.

And we've got to understand that and recognize that Jesus understands that.

And so you might you might carry with you deep regrets because you feel like you've let God down or you've let other people down, and maybe you have.

Like honestly, maybe, yeah.

You check that box.

I have let people down, and I have let the Lord down.

Because I haven't followed through on my commitments and whatever.

So what happens when when you let God down?

Well, the same thing that happens right here in this story is that he understands, he loves you, he calls it out, and he moves on.

We have a harder time sometimes moving on than God does.

It says in the book of Hebrews, chapter four, that this high priest of ours talking about Jesus understands our weaknesses, for he faced all the same testings that we do, yet he did not sin.

Jesus gets it, he understands.

And so if you feel like you've let people down, or if in the future you let God down or anyone down, hey, deal with that appropriately, but know, know in your heart that God understands and he loves you, he's not surprised by it, it doesn't throw him off.

And you can just say, Yeah, Lord, my spirit was willing, but my flesh was weak.

And move on.

Because that's what he does.

What about if if you cut and run?

What about if you abandon someone or abandon God?

And that's kind of a weird thing to think about because like we're here at church, so you're here, you're watching from home, those of you that counts, we'll count it.

Um you haven't abandoned God, and it's funny, I I've never like outright abandoned God and said, I'll never again, but there've been lots of moments in my life where for a moment I kind of set the God stuff aside.

I set my values, I set my convictions, my passion for the Lord aside, because in the moment I decided something else was more important.

You know, for the disciples it was their safety.

But sometimes for us it can be something as simple as our pride.

I was playing basketball five years ago at a gym, and I was being an absolute jerk.

And a guy I was playing with said, I I are you?

It was like as soon as he said that, and I was like, oh no.

Like he recognized me.

And he said, Are you?

No.

You can't be.

He like that's the way it went.

And I knew what he was, I knew I knew exactly.

I was like, how do I get out of this gym as fast as possible?

Are you saying the pastor?

I looked, I get that all the time.

It's weird.

One of those faces, um, bearded white guys, you know, they're everywhere.

Um, but no, I I had to actually I had to stop, and it was really embarrassing.

Super embarrassing.

Because like things that come out of my mouth that weren't good.

Because in that moment, I just was like, well, yeah, I'm a Jesus follower, but right now I'm trying to win and winning and Jesus don't always go together.

I don't know if you've experienced that.

It's like he values different things than we value.

And so I just had to be like, hey, I'm um I'm really embarrassed and I'm really sorry.

I don't think he goes to church yet.

So it didn't work.

I have I've abandoned my passion for God, I've abandoned my faithfulness to God, I've abandoned in all kinds of situations, I've cut and run in all kinds of situations, even temporarily because something in the moment just seemed more important.

And it gets complicated and messy, flesh and spirit, all that kind of stuff, but I've absolutely done that.

And so what happens when we do that?

What happens when we like leave, when we walk away?

Well, Jesus comes and gets us.

He's a shepherd.

It's a frequent metaphor for Jesus in scripture.

He's the good shepherd.

And good shepherds, they go and they find their missing sheep and they bring them back into the fold.

And so when Jesus was resurrected, he speaks to the women who see him at the tomb and he says, Go tell my disciples, go tell them that I'm coming to meet him.

He's instantly focused on getting everyone together, getting everyone back.

And then there's this road to a place called Emmaus, and a few of his disciples are on that road, and so he goes and appears to them, and it's a really interesting story because they don't recognize him, and then he's like, he reveals who he is, and they go back because he's trying to get everybody back together because that's what he is.

He's a shepherd.

So if you ever find yourself in life wandering from God, either intentionally or even accidentally, sometimes we get to that place, you're like, How did I get this far?

And you can even be at a church on a Sunday morning, but in your heart, feel like you are so far from God, like you've walked away or you've drifted away, and you might be wondering, what do I do when I'm in that place?

God must be so disappointed, so upset.

And you know what?

He just goes and gets you and brings you back.

And so let him do that.

Like let him bring you back.

When you feel far from him, when you feel like you've missed it and you've abandoned him or you've abandoned your values or something, just let him bring you back.

The door is not shut with Jesus ever.

Ever.

That's one of the tragedies of Judas.

Judas takes his own life.

And we don't get to see what Jesus would have said.

Just a big mystery to us.

We can think about it and wonder it, but Jesus is so good.

The door is not shut.

And if you know someone, maybe it's not you, maybe it's someone you know and it's a child of yours, a friend, a spouse.

And they're really, they've they've gone way off of where you think they they ought to be or who they are.

Don't lose hope.

Because I have seen Jesus and his shepherding skills in action, and it's amazing how often the people that you think are the furthest, like one day, they're the closest.

And you're like, how did that happen?

And yeah, you can clap for that.

I'm imagining whoever started that is one of those people.

That's how that tends to go.

So don't lose hope because Jesus is a shepherd, and he goes after lost sheep.

And if you ever find yourself lost, don't worry about the awkwardness.

Just let him bring you back.

Last one, and we'll we'll wrap up.

Worship team, you guys can make your way out.

What about when you break it?

When you break God's heart?

Like, I mean, come on.

I'm sure we've all had people who have broken our hearts, and maybe we even forgive them, but kind of from afar.

But it's really tough to like, I mean, it's tough to bring someone close when they have crushed you.

There's a story of Peter and Jesus after the resurrection.

I'm not going to read it, I'll just kind of give you the quick recap for time.

But Jesus shows up after he's resurrected, and Peter's fishing again.

It makes sense.

He's gone back to his day job.

Like Peter in his mind, he's failed as a disciple.

He's complete, even this is after Jesus has been resurrected, and Peter's still in his mind is like, well, clearly, all that stuff Jesus said about me being a fisher of men and the rock and all that stuff, that stuff, that's over.

That ship has sailed, and he's gone back to being a fisherman.

And so Jesus kind of recreates in many ways the same moment he had with Peter when he first called Peter to be a disciple.

It's like Jesus' way of renewing that.

And he shows up on the side of the Sea of Galilee while Peter's fishing, and he calls Peter to him, and there's this huge catch of fish, and Jesus cooks breakfast for Peter and a few other disciples.

And then three times, he asks Peter if he loves him.

Three times.

And this is such a deep story, we could analyze it from a lot of different angles.

There's cool wordplay with the Hebrew or the Greek words, rather, that Jesus uses and all that.

But but put all that to the side, all the complicated stuff.

It's really simple.

Jesus asked Peter three times, Do you love me?

Yes.

Alright, feed my sheep.

Jesus says.

Peter, do you love me?

Yes, Lord, you know I love you.

And feed my sheep.

Peter denied that he knew Jesus three times, and Jesus gives Peter three opportunities to just erase that.

To say, Yes, Lord, I love you.

And in Jesus' mind, it's like, cool.

Done.

Done.

And my calling on your life is still on, and your destiny and your purpose, it's still there.

So go do what I asked you to do.

That's who Jesus is.

Even with the person who broke his heart, Jesus brings him back and he restores him to the same place that he was before.

I know I've broken God's heart.

It's possible to do that, by the way.

The book of Ezekiel actually speaks of God being brokenhearted because of what the people have done.

We can break God's heart.

But he doesn't respond with bitterness, and he doesn't respond with anger, he doesn't reject you.

He never says to you, you missed your chance.

And if you feel like that, if you've ever messed up so much, you know it in your heart.

I've messed up in big ways.

And you're worried that maybe God is like done with you or you've kind of leveled down in his eyes and he'll just never see you the same.

That is not true.

Like Peter did that to himself.

Peter gave himself a demotion.

He said, I am no longer Peter the fisher of men, I'm Peter the fisher of fish.

And Peter's apparently bad as a fisherman.

He never catches fish without Jesus' help in the Bible.

He's not even good at it.

But Peter's like, I guess I'll do that again.

And Jesus basically says, Hey, I didn't demote you.

And he brings him back.

Jesus will do that with you.

And he might give you the strength, if you'll ask him, to do that with people who have broken your heart in the right way, in the right time.

I know that sometimes in life there's things that can happen that we have to have barriers and boundaries and whatnot for protection, but there are other situations where heartbreak has taken place, and what we really need is reconciliation.

And Jesus models that for us, and he can empower that in us if we'll let him.

So people, as we wrap up, people will they'll let you down, they'll cut and run, and they'll break your heart.

And that's it's hard, but that's life.

And we're all people, and we all let other people down, and we all cut and run in certain situations, and we all break people's heart, and we also do it with the Lord, and every single time we see that, we see Jesus respond with love and with grace.

2 Timothy 2.13 says, if we are unfaithful, he remains faithful.

For he cannot deny who he is.

This is who he is.

It's who he is.

In fact, Megan said something really interesting about Judas.

She said, I wonder if Judas just didn't really realize who he was.

Because this is, I'm gonna butcher what Megan said last night, it was brilliant.

That the greater degree that we have in terms of understanding who God is, like the better you know who he is, the more easily you can respond when you mess up.

Like if Jesus must have just not really known Jesus.

And if so, he maybe wouldn't have taken his life.

He would have known that Jesus will receive me back.

But I look at that verse and I look at all that we've just explored, and I recognize that my failure results in his faithfulness.

My failure, which is frequent, results in his faithfulness.

So if you feel like a failure, know that what you get with Jesus, not necessarily with the world, but what you get for your failure is his faithfulness.

That's what you get.

If you bring your failure to God, say, hey Lord, here, here it is.

This is, I'm so sorry.

I'm so sorry, I can't believe I did this.

I'm whatever, you don't even have the words for it.

What you get is his faithfulness.

And if you're sitting beside somebody and you know that they're going through something and they feel like a failure, guess what they get from God?

They get faithfulness, goodness, mercy, and love, and maybe they need you to give them that too.

So, with that said, we're gonna take Lord's Supper and wrap up.

And speaking of failure, I forgot my Lord's Supper Cup.

So, does anyone have one?

Scott, you are the man.

Nope, Scott wins.

Look at that.

That was a pretty good catch.

I don't know if you saw that one-handed.

It's just raw athleticism, you know.

Oh.

Let it be known.

There is a god, and he has an awesome sense of humor.

Alright.

That might be one of my favorite moments in the history of our church.

That was awesome.

I didn't I didn't do that on purpose at all.

That was just, that was great.

Well, hey, if you're new, uh, we do this every Sunday.

We take Lord's Supper.

It's usually here at the end, and it's a way for us to kind of wrap everything up.

And this is a little meal that Jesus actually had with his disciples in those final hours before he went to the cross.

And we take it together every week.

It's a great reminder of who Jesus is and what he does for us.

Um, we're gonna pray for this bread.

This represents his body.

We're gonna drink the juice after that and pray for it that represents his blood.

And so if you wouldn't mind, let's pray together.

Lord, thank you so much for this piece of bread.

This is your body.

Given up as a sacrifice, because you love us so much.

Lord, you would not have had to make this sacrifice if we didn't have such a tendency to fail.

But you did.

Because when it comes to you, our failure always results in your faithfulness.

And this is a huge reminder of that.

Thank you, Jesus.

Let's take the breath.

Now the juice.

Lord, we thank you for this cup of juice.

This is your blood poured out as an offering, cleanses us from our sin, leaves us blameless in your eyes, totally blameless.

You are faithful.

You're always faithful, even when we fail.

And we thank you for that, Jesus.

Amen.