Peter's Spiritual Crisis: A Willing Spirit and a Weak Flesh, by Mike Bickle

call Satan the Bible call Satan the accuser he accuses the Brethren night and day before God and his demonic emissaries demons they're constantly speaking into the minds of believers accusing us constantly so that we lose our confidence with God and we base our relationship before the Lord on how good we're doing we lose our confidence and our calling in God because the devil is constantly telling us that we've gone too far and the Lord's finished with us and he's putting us on the back burner so to speak but the word of the Lord is and the work of redemption is that we have confidence before him even in our weakness not because of what we do but because of what he did and his calling on our life is without any repentance the scripture says in Romans chapter 11 verse 29 the callings of God are irrevocable he does not change them that our failure does not cancel out our calling and I'm talking to a believer that in our failure we confess it and we commit to obey and we have this relationship of seeking to walk in a vibrant relationship with the Lord but constantly facing our weakness and the enemy accuses and says you're disqualified your calling is over you'll never enter into the will of God in your life the Lord's punishing you because of your failure when the devil's attacking us or just win the situation of life just the rigors of life aren't always the devil the devil attacks a lot too sometimes life is hard and the enemy's whispering constantly in our ear this is what you deserve this is the because of your sin the Lord is finished with your calling you've gone too far it's too late there's not a new beginning and it just lie after lie after lie and I want to show us in the life of Peter the chief apostle how he faced that very dilemma and the Lord delivered him and gave him confidence in boldness which was critical for any of us walking in the will of God our life whatever the will of God in our life is the Lord is committed to us walking in the fullness of it the enemy wants to accuse us so we draw back and we lose confidence and that's the battle every one of us face because the devil is unrelenting in his accusations against us well I'm going to begin the story of Peter in Matthew chapter 16 in the context which the Lord gave Peter a new name the Lord asks the disciples of fundamental question and it's the fundamental question the foundational question for the church he asked them who do they say that I am what do you really think is the truth about Who I am and when Jesus asked that question he wasn't only asking am I the Messiah am I the one that provides salvation he was asking more than that what am I like what is my personality like what is my nature like Who am I and what am I like is the question because if we answer this question in a right way we will run to the Lord in confidence even in our weakness if we answer this question in a wrong way we will run from the Lord hiding from him when we discover our own weakness and failure who God is in our own thinking the way we imagined him to be what his salvation is like what his personality is like how he thinks and feels when he looks at us when we stumble determines really the course of the next decades of our spiritual life so he's asking the disciples I always pictured them kind of standing around the fire one night after a long day of ministry and he goes I just want to know a question who do the people say that I am verse 14 one of the Apostles said some of the people think of John the Baptist in other words their sink is saying here that fiery Holiness preacher John Jesus could shake his head he goes you out I am like that I am a fiery Holiness preacher that's true but that's not the whole truth of Who I am another guy says well they don't think of you so much as John the Baptist the fiery Holiness preacher they think you're Elijah that prophet of power that confronted the the the kingdom of darkness that confronted Satan with great power he goes yeah I do that I confront Satan boldly with power yes I'm like Elijah but I'm more than that another one of the Apostles spoke up they said they think you're Jeremiah the people think you're like him and Jeremiah was known as the weeping prophet they've seen your tenderness when you wept over the woman who was caught in adultery I mean the the way you treated her the tenderness of how you treated her you're like the weeping prophet with a tender heart with compassion that cried out for God's mercy this is yeah I'm like that I am a tender-hearted prophet that cries out for God's mercy that values God's mercy and then some of the other apostles added different ones of the prophets and there was a little bit of truth in all these answers in terms of they were grasping what Jesus was like in his heart and what the nature of his salvation was like was it called to holiness it was an anointing of power to confront darkness it was tender mercy that gentle tender heart before the Lord and the way that God receives his people now in verse 15 he says now I'm gonna turn change the question I don't want to know what the people think I want to know what you think he's talking now to the 12 apostles and of course the whole future of the church is gonna depend on them getting this answer right because their teaching would flow out of their revelation their leadership style would flow out of the way they imagined God was like and what the nature of his heart but also the nature of his salvation what it embraced what it included how did God deal with sin how does God look at weakness in the life of his people so Peter speaks up verse 16 he said you're the Christ you're the Messiah you're the Son of the Living God you're the one that all the Old Testament prophet sieze pointed to yeah you're the fullness of all of them the man of power the holiness preacher the tender God of mercy or all of those things you fully God fully man verse 17 jesus said several things to him but I'm pointing out one particular thing he said blessed are You Simon and because he goes on to say you the father revealed that to you you didn't get that on your own but the point I want to highlight here is that he changed his name right there on the spot from Simon to the name Peter in that sense that verse 18 I could have said from now on I'm gonna call you Peter here Peter that's who you are and upon the rock of this truth of what you just said I'm going to build my church so Peter gets a new name in that encounter and the name Peter means the rock in Greek he goes you're the reliable one you're a stable one Peter now the Lord knows that Peter's going to deny him and the Lord knows that Peter's going to stumble in other ways as well but he named Peter Simon was his name Simon the one that would deny the Lord hid matter of fact Peter's famous for having denied the Lord but he has other failures as well Simon the one that will deny me you will become for rock the reliable one i name you now the steady reliable one Peter's thinking wow that name fits at this point in time Peter thought he was reliable he didn't realize that was only going to be by the grace of God that he would be reliable and steady because God would make him that because Peter was going to discover the weakness of his own flesh in a way he had not understood up to that point in time let's go to paragraph D well Peter got his new name and again we understand that he denied the Lord and that's where this story is going but I want to give another example in the scripture where Peter yielded to the fear of man in a very true I mean it was a very important situation and Peter the chief apostle yielded to the fear of man again this is after the day of Pentecost this is a few years down the road when he knew better and this is kind of a unfamiliar passage to some but I'm only adding it not to pick on Peter kind of pile up on the guy when he's down but just so you see the the real nature of how he wasn't quite as reliable and stable as the Lord named him at least not in the flesh he wasn't this is Paul writing in Galatians chapter 2 he describes the time when Peter had come to the city of Anna of Antioch where the church was flourishing and he goes at verse 11 Galatians 2 because I had to withstand Peter to his face I had to rebuke him actually in front of people that's what he means I had to withstand him to his faith I was stood him because he was to be blamed he was guilty of a grievious failure it is the fear of man as what Peter's at Paul is writing this is going to describe he goes on and describes the situation in verse 12 how Peter when the Gentiles he was eating with the Gentiles and I don't want to explain why this was so dramatic and important and the Jewish brethren from Jerusalem came to town and Peter out of the fear of the Jewish leaders he thought I'm gonna draw back from the Gentiles and and it was in that context he was actually acting in a hypocritical way because of the fear of man and I don't want to break all that down but I just want to give that example but Peter had this tendency in him a fear bold as a lion but he still had a intrinsic fear of man problem in his life it didn't go away but that didn't change the fact that the Lord named him the rock the reliable one the steady one because when I look at Peter in the flesh he wasn't so steady but when I look at Peter in the spirit the Lord sees that steadiness and the Lord names you not that you know how the Lord sees you and not that everyone has a special name in the spirit but you might that the Lord knows that you don't know I don't know how all that works but the Lord sees who we are in the spirit and that's more powerful to him than who we are in the flesh we see who we are in the flesh he sees who we are in the spirit and he relates to us that way though we view our self and we relate to one another often by who we are in the flesh which is very different than how God relates to us God relates to us in the spirit who we are in the spirit 2nd Corinthians 5:16 Paul says we don't look at people who they are in the flesh we look at them as who they are in the spirit who they are before God how God sees them that's the way we are to see one another 2nd Corinthians 5 verse 16 paragraph II our most sincere efforts to love God no matter how sincere we are our love is flawed our love is fragile our love is weak but weak love for Jesus is not false love some people think because our love is weak our love is false weak love for Jesus because we haven't fully matured it's still real to him it moves him it matters to him it's not like he looks at us and sees how weak our love is he looks at us and sees how genuine our weak love is because we're not hypocrites because we're not mature we're hypocrites when what we proclaim we're not pursuing but if we're proclaiming at coming up short but we're pursuing that we're not hypocrites we're immature but we're not hypocrites and the Lord sees our our love as genuine even when it's weak the devil tells us our love is false when our love is weak and the reason so we'll draw back and lose confidence so that instead of standing boldly before the Lord even in our broken we try to come up with something else to add to what Jesus did on the cross and his blood to motivate God to like us more the Lord says I already like you you you're mine well I want to motivate you to make sure that I don't lose my calling well the calling on your life is without repentance Romans chapter 11 verse 29 I don't take it back now a man or a woman can persistently resist the Lord and forfeit that calling but that's a continual conscious persistent rejection of the Lord that's not a failure a stumble a bad week a bad month a bad year and then a crying out to the Lord and then saying oh Lord it's all off steals no it's not all lost your calling and your place before me it's based on who my son what he did and what he's like it's not based on what you're like and what you did but I tell you the enemy will come and accuse you unrelenting night and day day and night night and day because if he can get you out of the place of confidence it can get you to quit if you stay confident you won't quit if you don't quit you mature and the issues are struggling with you will get victory in time over those issues but the Lord's calling on you the Lord's relationship to you is secure not after you get victory it's secure because he gave it to you even before you did anything the Lord called you the Lord sought you before you did anything he wanted you based on what his son did to paragraph 8 our most sincere efforts to love God are flawed and they're fragile they're weak jeremiah the prophet said the heart is deceitful above all things desperately wicked who can know it we have a greater capacity for sin than we comprehend but when we discover new pockets of darkness in our heart i'm talking about as sincere believers it shocks us but it doesn't shock god i remember in my early days I remember saying that one time actually saying Lord can you believe I did that I mean that's so stupid but I really said that once and I can imagine the Lord didn't tell me anything but I can imagine yes young man there's a whole lot more where that came from but there's in our flesh even as a believer I'm talking about in our emotions and our unrenewed thinking there's a capacity in all of us if the setting is just right the setup is just right we're discouraged it now for worn down enough the devil's lying to us enough the circumstances are negative enough to do all kinds of situations that we can't imagine today we could do so we don't have confidence in our walk with God or even our calling based on how blameless we always are that is a bad place of confidence there's no certainty there it's on the blood of the lamb it's on the work of the cross it's on what he did for us but not just that it's what kind of personality he has paragraph F I love to say this I say this all the time our heart was created with a longing for the assurance that we are enjoyed by God our heart is created we there's a longing in every human heart for the assurance that God enjoys us not the hope that he enjoys us the surance when we have that settled because we understand who we are in Christ we understand the work of the Cross we understand a bit about the personality of God we have the assurance that even our weakness he enjoys us and his promises to us is calling over us is steadfast and reliable and it's not always up for negotiation when we stumble and when we trip the Lord wants us to have this assurance it's called confidence this confidence that he actually enjoys us this confidence that the promises over our life are still there even though we had a bad season the confidence that we're not being punished because in our situation because something we had bad season and now everything is falling apart and now we're being punished beloved it devil may attack us and we may even reap the fruit of bad decisions but that's not the same as the Lord punishing us in a retribution to say I'm just gonna show you how bad it can get because of what you did his son really took the punishment for us and when he disciplines us it's because we've resisted his leadership over and over again I'm gonna talk about a bad month or a bad season I'm talking about a lifestyle entrenched a conscious decision to resist his leadership there is this discipline of the Lord because he wants to wake us up so that we do repent that he says okay okay says that's not punishment that's not retribution that's not paid back my son already paid the price for you there is discipline that wakes us up but that's in context to a believer who persistently cast off the Lord's leadership of his life excuse me paragraph G God made way for us to and for this longing to be fulfilled in our heart I mean the weakest believer can have this the assurance there enjoyed the assurance the promises over their life are good the assurance the calling over their life is steadfast and true even when they go through some of these Peter seasons that we're gonna highlight here in his life paragraph H many sincere believers are paralyzed by shame because they don't understand this they are paralyzed in their spiritual life by shame they are they love Jesus but they're so conscious and caught up with what if he does this what if he cast me out what if he wipes me out what if he's forgotten me I mean I know I'll go to heaven I know that he has I have to go to heaven he paid for me but what I'm about between now and then and they're paralyzed by fear and shame I mean in their walk with God is he about to level the hammer on me and destroy me because what I did last month or last year is he gonna catch up and wipe my life out my spiritual calling it is it going to be completely nullified because the mistakes I made and I want to assure you it's not that's not what the blood of Jesus speaks that's not what the personality of God is like that's not what the record of the scripture portrays when we look at I mean most graphic of all like I've looked at just Sunday morning it's the life of David it has many failures but the steadfast calling on his life that speaks of how the grace of God operates I mean he's a trophy of the grace of God of how far God will go in tenderness with a man or a woman who fails but will refuse to give up and keep pressing in and believing God to be who God said he would be in their behalf life of shame that's why the devil wants us to go there fear insecurity leads to a life of sin if we feel dirty will live dirty if we feel rejected will live rejected but if we feel confident after we failed beloved that's the pathway to living clean if we feel that he's smiling the callings in place the promises are good we go are you are you kidding I'm still good he's yes beloved what our hearts are live we go that case I'm here I'm in all the way this is how it works I'm in all the way and beloved I have good news for you that is the truth of the gospel for the pallet for the cross is the power of God for salvation there's not just power for you to pray to get a demon out of somebody there's that too it's the power for you and your weakness and brokenness to have a continued steady confidence in hope and to see our lives transform little by little but from a place of confidence even before the transformation takes place that's the power of God operating in us that is how the power of God works in us top of page 2 well let's get on to Peters story a little bit his story is so well known that I have to spend too much time on it we'll look at his journey of discovery well what he's going to discover is more about his sin that shocked him he thought he was pretty good he's gonna find out he wasn't so good but he's also gonna go on discovery of the power and the measure of grace he knew the grace of God was there he didn't know that it was that measure that abundant so he thought his sin was pretty small he found out it was big he thought the grace of God was pretty little but he found out that the grace of God was big he found out just opposite of what he was thinking in those early days well it starts off in Matthew 26 right before the crucifixion the Lord told Peter he would deny him he would stumble he'd Jesus to find stumbling in the passage as deny him and he says up verse 31 Matthew 26 all of you will be made to stumble tonight Peter spoke up verse 33 he goes I know those 11 guys I know them I've been traveling with them I can see them stumbling that that makes sense but I will never stumble the Lord is looking at patroness bad-word Peter because Peter didn't have not have understanding of his own weakness Peter was speaking out of sincerity and some would say pride but I undoubtedly this pride there's pride at all of us but there was a fiery deep sincerity but it wasn't tested and proven he he didn't understand that there's more than sincerity that we do have weakness in us we have our heart is deceitfully wicked I'm talking about our emotions our thought processes outside of the grace of God and we don't know the measure of how far we can go in doing something in the right situation I mean the perfect storm of negative things all lined up together he says no no Peter yeah the eleven are gonna stumble but so are you you'd a very specific way they're all getting to die me you're gonna deny me three times more than the rest of them are tonight because I'll never deny you never verse 34 jesus said I'll take tonight before the rooster crows three times the others will deny me once or whatever the say really you'll do much more than they will in the failure verse 35 in the face of Jesus's prophecy I mean how many of you know Jesus's prophecies are really accurate I mean Jesus appeared before Paul the Apostle when he would got converted in acts 9 I mean this is the most Oh prophecy whatever he stands in acts 9 before him when when Saul gets converted I'm on a bunny trail right now and he's dead right before him and he said Saul so I am Jesus I will show you how much you must suffer for my name's sake I mean that prophecy you can't buying that prophecy in the name of Jesus the name of Jesus I cast that word down they came from Jesus like that Lord don't ever give me a prophecy like that please or something I don't know what I'd say if he did but anyway Peter says in verse 35 in essence you're wrong Lord you don't know me I am my sincerity is so real and Jesus could say oh I know your sincerity but Peter you don't know what you're capable of Peter says I know you don't really know me and Peters Jesus would say no Peter you don't really accurately know yourself you don't know what you're capable of negative and you don't know how deeply your sincerity touches me in the grace of God as well we'll look at that in a minute so Peter had actually at this season of his life he had more confidence in his commitment to Jesus than in Jesus's commitment to him sometimes a young believer will start off so red-hot I mean that's beautiful I mean sincere ready to die and it's real they have unconsciously more confidence and their commitment to Jesus than in Jesus's commitment to them they're gripped by how they know they won't fail the reason I say unbelievers because there's not too many older believers that still buy that in the early days they were like that but let some time go by and that that facade will go away in time just give it a little bit of time be Peter sought to stand before the Lord based on the promise I won't stumble lord I promise I won't stumble sometimes Wilson I remember in my early days I would do something wrong as a believer and I would swear I vow I will never do that again as Lord says I don't want you relating to me on the vow that you won't stumble that doesn't move me it's built on wrong understanding stand before me based on the valve and I couldn't commit it to you don't base your walk with me on vows you won't fail don't do that now I mean we can make commitments of our heart to do certain things but we don't want it to define our relationship with the Lord that is I have written here in the end that spiritual pride that we think that we can contribute to why God loves us that we can motivate him to really take an interest well Mike Bickle is so dedicated I think I'm gonna be more interested no no in our early days excuse me maybe we buy that beloved we can't motivate him to be more interested in us than he is before we even thought about him he was so interested in you before you had a thought about him and that's what our relationship is based on what he did not on what we do and what we do is important but it doesn't define the relationship and why he loves us paragraph C Jesus went on since what Peter he goes you think he'll never stumble he goes I got bad news for you verse 31 Satan has asked for you he's asked for permission from the Father to sift you like wheat so that the chaff the weakness in you would come to the surface you don't think you have weakness Satan is gonna test you and sift you like sweet and the weakness you don't see that's down underneath the fault lines underneath you're going to see them openly because when you see them openly then I will gain a true relationship with you our relationship will be based on truth and you will finally be secure because if you're a walk with God is based on the fact you're not going to stumble you'll never have confidence if your walk with God is based on the fact of his commitment to you and who he is and what he's promised you you can have confidence in that he says Peter in essence this is gonna sift you like wheat this is gonna bring the chaff to light this is gonna bring the weakness to light but when that weakness comes to light got myself a little bug earlier this week but in the name of Jesus bug go away anyway he tells him but verse 32 he says I prayed for you Peter I prayed that your faith would not fail now notice there's a vast difference between us stumbling in sin in our faith failing because because you are going to stumble and stumble is a temporary thing it's a temporary compromise fail our faith failing is a long-term giving up and giving in and the devil wants to cause our stumbling to turn into our faith failing that when we stumble the devil will come and accuse and says it's over anyway I mean you'll never change God's already written you off I mean you're gonna go to heaven but your calling is over the promises are over the punishment of God's gonna pile up and crush you anyway and so the guy goes ok my stumbling has now led to a mindset of unbelief where our faith fails we don't press in for the fullness of what God has promised us in our life I'm talk about the full calling on your life the fullness of the relationship with you in the Lord the fullness of what he said he would do in you never let go of that I mean when you're 80 when you're 90 when you're a hundred still be contending for yet another breakthrough enough dimension in your life never ever allow yourself to draw back and settle in to a second-class relationship with the Lord say my stumbling is just too much it's gone too far don't do that the blood of Jesus is stronger than all of your stumbling it really is the enemy wants are stumbling they become failed our faith that fails faith failing means you give up and give in stumbling means it's a short-term compromise Jesus already told him me you're gonna stumble but he said I prayed that your faith won't fail and it won't fail I myself have prayed for you and I got good news for you Jesus at the right hand of the Father is praying for the Saints I mean Jesus and the Holy Spirit and partnership are covering all the saints across the earth he's praying and interceding for us at the right hand of the Father and we have the word of God at the indwelling Spirit I mean we really do have it made but the one thing that can take us out is if we buy the lie if we buy into the lie and we caused our stumbling to become a long-term quitting our faith feeling and he says that when you have returned when your confidence returns is what he's really saying here when you're coming as this commitment never failed but his confidence is gonna fail when you've returned and confidence then you strengthen your brothers you give them confidence too you give them confidence out of the confidence that you've received that comfort you've received verse 34 but Peter I want to tell you again the rooster shall not crow before you deny me that you even know me because you are going to stumble but you're gonna recover your confidence will be restored and jesus prayed for him but it's me beyond that Jesus actually appears in his resurrected form and in the resurrection in his resurrected body and calls Peter and which call brings about his restoration personally I mean jesus knew because I've got an appointment with you Peter and I'm gonna see you to it that you don't your faith does not fail and you will return in your confidence well let's look at paragraph eight that very night in the garden Jesus gave a two-fold description of how our heart operates in the grace of God and this description is very important this is straight from the lips of Jesus says in paragraph II Matthew 26:41 he's talking to the Apostles but I just like this picture I'm looking right at Peter st. Peter your spirit is willing but your flesh is weak and Peter's going what's that mean just remember that Peter your spirit is willing there's a yes in your spirit that's real and I see the yes in you you don't really see it as clear as I do because when you deny me you're gonna think it's over but I want to tell you you still are sincere your spirit is willing I get it but your flesh is weak you don't think your flesh is that weak so Peter had it all mixed up Peter thought his flesh was strong and then after he failed he got in such despair he didn't count his willing spirit is worth anything and maybe I'm exaggerating that a little bit but he struggled he had it just opposite and that's how so often we approach our own journey in the Lord would we stumble in our weakness paragraph F so we have the story verse 56 the servant girl she says this man Peter verse 56 he was with Jesus Jesus is in the courthouse and the court being tried by all the priests in the high priest verse 57 he denies I don't know this man he says to the little girl verse 58 after a little while one of the guy goes wait Peter you're one of those guys and he says in verse 58 no the second I am I don't know I'm not with him I don't know it we're 69 an hour passes another guy says wait I'm positive I saw you traveling with him Peter goes in verse 16 I don't even know what you're saying immediately while he was speaking the rooster crowed and I at Jesus I don't know exactly how it works but I imagining that the Sanhedrin is trance transferring Jesus from one building part of the trial to another building four other priests were coming or something and I imagine she's walking from the courthouse to another building and right when the crow you know you know it says in verse that wasn't very good but verse 61 I imagined the Lord's being walked from one building to the next and he caught eyes with Peter they locked eyes and the rooster crowed he looked at Peter and Peter looked at him that was the last time they locked eyes before Jesus's death I mean what a horrible experience for Peter and then Peter remembered just hours earlier the Lord had told me that I'm gonna deny three times her 62 Peter would have wept bitterly and this memory the eyes of the Lord locking into his eyes right every said the third time I don't know him and then they meet each other as Jesus is going from one building to the next in the context of the trial paragraph G the battle for faith its waged in understanding what God is thinking what God is feeling it's waged in understanding the power of the cross the power of the blood I mean after the cross the resurrection we add those terminologies the the real parameters and measure of what salvation is really accomplished this is when the crisis of our faith takes place when more faith I mean when we stumble in our weakness that's when the crisis because at that moment we either we lie to God and we come up with Bible verses to me to rationalize our sin not good don't come up with vile verses tell God I send he hurting hos don't try to trick God with Bible Bible verses but then don't listen to the devil don't back away say Lord but I know you I know what your son's blood did here I am fully yours totally confident before you beloved repent of the sin push delete its out of the equation it's out of the conversation don't bring it up a hundred more times the blood is covered it don't change the conversation between you and the Lord is wholly out what I did last week I'll never do again I've a little just I don't want you relating to me on all your vows I don't want all your promises I want you relating to me because you love me in your weakness but you know that I love you in strength and power and that's how we relate dub a page 3 well Jesus dies raised from the dead then Mary Magdalene goes to the tomb and the angel appears at the - look what the angel says in mark 16 entering the tomb they saw a young man that's an angel clothed with a long white robe and the angel said you seek Jesus of Nazareth and they the ladies said yes verse 7 they said go tell the disciples notice and especially tell Peter the Lord wants to meet them in Galilee so Mary comes running back to the room where they're all hiding he says I stole the Lord I mean I saw the angel I saw him and the angel said Jesus of Nazareth has risen it's real he's alive and he's going to meet all of you let's leave Jerusalem let's go to Galilee and I can imagine Peter this made-up conversation Harry did he say anything else oh yeah now that you mention it the angel said that Peter he especially wants to have a meeting with you and Peter like oh no this is horrible he's gonna I dice gonna meet me cuz yeah jesus said the angel said Jesus especially wants to have a conversation with Peter Peter can I can just imagine just overwhelmed in despair going this is gonna be the worst day of my life little does he know it's gonna be of the best days of his life well paragraph I and the crisis of discovering our sinful flesh some people here's what they do when they discover their sin it's too painful to reach for the high things of God I mean the life of full obedience they come up short full obedience come up short full obedience come up short and the life of walking in the fullness of their calling they go I have such a failure to reach and fail is so painful I would rather stop reaching just admit I'm going to not walk in it and just give up and give in and live in this really diluted kind of dumb down relationship with the Lord I would rather do that than reach and fell I mean the pain of believing and coming up short is so severe because I love him so much I would rather just say I'm a failure it's never gonna happen I'm always gonna be in bondage and I'm never gonna walk in the fullness of my promises I'm never gonna walk in the fullness of my calling I'll just settle in in other words uh you can't fire me god I quit that's what that means if I know a lot of believers they go oh the pain of reaching and failing is so great and I go so great that what and nobody ever says it but what they mean is I'm gonna settle into a lifestyle of not reaching to walk in the fullness beloved I don't know how much of the fullness of my calling of my life I'll walk it I don't have to know what measure it is all I know is I'm gonna reach for it all the days of my life by the grace of God I'm gonna reach for full obedience I don't know how far I'm gonna get I don't never measure that all I know is however whatever measure I have I want a double portion and if I fail I repent I tell the devil you're a liar get out of here give me the double portion right after that I'm in the very day I mean it that's the grace of God some of us as well when you reach it that's not my business to know that it's my business to reach constantly in belief for the double portion always I stand before the Lord did I then he'll tell me but I'm not concerned with measuring it in this hour they would rather resign then face the pain of failing over and over bad decision the devil wins I have a little bit more on that you can read it if you want Roman numeral three so Peter goes fishing John 20:1 they go up to Galilee just like Jesus the angel said go to Galilee John 21 verse 3 Peter said I'm going fishing John 21 the rest of the the notes are surround me related to John 21 so we're in this this is the great day of Peters life one of the great many great days of his life but this is one of the big ones Peter said I'm going fishing they said to him we're gonna go fishing too they got into the boat that night and they caught nothing so they fished all night then when the morning came because they've been working all night Jesus is on the shore yet the disciples didn't know it's Jesus so they're a little bit out at the sea of galilee there a little bit out there Jesus is on the shore and he goes hey you know that's he talks to them he cries out and says a few sentences to him you read John 21 read the whole story they don't know it's the Lord because he's though he has a resurrected body he's not manifesting his glory like the brightness of the Sun he's really he's veiling it and they think it's a man on the shore talking to him they've been fishing all night paragraph B now understand this what's happening when Peters fishing some folks miss the point they're not fishing because they ran out of money I mean it's only been eight days after the crucifixion they had so much money in the ministry purse that Judas could steal it and go undetected because they had enough they had an abundance of money was coming at they're not broke they're not fishing because all of a sudden the 11 apostles are now out of money and they had to go do a couple weekend's work on the fishing boats they're not fishing for recreation they've been fishing all night you don't fish all night for recreation what's happening it's not a Sunday afternoon you know where they go out and fish for an hour in the play little golf game and then just gonna go till barbecue that's not what's going on when Peter said I'm going fishing paragraph one I want you catch this he was resigning from his role as a chief apostle he says I'm going back to the business that I could succeed in because if I can't even stand before a little servant girl without yielding how can I be a leader in the kingdom but I know I can fish and succeed he was aiming for the safety the comfort zone the safety zone because I can't fail fishing and I would rather love Jesus bail out of my calling so I can't fail at my calling like I just did change my occupation and just settle in and not take any more risk that's my weed of what's happening here but when he's fishing this is not good he went back to his old occupation now this isn't a statement about full-time ministry in the church world verse ministry in the marketplace this isn't a verse about that because ministry in the marketplace the vast majority I mean ninety percent plus make I don't know more than that maybe the body of Christ is called to ministry in the marketplace so it's not like if you're really serious you'll get out of the marketplace and go quote into full-time industry that's not what this verse is about but when you're an apostle of the Lamb and your name is on the foundation stone of the New Jerusalem and you give up your calling because you're failing that's not good not good Peter said I'm going fishing he's saying I'm quitting my leadership role in the kingdom and I'm gonna do what I can do even without the grace of God because I've proven I could succeed in that then all of a sudden Jesus is on the shore Jesus gets where Peter is in his heart he knows Peter paragraphs see I talked about going fishing in our context speaks of letting go of our life issue again nothing it's not talk about going fish it's not wrong going fishing and nothing wrong with having a job as a fisherman that's not the point but when Peter didn't it speaks up he was letting go of the vision of his life to go deep in God he was gonna settle down he was gonna draw back he was gonna be content with less than what God had called him to because of his own disappointment paragraph 2 Peter lost the confidence that his love was genuine she's I'm just a fake I'm a hopeless hypocrite I may be for a little servant girl I cave in and I'm supposed to be the rock the reliable one you named me the rock and I can't even stand true before a little servant girl around a campfire who are and then later in Antioch he did nice I mean he falls into hypocrisy again I read that passage that kind of random passage from Galatians 2 Peter had a problem in his character of the fear of man he conquered it but it wasn't something that was a one-time failure it was an issue in his life it was an issue that he had to deal with as an anointed apostle top of page 4 just bring this to an end so now Jesus stands before him and three times Jesus asked Peter this question I can imagine Peter and tortures him three times Simon do you love me more than these verse 15 when he says these I am convinced he's pointing to the fish I don't believe he's saying Peter do you love me he's pointing to the other apostles do you love me more than they love no Peter it's abysmal failure in his own mind he's not Jesus isn't stirring him up to compare his love to other men's love for God he's not thought what's happening I believe he's pointing at the fish because Peter do you love me more this come on Peter says yes the Lord verse 15 you know I love you and Jesus said okay then I want you to walk in your leadership calling feed my people beloved it's whether you're doing it quoted of church ministry or you're doing it in the marketplace ministry disciple people they were a call to take care of God's people to disciple them to pour into them and it's hard work but it's very important calling in God it's so dear to the Lord it says Peter I'm giving you responsibility over my people and you want to go be a fisherman because you're such a failure in your eyes because if you love me you will trust what I say about you oh I do you'll love you but Peter wasn't trusting the Lord's word over him Peter was yielding to his fear he was in despair so he says the second time verse 16 Peter the second time do you love me is like oh look what say this you know I love you I love you so much he says I want you to take care of my sheep in other words I want you to walk in your spiritual calling a disciple maker a proclaimer of my word don't back down because you love me but my love for you was so fragile it was so weak I failed over and over verse 17 Peter Simon Peter third time do you love me Peter's grieved I could just like oh you're torturing me Jesus you know I love you you know I love you and Peter says the most dramatic thing he goes Lord most important you know everything you know my heart you you know I love you and I can imagine Jesus saying yes Peter I do know you love me the problem is you didn't really believe your love was genuine because your love was weak and three times Peter denied the Lord and three times the Lord got Peter to speak in the total opposite spirit of his failure three times I don't know the Lord three times Peter makes him confess I love you I love you I love you and he says Lord you know I love you Lord says that's true but you don't really believe that your love this week that it's genuine and I do know that you love me and I want you in the fullness of your calling your calling has not been lost because of your failure Peter and again then the later of the failure that happened in a day like a very serious failure when he stumbled in hypocrisy the fear of manic in a very significant Church issue that hurt a lot of people his calling was not revoked he did not lose it because of that stumble paragraph see what God asked a question it's not because God needs an information he needs information when he says Peter do you love me it's not because Jesus didn't know Peter is the one who didn't know when the Lord said Adam where are you in the garden it wasn't like at God lost Adam in the garden says hey little fellow where'd you go I mean he wasn't looking for Adam where'd you go get back here it wasn't one of those things you know little boy gets lost in the park and mom screaming for him Adam did not know where Adam was that's what the question was about God didn't need to know where Adam was Adam needed to know where Adam was and when Jesus asked Peter do you love me he asked it for Peters benefit not for the Lord's benefit paragraph d remember the passage and then in the garden Peter your spirit is willing your love is genuine your walk with me is real you're not a hopeless hypocrite you don't really believe that now but I sure I assure you your love is real your love is weak but it's real the callings real your abilities and the grace of God are real they're not fully formed but you're the real thing you're a working progress it's unfolding but my eyes are on you I'm committed to you I'm personally restoring you by a visitation now not about he gets a visitation of the Lord in his resurrected body but because Peter did we know this is in the Lord's heart first people he says Peter on the front end you didn't believe her flesh was weak then after you failed you didn't believe your spirit was willing you had it all backwards your flesh is weak and after you failed I want to assure you your love is real for me paragraph II Jesus broke shame off of Peter by causing Peter to declare I Love You God three times again to wash off the three negative stumblings of Peter Peters confidence was restored paragraph G will end with this have the worship team come up if they would the Lord wants to give us a three-fold confidence first he wants us to be confident He loves us he even enjoys us he enjoys the relationship in our weakness he didn't enjoy the weakness but he enjoys us the relationship even when were weak he doesn't just enjoy us after we mature number two very different he esteems our love as real and genuine even when it's weak it's not just he loves me he really believes I love him beloved when I believe he loves me that's fantastic when I believe he thinks I love him I go really you think I'm real genuine yes you're weak but you're real and then third he had trust us with the calling the calling isn't revoked the promises aren't gone the punishment isn't piling up in retribution to cause us to know who's boss that's not what's happening for the gifts and the callings of God irrevocable says the Lord amen and amen let's stand

Channel: Yustos Anthony

Views: 11,608

Rating: 4.8481011 out of 5

Keywords: mike bickle, IHOP, Bible study, prayer, worship, failure, spiritual failure, God's mercy, God's love, falling into sin, denying Jesus, Peter, Grace of God, Faith, ministry, revival, prophetic, Spirituality (Media Genre), Spiritual Crisis, Jesus Christ (Deity), God, Saint Peter (Religious Leader), Clergy (Profession)

Id: 8K5EcRJpiYI

Length: 55min 19sec (3319 seconds)

Published: Sun Jul 06 2014