A few weeks ago I had the privilege of preaching at a great church in Hollywood, FL. Calvary Fellowship Free Will Baptist Church is a church pastored by my good friend, John. John had had some surgery and he asked me to come down and fill in for him while he recuperated. I was both honored and excited! I had preached there a couple times before and was a bit familiar with the folks there.
As I prayed and prepared for what to share with them that day, I drew a bit nervous. You see, when I was in the pastorate, I would log every sermon I preached. Since I do not have the opportunity to preach as often, I fell out of that habit. So, although I had preached there before, I didn't have a record of what subject matter or text I had preached from.
I prayed and asked God to guide me. I prayed some more and asked God to guide me. There is one sermon that I've preached a couple times in the past about Peter and the difficulties he had leading up to his preaching on the Day of Pentecost. That thought kept coming to me time and time again. But I could not remember if that was the sermon I had preached there before. On the one hand, I thought it had been long enough, no one would probably even remember it anyway. But on that proverbial other hand ~~ I know some people who jot down in their Bible every Scripture text they hear in a sermon. Really - I DO know some folks like that! I kept thinking, "What if ~~~?"
As I was mowing my lawn the week prior, it seemed that Peter just would not leave my mind. I decided that was the confirmation I needed to share with this great group of folks about Peter.
In a nutshell, I was reminded about Peter trying his best to do the right thing, yet always seemed to be reprimanded for it. He got out of the boat to walk on the water, but began to sink when he took his eyes off of Christ. He was rebuked. He defended Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane the night he was arrested. He even cut off the ear of one of the soldiers. Jesus healed the soldier and rebuked Peter. When Peter declared he would never deny his relationship with Jesus, he was bitterly heartbroken (I believe with himself) as the rooster crowed following his THIRD denial of even knowing Jesus.
Time and again Peter failed. Over and over he seemed to open his mouth and engage his tongue without first engaging his brain. We can say this of Peter ~ he was a man of action! He was not the one to sit idly by and allow things to go silent.
But the grace that Jesus showed to Peter on the beach early one morning is nothing short of amazing! The dialogue Peter and Jesus shared that morning was an incredible message to us today of God's forgiveness and restoration. It didn't matter to Jesus how much Peter had failed. Peter's failures would not dictate his successes. What mattered to Jesus was Peter's continued availability!
Peter was available to be used by God in any manner He wanted. Are you? Peter was human as we all are. He had failed in more ways than I suspect any of us have. In fact, our job is not to try and imitate Peter's message on Pentecost. We should be careful not to become discouraged with perhaps a lack of numerical success as Peter had that day. The only safe comparison of ourselves to Peter would be to carefully observe his reckless abandon to be all he could be for Jesus. Even then, he was not perfect. But to see his inspiration and sense his encouragement to be all we can be for Christ will prove immeasurable in our own Christian walk.
Have you failed along the way? Yes, you (and I) have. Are you eligible for His forgiveness and restoration? Absolutely! Now the question is, have you claimed it?
Thursday, June 21, 2012
Claiming God's Restoration
A few weeks ago I had the privilege of preaching at a great church in Hollywood, FL. Calvary Fellowship Free Will Baptist Church is a church pastored by my good friend, John. John had had some surgery and he asked me to come down and fill in for him while he recuperated. I was both honored and excited! I had preached there a couple times before and was a bit familiar with the folks there.
As I prayed and prepared for what to share with them that day, I drew a bit nervous. You see, when I was in the pastorate, I would log every sermon I preached. Since I do not have the opportunity to preach as often, I fell out of that habit. So, although I had preached there before, I didn't have a record of what subject matter or text I had preached from.
I prayed and asked God to guide me. I prayed some more and asked God to guide me. There is one sermon that I've preached a couple times in the past about Peter and the difficulties he had leading up to his preaching on the Day of Pentecost. That thought kept coming to me time and time again. But I could not remember if that was the sermon I had preached there before. On the one hand, I thought it had been long enough, no one would probably even remember it anyway. But on that proverbial other hand ~~ I know some people who jot down in their Bible every Scripture text they hear in a sermon. Really - I DO know some folks like that! I kept thinking, "What if ~~~?"
As I was mowing my lawn the week prior, it seemed that Peter just would not leave my mind. I decided that was the confirmation I needed to share with this great group of folks about Peter.
In a nutshell, I was reminded about Peter trying his best to do the right thing, yet always seemed to be reprimanded for it. He got out of the boat to walk on the water, but began to sink when he took his eyes off of Christ. He was rebuked. He defended Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane the night he was arrested. He even cut off the ear of one of the soldiers. Jesus healed the soldier and rebuked Peter. When Peter declared he would never deny his relationship with Jesus, he was bitterly heartbroken (I believe with himself) as the rooster crowed following his THIRD denial of even knowing Jesus.
Time and again Peter failed. Over and over he seemed to open his mouth and engage his tongue without first engaging his brain. We can say this of Peter ~ he was a man of action! He was not the one to sit idly by and allow things to go silent.
But the grace that Jesus showed to Peter on the beach early one morning is nothing short of amazing! The dialogue Peter and Jesus shared that morning was an incredible message to us today of God's forgiveness and restoration. It didn't matter to Jesus how much Peter had failed. Peter's failures would not dictate his successes. What mattered to Jesus was Peter's continued availability!
Peter was available to be used by God in any manner He wanted. Are you? Peter was human as we all are. He had failed in more ways than I suspect any of us have. In fact, our job is not to try and imitate Peter's message on Pentecost. We should be careful not to become discouraged with perhaps a lack of numerical success as Peter had that day. The only safe comparison of ourselves to Peter would be to carefully observe his reckless abandon to be all he could be for Jesus. Even then, he was not perfect. But to see his inspiration and sense his encouragement to be all we can be for Christ will prove immeasurable in our own Christian walk.
Have you failed along the way? Yes, you (and I) have. Are you eligible for His forgiveness and restoration? Absolutely! Now the question is, have you claimed it?
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