Address—Etienne Leger
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Let's ask Lord for his help.
My godfather, tonight we come to you in prayer.
Thank you for this camp. Thank you for the opportunity to have tonight to open your precious word. Just pray that what is said may glorify the Lord Jesus Christ may be made more precious to our hearts.
Lord, beginning with the speakers, pray that.
But it's said to be a challenge to my own soul. Just pray that if anyone here.
Stranger to thy love, oh Lord. May tonight be a night of decision. First a Savior and then as Lord.
Just pray that if anything that is not said by the Spirit, that I may fall to the ground and die. But one is capped. Might just be that which is for the building up and encouraging. As the brothers and sisters here. It's the name, Lord Jesus Christ, the only name that is worthy to be proclaimed. We pray, Amen.
Tonight, I have all my heart to share.
Several.
Episodes or snapshots from the life of one of the apostles.
It is apostle. I'm going to say it is. It's Peter.
And I'm not here to do any Peter bashing. As we say sometimes and people say, well, we're always taught life will tend to. What I've heard is that, well, we always tend to criticize Peter because he he failed a few times and and this and that. But I want to say that that we could put my name right there instead of Peter's name because there's many things that Peter went through and struggled that we're going to go through tonight that I could personally.
Just insert my name there because we're all no better.
In James it says that Elijah was a man subject to like passions.
And also has written that whatsoever things are written before time, written for our learning. And so these lessons that hopefully will go through in the life of Peter, through the Gospels in the book of Acts, hopefully can have some type of application to our lives.
And so let's start off and I'm not going to go in chronological order and I don't want to present what I'm presenting is being something that's a doctrinal truth. I want to apply these things more for for application or everyday life. And so let's start off the first mention, one of the first mentions of Peter in the book of John, Gospel of John, chapter one, verse 40.
John one verse 41 of the two which heard John speak followed him was Andrew Simon Peters brother. He first finding his own brothers. Simon said unto him, We have found the Messiah, which is being interpreted the Christ.
And he brought him to Jesus, And when Jesus beheld them, he said, Thou art Simon the son of Jonah. Thou shalt be called Cephas, which is by exportation a stone.
You know, Andrew is a disciple. Another one is just disciples. We don't hear very much about Andrew as much as we do compared to Peter. Andrew is more of a we hear him a couple of times in scripture. We don't hear of him. He's not as prominent as Peter was. Peter, I can assume, if I can just imagine him, I can imagine him being a strong, big, strong, loud man. The large burly fisherman and Peter and his brother Andrew.
I assume I don't know exactly but I can just say he he was someone that brought Peter.
To the Lord.
And you know, I think of it this way, in our lives, we don't know the people that we bring to the Lord, what kind of influence that they will have for the Lord. I don't think Andrew, in bringing his brother Peter to the Lord knew what kind of an influence that Peter would have and all the work that Peter was going to do for the Lord later on, but he brought him the Lord. And so that's something even the kids in the front row or the older ones can do as well. We can bring our friends to the Lord. We can tell them about Jesus. We can say, hey.
I have a savior. I have someone that I want you to know about.
There's a couple kids when they arrived at the camp, they came running, I think T series here. They were happy to see me and they, they told their friends always tease here. And that was, I was honored. I was happy to see them, but they were excited that someone was here. And you know what, that's the same way we can be excited about our savior Jesus.
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That's not the first point.
The second point I'd like to turn to is in John, Sorry Luke chapter 5 and verse 12.
Before we go further, I'm going to give you a list of the things I'd like to talk about in Peters life.
Ironically, they all start with the word see. 10 words with the word, starting with the word see. We'll talk about Peters conversion. Peters calling Peter, counting the cost, seeking companionship with the Lord. His claim of courage, his true condition manifested this complete denial, his conversation with the Lord.
And this consecration at the end, I'd like to close one more challenge for those of us there in the room. And so these are the 10 points I'd like to go through systematically depending on how much time we have. So we'll see how how it goes. So Luke chapter 5.
Luke chapter 5.
And verse 2.
Verse three and Jesus entered into one of the ships which was Simon Peters.
And prayed that he would thrust out a letter from the land. And he sat down and taught the people out of the ship. Now when he had left speaking, he sent to Simon, Launch out your Nets into the deep, and let down your Nets for a draw. And Simon answering said unto him, Master, we have toiled all night, and we have taken nothing. Nevertheless, at the word, a thigh word, I will let down the net.
And when they had done these, they enclosed a great look through the fishes and their net break when they back into their partners, which were in the other ship, that they should come and help them.
And were filled both ships, so they began to sink. When Simon Peter saw he fell down to Jesus feet, knees saying, depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord. He was astonished and all that were with him at the draught of fishes that they had taken.
So is James and John, the sons of Zebedee, which were partners of Simon.
And his 7th assignment Fear not, and henceforth thou shalt catch men. But when they had brought all their ships to land, they forcedlook all, and followed him.
The Lord got into Simon Peters boat.
And he borrowed Simon's vote and as the story goes along, he the Lord performed a miracle that day. He performed a miracle in Simon Peters life and it brought Simon Peter in verse 8 to say, depart from me for I am a sinful man O Lord, I just want to bring in the gospel here for a few minutes because this is critical because all things we're going to talk about might sound good. It might get you laughing. You might think like it was really nice quote what he said. But if you don't know Jesus Christ as your savior tonight.
Everything else that we're going to talk about is of no use.
We've talked about the gospel many times. This program was brought up this morning and the question and answer meeting the importance of being safe and tonight if you do not know the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior, if you haven't been like Peter and said depart from me. I'm a Sinner if there's been never a work of repentance in your life.
What we're going to say this evening is not going to have root in your soul.
Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved that will confess that thy mouth the Lord Jesus Christ, and believe in your heart that God raised them from the dead. Thou shalt be saved. The blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son, cleanseth us from all sin. And so I'm just asking you if you are not a believer tonight, this is important because.
I'd like to go on. I want to make sure we're all together on this. I don't leave anyone behind because this is something that I've enjoyed in my life, not the story of Peter. I want everyone to be able to enjoy it the same way. So if you haven't accepted Christ as your Savior, I'm asking you, consider it now.
Let's move down to verse 11.
And when they had brought their ships to land, they forced the call and followed him.
But wait a minute here, this is Peters best fishing day. His ship is so full of fish that his net is going to break.
But when he does, he quits his job on his best day. It's like if you're getting a promotion to the corner office and you quit your job. Doesn't make sense, really. But Peter's heart was one. He had been won by the Lord. He realized his need of a savior and wanted to follow him.
That's who he quits his job and he starts us calling, you know?
The quote fishers of men, that's an interesting, interesting occupation. Before he used to catch fish. Now he's fishing men. And I want to just talk about fishing, how we can all be fishers of men like Peter was. You know, the Lord has placed us all in different places. He's placed some of us in schools, in jobs in different countries, different areas. It's not just the gospel meeting on Sunday night.
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At the meeting that where the gospel is preached, your life is speaking very loudly, people say there's a quote out there that says people would rather see a sermon than hear a sermon. The way we live our lives, the way we conduct our business transactions, the way we.
Act with our friends. Demonstrate the newness of life that is inside of us for those of us that are Christians.
You know, whenever it comes to fishing, we have certain things we need.
Last year, Joseph Sikora was fishing, and I remember he had a whole bunch of fishing tackle him in the room, and he offered some fish in the freezer at the main lodge. We were wondering where it came from. But whenever he went fishing, he had his Taco, he had his rod, he had certain things that he needed to go fishing. He didn't just go out in the boat and call the fish in the boat. And I want to make an application this way.
Whenever we go out and preach the gospel, it's it's good to have a life that is consistent what we say, but that's not enough. There's a lot of good people that are going to end up in hell one day. Good people that maybe have done good deeds, have had good right righteous lives, but they're not going to be in heaven because the only way to go to heaven is like something large is Christ as your personal savior. You think of if a fisherman says I'm just going to influence my fish into getting into my boat, it's not going to work. We don't.
Influence them in We got to go out and catch them. It takes work. It takes an effort, it takes being shut down sometimes, it takes not always getting the fish.
Devotion and we can't be surprised within the world we're rejecting. We preach the gospel. We have a good message to preach where people don't always want to hear it. People don't always want to hear what the gospel is about. Paul could say the cross is an offense. It's not popular. The message we preach it because it brings glory to God.
And so when Jesus told Peter to follow him, in another portion, he was telling him, You got to follow me and I'll make you a fisherman.
Our life and our words are like 2 wings on a plane. You need both of them to fly. You need both your life and your words to to have a good testimony. In Matthew 5 it talks about a city on a hill cannot be hit and let your light shine forth before men. But then we see your good deeds and glorify your Father which in heaven. So both are important.
And I'm going to tell a story, a personal story. I was getting ready for my the meeting tonight downstairs.
And just to show that it doesn't take a big courage to speak the gospel. And I was downstairs and I was just getting ready and our friend little Levi here was just came downstairs and asked me if I could he could help me find his his car. I told my I didn't know where it was. We looked for it, we couldn't find it. And he laughed. He came back. So excuse me, do you love Jesus?
I was OK. Those kids freaking the gospel. He should take the meeting.
And he said, do you love Jesus? And I said, yeah, I do. Why should I love Jesus? And he gave me the gospel. And I was like, this is so cool. This little kid, No one had to tell him to do that. He just came and gave me a clear gospel. And I was so encouraging. It doesn't take.
A lot to preach just a couple words you love Jesus and he told me how I can I have to confess my sins and the Jesus day on the cross for me out of the mouth of babes it says and so that wasn't that was encouraging for me to see and just I was I was actually preparing this part of the message the Lord sent someone to encourage me. That was great. So let's continue here. I'm going to talk about counting the cost because.
It wasn't just a simple OK when I come to Christ.
We're going to follow you, Lord. We're going to forsake what we have, forsake our lifestyle. Just follow You there. There was a cost involved. I'm going to read a couple of verses in Matthew 16.
Have to do with counting the cost to discipleship.
And I'm going to just read these verses with not much comment because I want these words to have their own power. And as a brother that said once he said, don't take the edge off these verses.
Let these verses speak and convict because when we cut, when we come to Christ as our Savior, he also wants us to make him our Lord. There's a second step. There's whenever we decide that OK, Lord, you're a Savior, I want to make you number one. I want your claims on my life to be #1 So let's read these verses.
Matthew 17 verse 24 Jesus sentence to the disciples, including Peter. If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross and follow me. For whosoever will save his life shall lose it. Whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it.
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For what is a man prophet? If you gain the whole world and lose his soul? What shall a man give in exchange for his soul?
Whenever we would see in the if we were back in the in the Roman time, we'd see a man carrying his cross. We wouldn't assume this man was just up for a nice walk and a nice day. This man had a had had a condemnation over him. We knew this man was going to die and he carried The Romans made their crucifies carry their crosses as a public demonstration.
Of what was going to happen next so other people would beware, and as Christians.
We have to carry across, we carry approach to be called Christian. It's not a popular thing. Christianity is not popular because we follow rejected Christ. The Lord said if they reject me, they'll reject you also.
Luke 14 and verse 26.
If any man come to me and hate not his father and mother and wife and children and brother and sisters, yay his own life also, he cannot be my disciple. I swear whoever does not bear his cross and come after me cannot be my disciple. For which of you intending to build the tower sitteth not down 1St, and count the costs whether he has sufficient to finish it?
Happily, after I'd laid the foundation is not able to finish at all.
I'll be all that behold, it began to mock him, saying This man began to build and was not able to finish.
It's not saying here that we have to hate, literally hate our parents and hate our family. The Lord instituted family in scripture, and that's important. We can't. Scripture is clear that we are to love one another.
I believe what a thought is in here is that we have to put the Lord before everything, and to be a disciple of the Lord is to put the Lord's claims before other things in our lives.
And I'm not standing up here preaching as if I've understood those things.
I'm challenged to live by these things every day, to seek first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness, but I want to just present like when I see scriptures standard of a disciple is going to turn to one more portion in terms of counting the cost in John 6.
On 6 and verse 66.
We're turning to a lot of verses, but I believe the word of God is.
A lot more adequate in describing what we have to say here than I could ever say.
John 6 and verse 66.
From that time, many of his disciples went back and walked no more with him.
Then Jesus said into the 12Th, will that also go away? The Simon Peter verse 68.
John 668 and Simon Peter answered him, Lord, to whom will we go? Thou hast the words of eternal life, and we believe in our sure that thou art Christ, the Son of the living God.
Peter is making a declaration here, making a declaration that we've counted the cost. We've decided that we're going to follow you.
And you know, I don't know if Peter this point realized what this would have meant, how that one day he was going to actually give his life for the Lord, but he counted the cost and decided it was worth it.
Whatever with the Lord, whenever we come to Christ.
These disciples when they came to the Lord, there's there's a certain verse that I'd like to turn to that describes what the Lord what what transpired with them and the Lord wanted their companionship. And let's turn to that in Mark 4, Mark three and verse 14.
I.
Mark 3/14 and he ordained 12 That they should be with them, or they might send them forth to preach.
We come to Christ. He wants us to learn of Him.
In Matthew 11 it says, take my yoke and learn of me crying, meek and only of heart to be with him. And it's an important that as we go on a Christian lives, we don't neglect that time with the Lord to be with him in his word, in prayer.
I know myself, I have a I have a business and I get very busy and it's so important that if we're going to be with an effective disciple that we take time to be with him. They might send us out to preach.
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The greatest?
Christian act is not service. The greatest act is being, as Paul could say, that I may know him, and in Philippians 3 that I may know him and the facts. My desire to know the Lord, to take time to get to know Him, they'll influence what I do. It will influence where I want to go serve Him, how I will serve Him, and what are my motives.
But some encouragement to.
When we come to Christ.
Not forget to get back to him, to lean on him.
No, we, we become what we follow after. The more we're like, the more we learn of Christ, the more we learn of him. If you have someone that learned that knows a lot about hockey or about basketball or football and it's all they, they study, it's all they learn about, it's all they read and eventually they'll become a part of them. The way they'll talk, the way they act, the way they dress will have to do a lot with what they.
Putting first in their life. And if you put the Lord first, those things that we that are characters of him will become characteristic of us. The Lord didn't choose educated men. He didn't choose scholars, noblemen, people of power and prestige to follow him. He shows everyday people. He chose fishermen, tax collectors, different people, different walks of life. And that's the same thing. Now the Lord doesn't call the mighty. He doesn't call those that have education.
Although he can use those, he can use education. I'm not talking against that, but he's calling us individually to be his disciples, not just a follower, but to be a disciple.
And there was an influence which I said before we become what we follow. But in Acts 4 verse 13, there was a result of this.
Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were unlearned and ignorant men, they marveled and took knowledge of them. But they had been with Jesus.
I wonder if that could be true of our lives if there were someone among us that spent the the last couple days of us here at camp and was listening into our conversations, listening into how we how we played the sports, how we how we acted one with another in our in our fellowship. Could they say that about us?
Could they say that they took knowledge that we had been with Jesus? That's a challenge.
Because our lives speak loudly of what, of the hope that's within us. And if our lives are are consistently say there's a testimony, you know, these men that said they're unlearned and ignorant men. You know, Peter never went to Bible college.
But he was used mildly of the Lord, and the Lord can use us too. He doesn't just.
Our lives speak out loud with the things that we say, that our lot and what we do with our actions are going to be a testimony.
You know, I kind of wish I could just end the meeting now and say, OK, we learned all these nice applications from Peters life, let's go off and do this and that would be okay. I guess some of you are tired, but you know what, it's not the end. And I whenever we claim something in our lives, whenever let's say I believe something, I've read something in the word of God or I listen to a conference and there's something that.
I really start coming to me, I said. I claim this is being truth in my life. The Lord will test us.
Just as what I'm saying tonight, I know that will test me. The Lord does not permit us to have a theory of the truth of the Word of God without giving us a test to practically walk in it. Christian life is not about knowledge. It's not about having a body of knowledge that I know and I have it in my head. It's meant to be a pod in my in my walk.
And so we're going to go through a couple of.
Downward steps in Peter's life. We're going to go through it hopefully within the time that we have left. And just to explain and to see that Peter was a man who had a lot of zeal, a lot of courage. But when he trusted in his own self, when he trusted in his own heart, it was an influence on others that was negative and also in his own life.
So let's move on.
Let's turn to Luke chapter 22.
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I'm just going to set up the scene here. The scenario, The Lord is in the upper room with his disciples. He's instituted the bread and the wine. It's a it's a communion. He's washed their feet. He's spoken about who should be the greatest and they're arguing amongst each other. The disciples were in Jerusalem on the last night before he was betrayed.
And he says an interesting comment to Simon Peter in verse 31.
Luke 2231 Lord said Simon, Simon, behold, Satan has a desire to have you, that he may sift you as we, but I've prayed for thee that thy faith fail not, and now it converted strengthen my brethren, I want to ask a question.
The Lord, we're here tonight.
Or if we were in that scenario at that time, would the Lord say of us? Lord say of me?
ET Satan wants the 5th, she wants to get rid of you.
But I prayed for you and this is the question, are we being an effective witness for the Lord that Satan wants to get rid of us? We think of an army and an army. The soul is that are are in the reserve in the back. They're not really going to get attacked by the enemy.
But that sniper that got us in the front making progress, advancing the enemy is going to go after him and go after him hard.
And it's a challenge to our own souls. Are we acting in a way in our lives that Satan says, I want to get rid of this guy or get rid of this girl, get rid of this mom, get rid of this dad. Because the stuff that you're doing, it's bugging with me. It's messing with me. If I'm asleep in my face, if I'm not attacking them, advancing, Satan's going to say let sleeping dogs lie. We're not going to bug them. He's happy there.
Whenever we start taking us moving forward from the Lord, wanting to make a difference, wanting to preach the gospel, that's when we started.
Getting on Satan's nerves, the Lord is above all, but it's just a little application for our life. So Satan, I think had a knew that Simon was going to be used as the Lord. So we want to get rid of him, but the Lord prayed for him and the Lord prayed for us. Theatre sees for us the right hand of the Father. We can have that confidence, but the Lord is anticipating Peter's or kind of prophesying what's going to happen. He says when you're converted, strengthen or when you're restored.
Your brethren.
And now Peter says, OK here, verse 33 Lord, I'm ready to go with thee both into prison and to death. Lord, I'm your man. You know, I'm your man I'm Peter. I'm the strong guy. I'm the I'm the guy that you know, lay down in his his fishing career for you. I'm not going to let you go. We're friends. Later on, we see you guys a knife. He's like, you know what, I'm ready to go. We're going to take these guys on.
The Lord says I tell you Peter in verse 34.
The crock shall not dot growth this day before the Thou shall thrice deny that thou knowest me.
That was Peter, I'd say. OK, Lord, we'll see what happens. I'm the guy.
And we'll see what happens. And I think that it's interesting how the Lord kind of warned him once in verse 32 and 34 again, the crow shall not not crow. This day before loss of time, it thrice deny me.
And I can, I can see myself right there. I start having a bit of confidence in myself, thinking that I'm doing OK, I don't have to maybe worry about things anymore. My Christian life is going well.
And I think that's when we're the most vulnerable is when we have the most confidence in ourselves thinking that we're something, we're somebody.
The Bible says He that standeth beware lest you fall.
And this is where.
Peters test really comes later on.
In verse, in verse 50, you know it's Peter in the garden. He sees the the soldiers coming take the Lord. So he's got to start with them. He's going to protect the Lord, right? So he goes and cuts the guys ear off.
Boxes ear off. But the Lord says no, no it's not this isn't your time, this is not time to do this. And he takes step and heals the man. But then we see we don't see Peter going out and continuing on. We see him. He drops back a bit, He follows afar off.
Verse 54 and Peter followed afar off and when they had Kindle Fire in the mitzvah hall, they were set down together and Peter sat down among them. So Peter starts just to, you know, I'm just going to sit here a while. I'm going to associate. We often speak about association and we talked about this morning about in Psalm one plus there's a man that walks not in the council of the ungodly, stands in the ways of Sinner or sits in the seat of the scornful. Now these people were scorners. They were scorners that were making the Lord and he put himself in a situation.
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By being with the wrong crowd. By taking those steps in the wrong direction.
And then comes the test.
Verse 56.
But a certain made beheld as she sat by the fire, and earnestly looked upon him, and said, This man was also with him. And he denied him, saying, Woman, I know I'm not.
After a little while another saw him and said, Thou art with them. Peter said, Man, I am not.
And about the space of one hour after another confidently affirmed saying of a truth, This fellow was also with him, for he is a Galilean. Peter said, I know not what thou sayest. And immediately, while he yet spake the cock crew.
Another gospel that says that he with oaths and cursings denied the Lord.
And it also says that his speech betrayed him.
And I wonder at that time when Peter started cursing and swearing he didn't know the Lord, the old Peter came back. And we think of certain trades as being rough trades with rough language. I know in Montreal we have the construction industry. And if you're in that industry, there's a lot of rough talk going on. And I'm sure these fishermen were, they were low class people. They had probably a really rough language and the things that were coming out.
Were really denying who he really was, but Peter had taken these steps down or he kept going down and down and now now he's in a situation where.
He goes into compromise.
But then it says in verse 61 The Lord turned and looked upon Peter.
Ouch.
I wonder how that how at that moment how Pierre felt him who had a few minutes ago and we see down verse 61, Peter remembered the word of the Lord, how he had said it to him before the crew. Thou shalt the 90 thrice.
I wonder what Peter was thinking.
He's going back in his head. He's going back at the times when he had taken such a stand for the Lord. I'm not going to go into death with you, Lord. I'm the guy. I got my knife.
And now where is he at? He's denied the Lord not once, twice, three times.
He sworn he didn't know the Lord. Complete denial.
So how do you get that far? How do you get from there to here? You know, while the Lord was in the garden, he told his disciples to watch and pray at the Internet temptation. And at the time when he was praying, Peter was sleeping. When that goes into what we're saying before about the importance of being with the Lord.
He he ordained 12 to be with him.
They might send them out if we're with the Lord and we're in communion with Him.
We're reading and praying and not just because it's a habit but because we love the Lords to make a difference. We're not going to end up in these situations.
But then he wept.
He went out and wept bitterly.
You know we have a.
This big man Peter, this man that had it all together, this this leader, one of the disciples, often we see in the Gospels, he's kind of like the the spokesperson, the leader of the group, he denies the Lord.
You know what, I'm going to ask the question tonight.
We've seen a little step downward in Peters life and often I've asked myself the question personally.
Where am I?
In my in my denial of the Lord, and I'm not saying I'm not saying this today, you guys are all denying the Lord tonight, but I'm saying I think in our hearts there's certain parts of it that we might not be letting the Lord have the 1St place we might be letting.
Our flesh have have the first hand. We might be letting things in our life that we know our Lord compromises compromises and Peter was compromising and won't compromise that to another and to another and to another.
I think at a camp like this, sometimes I don't personally, I've gone to young pools, weekends where I come and I turn the front and I say, well, yeah, everything is good, everything is great. But inside of me, I know that I'm I'm not all that I maybe I'm shifty. I'm starting to stray away from the Lord, but I know enough knowledge or enough doctrine so I can sound good. I sound good enough so no one questions me.
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I know I'm not the only one here.
And there's often times when I reminded by those verses in in Revelations what being hot or cold, that's a challenge.
We need to be real with ourselves. Peter had to need to need to be real with where he was in his life. He wasn't enough just to.
It was it was too late for him just to come back and clean things up at this point. He, he had to, he, he went out with it bitterly. He said this is over. I denied the Lord. They're going to crucify him. My master, my Lord, the one that I love, the one that I followed, the one that I gave everything for. He's, he's, I'm done.
It makes me think of a verse in Jeremiah. We'll turn to it real fast. Jeremiah 1.
Speaking about Israel and Jeremiah. Sorry, chapter 2, verse 2.
Let's say, if the Lord I remember thee, the kindness of thy youth, the love of thysels, will not win us out after me in the wilderness, in a land that was not sown. What is saying He, Israel, remember, Remember where you were at. Remember when at the beginning, when you loved me, whenever, everything, when I was everything to you, whenever you cared so much about me, whenever we were. We're so close.
This is verse 13. The results and what happened for my people have committed 2 evils.
They have forsaken me, the fountain of living water and viewing the mouth cisterns.
Broken cisterns that can hold no water.
Peter replaced the Lord with something else, with confidence himself.
And I know that I can do that, and I've done that. I've replaced the Lord with things in my life that weren't of Him.
And then I wonder, well, why Lord, why you so far away? Why are we not as close as we used to? And often, instead of going back to the Lord, I just keep on drifting further and further away.
It takes an effort to read my Bible and pray. It's not something that comes naturally and we tend just to go on and go on.
This is Peter Peters hit rock bottom. I know I've hit rock bottom in my life. When I said, Lord, I'm I've gone so far away from you, I don't think I can come back. I just, it's useless to keep going.
But it's nice to know the Lord wasn't done with Peter. Now when the Lord rose from the dead, it says he had a conversation with Peter.
In Luke 24 verse 34, I don't know what was said, It's not said exactly what was said, but the Lord met Peter and Lord had a conversation with him and it's nice to know that.
Peter was repentant when he went out. When he when he was far from Lord, he was repentant and the Lord took him back.
Imagine the relief Peter saying oh the Lord is alive and he forgave me and I can I know that I didn't let me denying him didn't mean he died. And imagine that relief that Peter had. But then there was a need for restoration and then restoration Peters life. Because I believe that when we go far from the Lord we can be forgiven. But then what about the restoration part of it? What about coming back to the Lord about communion being rebuilt? Let's turn.
John 21.
John 21, verse 3, seven Peter 7 To them I go a fishing and they which are the disciples said.
We also go with thee. And they went forth and entered into a ship immediately, and that night they caught nothing.
You know, there's different applications to this. People could say, well, Peter had to get back to his work, he went back to his livelihood, he was a fisherman. That's okay. But I want to apply it this way.
Maybe.
Someone here, maybe you've gone far from the Lord and maybe you think, well, the Lords give forgiven me. Maybe I've I'm forgiven, but maybe I'm I'm no longer useful for the Lord. Maybe I'm no longer able to do his work because my testimony is shot.
I don't have the confidence, my brethren. My family doesn't trust me.
And I'm going to just apply it this way for Peter. He says, well, the Lord is alive and that's great. But I'm going to go back to.
My lifestyle I want to go back to to what I know what to do because frankly, I've messed up so bad.
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But I heard to say God is the God of second chances. He does. He forgives, He restores. He's a God of not only forgiveness, but he's a God of restoration.
And it's interesting that he brought others with him. Peter was a man of influence. He brought others with them to go back to their lifestyle with fishing.
Whenever we're going through a discouragement.
In our lives.
Often it will influence others and will tend to bring others down with us. They say misery likes company. We bring people down with us and say well.
It's not just me. We tend to bring others with us and Peter brought others with them. They all went. They went back to their lifestyle, back to fishing. The Lord wasn't with them at the time, but they caught nothing. There was no, there was no fish for them that night.
And it reminds me of the first occasion when the Lord found Peter. There was no fish either, and the Lord made a miracle. And here's another miracle.
The Lord says in verse five, children, have you any meat? And they answered him no.
He said cast the net on the right side of the ship and you shall find. They cast therefore, and now they're not able to draw it for the multitude of fishes.
Therefore the disciple who Jesus loves them, to Peter it is the Lord. Knowing Peter heard it that it was the Lord, he gird his fissures coated onto him, for he was naked and did cast himself into the sea.
And the other disciples came in the little ship, for they were not far from land, and there's about 200 cubits dragging the net of fishes.
And the Lord makes them a breakfast there and Peter sees us to Lord, and he's not going to wait and roll back. He's like, no, I'm going, the Lord worked this miracle in my life. And maybe he remembered the first time the Lord worked a miracle in his life. He's like, I got to go back. And so he just dies out and just swims to shore to be with the Lord.
You know, And then the Lord prepares him a fire. He prepares them.
A little little meal, I mean, he says bring the net efficient caught and he feeds them.
It's just thing he doesn't just the Lord was trying to draw Peters heart, but he doesn't just come and harp on him and said hey Peter, we'd have a talk. He takes care of, he feeds them, he gives them sustenance.
But then he asked him a question he's trying to get to his heart in verse 15, when they had dying Jesus seven to seven Peter Simon said of Jonah love to sell me more than these and he said unto him, yay, Lord not know us, I love thee. I can just imagine this. I mean, it's happened in my house before where we're around the table and question to someone we're like ET, did you do your chores or did you do this? And I didn't do them. I'm saying yeah, and I tried to like mutter it. So I answered it, but he didn't hear me.
A little louder. Have to answer a little louder.
I'm embarrassed because everyone else knows I've ever done my choice and I'm still kind of muttering. But then the third time when he says it, okay, everyone's attention is there and we know what's happening. And it's interesting that the Lord asked the question three times to Peter, Do you love me? Do you love me, Do you love me? Peter denied the Lord three times. He asked the question three times to the Lord.
But the Lord asked Peter the question three times. Do you love me?
Peter three times answered to him that he loved the Lord, and three times the Lord gives him a Commission to feed my lamb, feed my sheep, feed my lamp.
The Lord Peter had made a public denial of the Lord, and the Lord wants him to make a public restoration.
And it's nice to see that Peters ministry doesn't end there.
Peter's ministry as we see in the book of Acts, on the first day that they went preaching, he got 3000 souls that came to Christ.
That's for me is a great I'm sure Peter must have been floored by that 3000 in a day that's can't imagine that really he was restored and the Lord had forgiven him.
His Commission was to feed the sheep and to encourage those that were around him.
You know.
I don't know where everyone else is here tonight. I don't know where you're at in your soul.
Past for present failures or circumstances.
But I know God is a goddess, second chances, and he says in farms, my son or daughter give me thine heart and he can use the circumstances, the things that we go through, our failures and whenever we're restored, we can help others, we can encourage others. And Peter's we we see that very clearly in his ministry.
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In first Peter three it says be ready to give an answer. He wasn't ready to give an answer before when it came time to say do you know Jesus, he denied it. But now he's restored. He says he could write about it. He talks about the trial of our faith being more precious than gold. He also talks about in second Peter to notice how to deliver the godliness of temptation until this is Peter, Peter restore Peter being an encouragement.
To those around him.
And you know God can use you. He can use me to speak in the lives of others.
From our past experiences we're going through now.
I can't say I can't be everything, everyone, and I don't think tonight in this meeting that everyone, this applied to every single person. I hope there was something that could have been an encouragement. There's my burden to say that if there's something going in your life, and you might understand, why is the Lord bringing me through this trial? Why is he allowing this? What have I done?
The Lord, when he brings you the trial like he might, he's trying to work your character in your life. He's also might be using it for a blessing of someone elses life. Cannot be using that circumstance to show to someone else that they can do it, that they can follow him.
And so we kind of did full circle here. We've gone through life of Peter. We've seen some ups and downs we've seen.
His failure, his restoration, But the Lord is faithful. The Lord loved Peter, the Lord was for Peter, but he wanted Peters heart. When Peter was able to let go of his confidence and fully trust the Lord, the Lord could use him again.
It's my prayer tonight that this message, we've been something that would encourage people here because we all go through struggles and I don't come across here pretending at all that I have acquired this and I have now moved up a level. I struggle with these things.
But we know what the Lord is faithful. I'm just going to reread one of the verses that I was thinking about and #5 in the back of the book.
Going to wander, Lord, I feel it. Prone to leave the God I love.
Yet thou Lord hath deigned to seal it with thy spirit from above. Rescued thus from sin and danger, purchased by the Saviors blood, may I walk on earth a stranger as a son and heir of God.
Let's close in prayer.
Oh Lord, you heard it was said tonight.
You know.
Our hearts, how we are prone to wander, prone to leave.
The God we love so much of what we may be claim to be. Truth is something we don't actually live. Starting with myself. Lord, just pray that there might be a spark in our hearts to go on to live our rest of our lives for Him that loved us and gave Himself for us. I pray for anyone tonight that might be struggling.
That might be discouraged in their soul, that might mean it might not show it outwardly, but inside there's a battle going on. Just pray for them, for their pray for comfort, for someone that might be able to reach in and speak into their life to be encouragement.
Spread that over said tonight my fault to good ground to good good hearing, so I be fruit for your glory. Oh Lord, thank you that you are the one our perfect example, the one who not seen we love. May this be our motivation in our life and it's the name of the Lord Jesus Christ that we pray, Amen.