The Way Back | Week 3 | Daniel Goulding | Echoes Church

I believe that God has given me a word that I think would be helpful to you as we're in part three of a series called the way back. What what do we do when we've made decisions that have taken us to a place that we don't necessarily wanna be? Is there a way back for us? Next week at Easter, it will culminate. It'll be the end of the series, the ultimate comeback story

of Jesus finding a way back even after death itself. And so if you got a bible, open them up to John chapter 18 today. We're gonna look at a story of a guy named Peter

in his moment of greatest weakness, his moment of greatest failure, and his subsequent story of restoration. So John 18, you turn there. I'll pray for us. We'll jump in. Father, God, we're so thankful

to be in your presence. God, it's so good to get to be in the house of the Lord. We thank you that you inhabit the praises of your people and that your spirit goes before us.

And father, we open the scriptures this morning, would you remind us that we're not just we're not just playing church, but this is where the the the realities of heaven will collide with the realities of earth, and we can walk in here this morning in bondage with hearts that are heavy, overwhelmed.

In just a few moments of your presence, we can walk out of here set free and renewed and refreshed. So holy spirit, would you speak?

In Jesus' name, all god's people said, amen and amen. I don't if any of you are like me, but I'm I'm kind of notorious for, like, saying things, and then afterwards, my brain catches up to what my words just were. And I'm like, oh, wait a minute. I I wish I could take that back. You know? Like, kinda kinda notorious. I got myself into trouble sometimes. This played out a variety of different ways, but my senior year of high school, I was thinking about it this week. Again, I I I don't I don't argue for it any longer, but I used to try to make the case that golfers were more athletic than soccer players. And, again, it's kind of a viewpoint. Like, we drive around in golf carts, and the lady brings us drinks and snacks in the middle of our round. Okay? Like, it's not it's not peak athletic performance. If John Daly can do it, pretty much anybody can do it, but regardless, my senior year of high school, most of my friends were soccer players, and somehow we were at this party. We were having this conversation about who's more athletic golfers or soccer players, and mind you, we're all well hydrated, you know, so we're having these stupid arguments. And long story short, I make a statement of like, I bet you I can make the soccer team, but I haven't even played soccer since I was eight years old because it's basically running. My grandma can run. You know, anybody can do it. Right? Next thing I know, I'm literally trying out for my senior years, like soccer team. I'm literally trying out. I haven't played I'll the shin guards and shoes. I might I haven't played soccer since I was like nine years old. The first day of tryouts, I show up and the coach is like, alright. Here's what we're gonna do. We're gonna start today. Everybody's gonna run two miles and then we're gonna do drills. And I was like,

what? We're gonna run two miles and then do something other than die? Like, what are you talking about? How do you run two miles and then do anything? Right? Long story short, I did not make it to day two of the trials. I was not very good. I remember when I saw the list of names and mine was not on it that made it to day two, I was like, man, I gotta go tell my buddies that I've been kind of badgering that this is gonna be super easy that I didn't even make it to day two of the tryouts, let alone make the team. So I started to think to myself, well, they don't know that I didn't make the team and they're not that good of friends anyways. We're senior year, we're going to different colleges, we should

now or find new friends and just move on. Right? Because there's something about us we just don't know we don't know what to do. We don't know how to face the moments that we failed. And obviously, when it's a soccer trial, like, it's not that big of a deal, but but here's the part that I was kinda thinking about this week that I wanna talk a little bit about this morning. I I think part of the reality is is that failure for you and I

is so disorienting

because I don't think that God designed us to experience it. I think in the Garden of Eden, there was perfection, when there was no sin, failure was never part of the human experience. Guilt and shame, the things that we feel when we fall short, they were never supposed to be a part of our human experience, yet here we are today

living in a broken and fallen world and the question is is what do we do when we fail? Because it's not a matter of if we fail, it's just a matter of when we fail and to what degree that we fail. Here's my submission to us, kind of putting my cards on the table this morning. Here's where I wanna go. I wanna show you first and foremost through the story of Peter that failure doesn't happen in a vacuum, that nobody wakes up tomorrow

making a decision to shipwreck their life. We don't go, you know what I'm gonna do today? I'm gonna blow up my whole life. I'm gonna have an affair. I'm gonna get addicted to drugs. I'm just gonna implode this whole thing. It never happens like that. There's a progression that happens. There's a there's a few small steps that ultimately lead us to failure. I wanna show you the progression of failure.

And secondly, more importantly, I wanna show you how God

responds to you and I when we fail Because again, it's not a matter of if we fail, it's just a matter of when and to what degree we fail. But here's the good news. It doesn't matter what our lives look like today. There's always a way back for all of us. K? John chapter 18 records the story of the final moments of Jesus' life. He's already had the upper room moment. He's gathered his disciples. He's tried to the best of his ability to describe to them what the next couple days of his life are going to look like, the trial, the arrest, the persecution, the the execution, but they just they don't really understand it. But in John 18, we're gonna pick up reading. We're in the Garden Of Gethsemane where Jesus is ultimately going to be arrested and we're going to see Peter,

a paramount figure in the New Testament. We're gonna see him fail in ways that he never thought possible. And again, here's what's important. Here's why we read the bible every Sunday because the bible is not a story of what happened. The bible is a story of what always happens. It's our humanity put on display

so that hopefully we can we can learn from it. K. John chapter 18 verse one. Here's how the story begins. It says, after saying all of these things, Jesus crossed the Kidron Valley with his disciples

and he entered a grove of olive trees. Judas the betrayer knew this place because Jesus had often gone there with his disciples. The leading priests and pharisees had given Judas a contingent of Roman soldiers and temple guards to accompany him. Now with blazing torches, lanterns, and weapons, they arrived

at the olive grove. Verse four says that Jesus fully realized all that was going to happen to him. Now again, this is an important thing for us to remember.

Jesus knew what was about to take place. He wasn't surprised by Judas's betrayal. He actually predicted it. He wasn't surprised by the trial and this is why it's important for us to remember. Jesus is not a created being. He's the creator of the entire world. He was there in the very beginning with God when the whole story

of what do we do because we're gonna put these people in the Garden of Eden. We're gonna give them choice. They're going to choose other than God's best for them, and we're gonna have to redeem them and restore them. The story of Jesus going to the cross was always God's plan a,

hence why Jesus wasn't surprised by it. He was a part of the architecting of the plan, which tells me at any point if he wanted it to stop, he could have, but he doesn't because he knew it was what it took for you and I to be ransomed back to him. So he stepped forward

to meet them, and he asked him, who are you looking for? And they said, Jesus, the Nazarene, they replied. He said, I am he. If it was 2026, he would have said, I'm Himacy. Right? It's it's Himacy. Right? Jesus said, Judas who betrayed him was standing with them, and Jesus asked Jesus said again,

I am he. And then they all drew back and fell to the ground. Once more, he asked them, who are you looking for? Now most theologians believe that when Jesus said that I am he a second time, some type of cosmic shift happened, an earthquake took place, and all of the the centurion guards were dropped to their to their to the floor,

and then Jesus, as their butts are on the floor, asks them, wait. Who are you trying to arrest again? I would've been like, somebody else. You gonna get the wrong number? I don't know who we must have gotten it wrong. Like, I'm I'm going somewhere else, but they they double down and they say, Jesus, the Nazarene. Verse eight says, I told you that I'm he. And Jesus said, and since I'm the one you want, let these others go. Now again, it seems like a small detail, but Jesus asked the guards to let the disciples go. They're not supposed to come with him to where he's going. Verse nine, he did this to fulfill his own statement.

I did not lose a single one of those that you have given me. Then Simon Peter, he drew a sword and slashed off the right ear of Malchus, the high priest's slave. Now again, this is kind of Peter doing what Peter's famous for. Lots of passion, not a ton of direction.

It's a side point. If you're gonna try to defend Jesus and you're gonna try to like stab the guy that's arresting him, at least go for a vital organ. Like cutting an ear off doesn't do anything but frustrate people. Right? But but what what is Peter doing? Peter's starting to realize like, hey, I I don't like what's happening, so he's trying to assert

his own control. He's trying to control what's taking place, and he doesn't think that Jesus is supposed to be arrested. So he cuts he cuts the guy's ear off, but verse 11 says, but Jesus said to Peter, put your sword back in its sheath. Shall I not drink from the cup of suffering that the father has given me? So the soldiers, their commanding officer, and the temple guards arrested Jesus and tied him up. First, they took him to Anais since he was the father-in-law of Caiaphas, the high priest at the time. Caiaphas was the one who told the other Jewish believers, the other Jewish leaders, it's better for the one man that he should die for the people. Here's what's taking place. Again, all this is kind of a setup to get to where we're gonna see Peter ultimately fail, the context is important because again, we understand that failure doesn't happen in a vacuum.

Nobody implodes their life in a day. What's taking place with Peter is the same thing that will happen to you and I in certain seasons of our life. You've got to realize that in this moment, Peter's world is literally imploding in front of him. See, he has pushed his chips to the middle of the table with Jesus. He has gone all in on this guy who found him while he was just fishing and told him, I'm gonna make you a fisherman of men. Peter has gone all in believing that he is the fulfillment

of the messiah that was going to come that the old testament talked about, that this is him. He's the savior of the world. And so Peter's gone all in. He's risked his business. He's risked his reputation.

He's he's leveraged his family. He spent time away from them to be with Jesus all because he believed that Jesus was going to usher in a revolution. But there was one catastrophic mistake that he made which you and I will be tempted to make as well. He thought that he could tell God what it was supposed to look like.

He thought that God was supposed to do certain things according to his plan. And see Peter, just like most first century Jews, they believed that the savior of the world was gonna come and overthrow the Roman government, bring the nation of Israel back into right standing so the people of God could again

rule and reign inside of Jerusalem, but that was never Jesus' plan. He never came to start a political revolution, so now what's happening is Peter's going, wait, wait, hold on. The guy that I've gone all in on is now being arrested arrested by the very Roman government that I thought he was going to overthrow.

It's hard to put into words the level of disorientation that is happening inside of Peter's heart in this moment. He's risked everything. He's leveraged it all, gone all in on something that he now goes, wait.

I don't understand what's taking place. I'm here this morning to tell you that there are seasons of life that you're going to walk through. There are things that are going to happen on this side of eternity that you're gonna sit there and you're gonna go, God, I don't get it.

I don't understand what you're doing. There will be medical diagnosis that you will pray for God to change and they won't change. The loved one will still pass away. There'll be seasons of life where you'll be believing for a financial breakthrough and it won't happen.

There'll be times where you'll believe that the the marriage that you so desperately want is just on the other side of this season of waiting and yet even then it doesn't come. You think that the season of of infertility is going to end quickly yet for whatever reason, you find yourself in the season going, God,

I don't get what you're doing. And the reason that this story is important for us to remember is because again, this isn't Peter's story. This is this is our story and failure doesn't happen in a vacuum. It usually is preceded by some difficult seasons

that we don't know how to reconcile with. We don't know what to do with them. So like Peter, we grasp for control. We try to do what we can do, but the best that Peter can offer is chopping the dude's ear off. And Jesus is sitting there going, just trust me.

Watch. Watch what I'm going to do. And my submission to us this morning is when you find yourself in a season where it looks like God has abandoned you, it feels like God has left you, let the story

that we see in the scriptures remind us that usually the seasons where it feels like God has left, God is actually doing his greatest work. It It's it's happening in in places that you can't see. It's coming in seasons that you're not yet in, but there will be a day where it will make sense. You just have to hold on.

Peter doesn't do that. Peter instead allows the progression of failure to continue. Look at what he does. Verse 15 says, Simon Peter, he followed Jesus as did another of the disciples,

but again, Jesus had already told them, let the disciples go. He wasn't supposed to follow him. He wasn't supposed to go where Jesus was going. Peter's now making a decision to walk in disobedience

to Jesus and says that the other disciple was acquainted with the high priest, so he allowed him to enter the high priest's courtyard with Jesus. Peter had to stay outside the gate, then the disciple who knew the high priest spoke to the woman watching at the gate, and she let Peter in. Same story. It's recorded in four different gospel accounts. Here we have Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Same story, but kinda like different camera angles. The same exact story recorded in the gospel of Luke gives us a detail of what Peter decides to do when when fear and doubt are reigning in his heart, and it is important for us to see because it shows us what I believe is the first step in the progression towards failure. Luke chapter 22, exact same story, small detail that shows us. In verse 54 says, in Peter,

he followed but he followed at a distance. See, this is always the first step away from God. Peter's not abandoning God. He's not rejecting God. He's just choosing to follow him at a bit of a distance, and this is the first step typically

towards failure in our life, understanding that failure doesn't happen in a vacuum. If you're taking notes, the first step towards failure, the progression of failure starts with just a little bit of its distance. It's distance that starts to drift towards failure.

I'm telling you the first step away from God is always a seemingly insignificant small one. It's not that big of a deal.

I just feel a little bit distant in my relationship with God, and I'm here this morning to remind us that when you feel distant from God, it should be a warning light going off inside of your soul saying something is off.

What does distance look like? What does distance feel like? Distance is as simple as sometimes you come to church and you go, man, I used to feel the presence of God. I used to hear God speak to me when I was there. Now I show up and it just feels like I'm going through the motions.

Prayer feels like it's just a religious activity of something that I I have to do versus something that I get to do to commune with my father. It's where the hunger of God that used to be there is not there any longer. When you find yourself there, I'm telling you, you won't outright reject God today

but you will allow a little bit of distance to be there between you and him and I'm here this morning to remind every single one of us. Peter's story tells us distance is dangerous. It's dangerous.

Why? Because the enemy's gonna tell you it's just a little bit of distance. It's not that big of a deal. Just keep going through the motions. Show up to church because your wife wants you to. Go to church because your kids want you to. Just keep playing church,

going through the motions. I'm here this morning to remind you that the enemy will tell you that it'll stop there, that it'll stay with just a little bit of distance, but what he won't tell you is what distance will eventually lead to. Same exact thing that happens to Peter.

Eventually, if you sit in the thing that you're supposed to be fleeing from, eventually, the circumstances will begin to change you. And all of a sudden, when you follow Jesus from a distance for a while, eventually, it becomes much easier

to make choices and decisions that you swore you would never do again. To end up back in the very place that you swore you you have left for good. Again, Peter's story

is something that we have to see because here's the progression. What happened for him? Something in his life took place that he was scared of. The progression of failure always starts with fear, and fear undealt with, unprocessed,

it always leads to seeds of doubt sowed into your heart, and you have to realize we have to do a better job as a church being able to say, hey, there are going to be moments and seasons of life where you're going to sit back and go, God, this doesn't make sense to me. How can you be good in this happen? I I did a funeral Friday night for a family in our church whose 15 old baby passed away.

I stood up there and I told every person sitting in the room, said, guys, you've got to realize you have permission to ask questions about how can God be good when a baby passed away. Because if you don't, if you don't process through these hard questions, the enemy's gonna love to come in and fill all the voids of what you're feeling. He'll take those seeds of doubt. He'll water them, and eventually,

subtly and slowly, you'll begin to follow Jesus. You'll just do it with a little bit of distance that's there. You gotta realize that distance eventually will lead you to the same place we're about to see Peter go. Distance for Peter eventually leads him to a place where he just outright denies even knowing Jesus.

And maybe you and I don't verbally deny that we know Jesus, but here's what you will do. Here's what I will do. You will deny the power of Jesus in your life. You will deny the authority of Jesus over your life. You'll begin to take back control of your finances. You'll begin to date the way that you wanna date. You'll begin to treat your sexuality how you want to. Why? Because God failed me anyways.

God disappointed me anyways. I ended up there regardless, so I want you to do things my way and when you start to live, when you start to live that way, when you start to walk through compromise, you allow those things to be a part of your story, you're just denying the power of God in your life, I'm telling you, eventually, you're going to end up where the enemy wants every single one of us, defeated,

broken, lost, and just absolutely wandering. Friends, we got to realize sitting here this morning, the scripture say that it's not flesh and bones that we wage war with, but it's spirits and principalities.

That Jesus died to give you a life beyond your wildest dreams. It's abundant and full, the scriptures say. But the enemy wants to come alongside and kill, steal, and destroy that life. And I wish Peter had a friend that could just pull him aside and go, man,

you're off right now. These things that you're feeling, you've got to process through. Otherwise, they're gonna lead to some places that you don't wanna go, but Peter doesn't have that friend. But here's the beauty for all of us sitting here today. If the if the cycle is predictable, that means it's preventable. It means you don't have to allow it to just play out. You don't have to get to a point of defeat. You can at any point raise your hand and go, man, I'm I'm not allowing the progression of failure to continue in my life, and I'm making a decision today to come back to God so I don't have to walk through all the consequences that Peter is gonna have to walk through. Look how the story continues. Verse 17, Peter's now sitting in something he should be running from. In verse 17, it says, the woman asked Peter, hey, you're not one of the man's disciples, are you? And he said, no, I'm not. For the first time, Peter blatantly denies ever even knowing

Jesus. Verse 18 says, because it was cold, the household servants and the guards, they had made a charcoal fire. If you have a bible, highlight underlying circle charcoal fire. Give me a couple minutes. I'll come back to it. I'll show you the significance of it. They stood around it warming warming themselves, and Peter stood with them warming himself.

Inside, the high priest began asking Jesus about his followers and what they've been teaching them, and Jesus replied, everybody knows what I teach. I preach regularly in the synagogues in the temple where the people gather, and I've not spoken in secret. He said, why are you asking me this question? Ask those who've heard me. They know what I said. And then one of the temple guards standing nearby slapped Jesus across the face.

Is that any way to answer the high priest? He demanded. And Jesus replied, if I've said anything wrong, you must prove it. But if I'm speaking the truth, why are you beating me? Then Anas bound Jesus and sent him to Caiaphas, the high priest. Meanwhile,

Simon Peter was standing by the fire warming himself, and they asked him again, hey, you're not one of his disciples, are you? And he denied it saying, no, I'm not. But one of the household slaves of the high priest, a relative of the man whose ear Peter cut off asked, didn't I see you out there in the olive grove with Jesus? Verse 27, again Peter denied it and immediately a rooster crowed.

Here's what's happening to Peter. Because he's allowed distance to start to drift towards failure, because he's he's allowed himself to follow Jesus but from a distance, he eventually ends up doing the very thing that you and I will do as well. He's entertaining things, people, circumstances, and situations

that he knows he should be fleeing from. He's hanging out with the very people who literally

are the people who are putting Jesus on trial, mocking and beating him. Here's what you and I will all be tempted to do when we allow distance to exist between us and God. The conviction of the holy spirit that we used to feel, the spirit of God that used to say, hey, man. Get out of that situation. You can't be there. You've gotta you've gotta stop hanging out with these friends. You gotta stop being in these circumstances.

All of a sudden, the conviction of the holy spirit is muted. We don't hear God's voice, and if we do, we're much better at ignoring it, and what happens is is eventually,

you will sit in the things that you should be fleeing from. You will entertain conversations with people you should never be talking to. You will find yourself in circumstances that you know meant you can't stay here long enough without eventually settling into

the things that people around you are doing. Here's what I'm trying to show you this morning, that if it's if it's distance that starts the drift, it's drifting you towards compromise. The enemy's your ultimate goal for us. The next step in the progression towards failure is compromise. Compromise is the thing that will open the door that allows failure to be a part of your story. How did it play out for Peter?

Peter eventually sat around the fireplace long enough, and what mattered to him more than what Jesus knew about him? He cared more about what the people around him were saying about him. All of a sudden, people's opinions of him mattered a ton and because of their opinions of him, he was willing to compromise. He was willing to literally deny the power of God in his life and here's what it tells me. What your grandma told you is true. You can only sit in the barbershop long enough before eventually you're going to get a haircut.

You and I need to realize that when you are when you find yourself sitting in circumstances that you should be fleeing from, eventually, they're going to tempt you to fall into those circumstances.

You're not strong enough. There there are some of you here who have gotten out of the chains of the bondage of pornography addiction and yet still,

you suddenly find yourself going, well, man, it's not that big of a deal. I can get Instagram again. And all of a sudden, start to you start to engage with, you start to entertain the very thing that you know has the power to entrap you and enslave you all over again. Why? Because there's been distance between you and your relationship with God for a while.

We've gotta realize the distance will lead to places. You've gotta understand that compromise is coming if you're not careful and there's things that some of us are entertaining that we need to run from. Now again, same story, different gospel, but it shows us a different vantage point of the story that is unbelievably

powerful. K. The gospel of Luke, again, when Peter fails, when Peter denies Jesus for the third time, I wanna read to you Luke chapter 22 verse 51 show you what happens here. Verse 51 says, at that moment, the lord turns and he looked at Peter. Think about that for just a second. Jesus is literally getting mocked and beaten

by the high priest inside of a house. Peter's outside denying him. The moment he does it for a third time, Jesus looks at him and they make eye contact. Imagine what that moment must have felt like for Peter. Imagine what that moment must have felt like for Jesus.

Fitting there going, I'm seeing him, and he's seeing that Jesus knew that he was going to fail, and then says, suddenly, the Lord's words flashed through Peter's mind. Before the rooster crows, tomorrow morning, you will deny me three times that you even knew me. And Peter left the courtyard weeping

bitterly. What's amazing to me about this whole story is that Jesus predicted

Peter's failure ahead of time. He told all the disciples, guys, you're all gonna deny me. You're all gonna act like you never knew me. And Peter stands up with bravado, with pride, and says, man, even if they all deny you, I never would. And Jesus says, man, I promise you, before the rooster crows, you'll deny me three times.

And what happens? What Jesus said was going to happen takes place. In the moment of Peter's greatest weakness, he makes eye contact with Jesus, and that's the moment that he knows that Jesus knows every single thing about him. And what does he do? He walks away weeping

bitterly. And this is the irony of this whole thing to me. Here's why I think the story of Peter is so significant for us. It's so important for us to understand. I love the story that Josh preached a couple weeks ago about the story of the prodigal son, but the hard part with the story of the prodigal son is we assume that the prodigal son made mistakes. He was restored back in the father's house. He got the ring. He got the sandals. He got the robe, and he just lived the rest of his life doing the right things, and he never again became the prodigal son again. The part that's amazing about Peter's story is this isn't the moment of his encounter with Jesus. This isn't the first time he comes down to the altar for repentance. This is a guy that's already given his life to Jesus, yet he's failing epically.

And it reminds me that you and I need to understand that failure is going to be a part of our human experience not once, but often. Multiple times, we will fail. You can actually make an argument that the only thing we really bring into a relationship with God is the the the sin that necessitates the forgiveness of god,

and yet somehow we we disillusion ourselves to thinking that god can only use us when we're perfect, yet you've got a guy like Peter

that fails epically multiple times because he doesn't see the warning lights. He doesn't see the warning signs of the progression of sin playing out in his life and it ends with him just weeping, crying, walking away, believing that God can't use somebody like him. Now, again, we'll look next

week at what happens in John nineteen and twenty, Jesus' trial, his execution, his ultimate resurrection, but to see Peter's story continue, you gotta flip over with me to John chapter 21.

We see Peter's story continue. We see how Jesus responds to it. So flip over to John 21, and I'll get us out of here. John chapter 21 verse one says it this way. It says that later, Jesus appeared again to the disciples beside the Sea Of Galilee. Here's how it happened. Several of the disciples were there, Simon Peter, Thomas nicknamed the twin, Nathaniel from Canaan to Galilee,

the sons of Zebedee, and the two other disciples. Simon Peter said, I'm going fishing. They said, okay. We'll come too. So they went in the boat and they caught nothing all night. And I know it seems like it's not that big of a deal, but where where do we find Peter again after his failure?

He's back fishing again. What did Peter do before Jesus found him? He was a professional fisherman. Where does Peter go after he fails God?

He goes back to the life that he used to have. See, this is the greatest lie that the enemy is gonna try to convince you of, that God can't use somebody like you and that you might as well just go back to who you used to be. And the subtle temptation after you allow compromise to be a part of your stories that you are now disqualified and God can't use you. So just go back to your old life. Go back to your old friends. Go back to your old ways. Go back to your old things. Maybe you tried the God thing, but it didn't really work for somebody like you, and the greatest lie of the enemy is that because you have failed, you now are a failure, and God can't use you. You gotta realize, friends, this is the lie that failure will try to paint over your life. This is the banner it will try to get you to live under. Failure will always try to send you back, back to your old ways, back to the old person that you used to be, back to your old lifestyle believing.

Maybe you had some temporary moments of positive movement with God, but the truth is you know who you are.

You always end up here. You're always a failure, and you will be tempted to believe that lie too. And the reason that the story is so important to us is because we're going to see how Jesus responds to a guy that is a repeat failure like most of us in this room are going to be as well. How does Jesus respond? Let's keep reading. Verse four says, at dawn, Jesus was standing on the beach, but the disciples couldn't see who he was. So he called out, fellas, have you caught any fish? No, they replied. And then he said, throw your net on the right hand side of the boat, and then you'll get some. So they did, and they couldn't haul in the net because there were so many fish in it. Verse seven says, and the disciple,

Jesus love, said to Peter, it's the Lord. When Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he put on his tunic for he had stripped for work. He jumped into the water, and he headed to shore. The others stayed with the boat and pulled the loaded net to the shore for they were only about a 100 yards from the shore, and when they got there, they found breakfast waiting for them. Notice that no fish have come in yet. The fishermen haven't brought any fish in yet, but Jesus, it's a questionable choice for sure to cook fish for breakfast, but he already has the fish. He doesn't even need what they're bringing to the table, and there's fish cooking over, I told you I'd come back to it, a charcoal fire. Highlight underline circle, a charcoal fire and some bread. If you're reading this going, man, think I've heard this story before, it's because you have.

What Jesus is doing is Jesus is literally, he's resetting the scene of the day that he called Peter out of being a fisherman, becoming a fisherman of men. Peter has frustratingly fished all night and caught nothing, and then a guy from the shore yelled out and said, why don't you try the other side of the boat? If I was Peter, would have asked, what do you do for a living? And he says, I'm a carpenter. I would go, thanks, but no thanks. Right? Like, I'm a professional fisherman, and you think 10 feet to my right is gonna be like a jackpot of fish. But for whatever reason, Peter trusts him, throws the net out, more fish than he can catch, and that's the moment that Jesus tells him, if you give me your life, I will make something significant out of you. Yet here's what Jesus is doing on the other side of Peter's greatest failure.

He's recreating for him the scene of his calling. He's reminding Peter, I know who you are. I knew who you were when I called you, but more importantly, more significantly

than just recreating the scene of his calling, notice the other thing that he does. There's only two times in the bible. You could do a word search in scripture. You type in fire. There's thousands of fires. There's only two times you'll ever seen a charcoal fire in the bible. The first one is when Peter is warming himself around a fire that he never should have been in, entertaining company he never should have been around, making decisions that he would later regret. That's the first time. The second time is when Jesus recreates the scene of not just his calling,

but also his falling, and he's recreating the smells. He's recreating the scenes and the scenario for Peter to remember. Not only do I know who you are when I called you, I saw you in your moment of greatest weakness.

And I wanna remind you that neither of these things defined you, and Jesus is about to show all of us how God responds to failure,

but he's going through this elaborate motion with Peter to remind him, Peter, I'm so much bigger than all of this, and you put God into this box of thinking that he can only use you when you do things correctly, and when you've made mistakes, you're disqualified, and God is gonna replace you. Let me tell you today, and here's the good news of the gospel. We live in a culture that replaces things that are slightly used. We we throw them out. We let Amazon deliver something new in four hours. Right? It's like it'll be here today.

But I'm thankful that we serve a god that that restores and doesn't just replace. Here's the good news. Jesus, when we fail, he doesn't just he doesn't just replace us. He actually restores us back to our position. What he's doing to Peter is he's restoring him in a really significant

way. Last couple verses, look at what he does. Verse 10, he says, bring some of the fish that you've just caught. So Simon Peter went aboard and dragged the net to the shore. There was a 153 large fish, and yet the net hadn't torn.

You know, you can know the Bible was written by men that these guys are seeing the resurrected Jesus again, and one of them was like, yeah. But make sure you count how many fish we caught, Dude, there's a lot of fish. Like, one, two, three, a 153

fish were there. Right? Like, that detail is in the Bible. It's mind blowing. Verse 12. Now come now come and have some breakfast, Jesus said. None of the disciples dared to ask him, who are you? Because they knew that it was the Lord.

And then Jesus serves them the bread and the fish. This was the third time that Jesus appeared to his disciples since they'd been raised from the dead. And after breakfast, Jesus asked Simon Peter, Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these?

Peter replied, yes, lord. You know that I love you. He says, then feed my lambs. Jesus told him, verse 16, Jesus repeated the same question. Simon, son of John, do you love me?

Yes, Peter said. You know that I love you. Then take care of my sheep, Jesus said. A third time, he asked him, Simon, son of John, do you love me? And Peter was hurt that Jesus asked the question a third time, and he said, Lord, you know everything.

You know that I love you. And then Jesus said, then I need you to feed my sheep. This is one of the most profound stories in all of the Bible. And sometimes when you read it, you'll be tempted to think that what Jesus is doing here is like what they teach you to do with puppies when they pee in your house, like you rub their nose in it to remind them, hey. This is a bad thing. Don't do this again. You you'd be tempted to think that Jesus is literally rubbing Peter's nose in his failure, but that's not what's happening.

This is the beauty of what Jesus offers you and I. It's not temporarily satisfying the the feelings of guilt that we feel, just temporarily giving you satisfaction for the feeling of guilt that you will feel for a moment. The invitation

of faith through Jesus is that not just not just can you have your sin erased, but you can actually have it completely redeemed.

What Jesus is doing in front of all the same disciples that Peter failed in front of, he's restoring him back to his position because Peter failed him three times. Jesus needs him to be restored three times. And I'm telling you, every single one of us sitting here, this story matters for us because failure

is going to be a part of our story. You're gonna fall short. You're gonna do the thing that you swore you would never do. You'll go back to the place that you swore you got victory from. You you got out of the relationship, and then you find yourself back there. The question again this morning is what does God do?

What does he do when we fail? Well, he wants to. If you'll let him. He wants to not just erase your failure, but he wants to completely redeem it. He wants to heal you from it. He wants to forgive you. He wants to restore that which has been broken, but it requires us

to raise our hand and say, man, I've I've kinda made a mess of this thing. And there are some days that I wish that Jesus would just look past my sin.

There's some days I wish that he would just kinda look the other way, but the truth is the reason that Peter needed to be restored publicly is because if he didn't if he didn't have that brokenness in him healed,

then there's only so much progress he can make. Because every time he would try to take a stand for the cause of Christ, the enemy would always have a rooster crow back into his heart. He'd And always go, yeah, but you know who you really are. And this is the beauty of what holistic healing looks like through faith in Jesus.

It's not only not only is the penalty for sin paid by what Jesus did on the cross, but the power that sin used to have over you, it can also be broken, and you can walk as a new creation in Christ. And I'm here this morning to remind you that this story has nothing to do with Peter.

But the story has everything to do with a God that is in desperate pursuit of every single one of you sitting here today. And I don't know what your failure is. I don't know what your mistakes have been. I don't know what the shortcomings are. I don't know what the places of compromise you've ended up in are,

but I do know that there's a God in heaven that's here this morning that wants to meet you there, that wants to do a work inside of your heart if you'll let him. So here's what wanna do this morning. We're gonna end our service a little bit differently.

Ian and Reed are gonna lead us through a song. We're gonna again, in an atmosphere of faith, believing that the spirit of God is here, ministering to our hearts. I just wanna throw a couple questions up on the screen. I want you to just process and allow the spirit of God to minister to you. And whatever it is that you're processing through, just have a private moment with God. Worship believing that the spirit of God is working in here, and then I'll come back out, and I'll lead us in a couple prayers. Does that sound fair? Let me pray. Father,

God, we thank you this morning for meeting us in this place. And God, I know that this looks like a high school performing arts center, but God, this is a holy place. This is a tabernacle where the spirit of God wants to dwell with us.

And God I know there's people that are in here that are that are feeling the heaviness and the weight of sin that has shackled them. That has put them in bondage. Spirit of God, we're asking for you to move in power, to move in might, to let people who walk in here enslaved,

walk out of here set free. So holy spirit, come now. Have your way. Move in us and through us. In Jesus name we pray.