“Now
Peter sat without in the palace: and a damsel came unto him, saying, Thou also
wast with Jesus of Galilee. But he denied before them all,
saying, I know not what thou sayest. And when he was gone out
into the porch, another maid saw him, and said unto them that were there, This
fellow was also with Jesus of Nazareth. And again he denied
with an oath, I do not know the man. And after a while came
unto him they that stood by, and said to Peter, Surely thou also art one of
them; for thy speech bewrayeth thee. Then began he to curse and
to swear, saying, I know not the man. And immediately the cock crew. And Peter remembered the word of Jesus, which said unto him, Before
the cock crow, thou shalt deny me thrice. And he went out, and wept bitterly.” ~ Matthew 26:69-75
Father
in Jesus name I thank You for Your Holy Spirit and the Bible. Thank You for these awesome treasures that
are worth more than gold. Lord, teach me what You want me to learn through
this. Holy Spirit open my eyes and ears to hear and do what You want to me do.
Lord, quicken my spirit, revitalize my spiritual walk with You and draw me
closer through grace. Lord, teach me thy
ways to the point where I see the benefit of leaving my ways behind. I thank
You for what You are about to do in this and my life in Jesus name! AMEN!
When it comes to living for Christ we tend to have
problems in our walk, but powerful words in our talk. How is it possible to stay away from
luke-warmness in my walk with God? By luke-warmness I mean a half committed commitment. How can I stay away from living a lifestyle
that is seemingly real with God, but deep down on the inside, inwardly I know I am not what or who I
profess I am? Is it even possible? So
many times in life we tend to have choir rehearsal down pact, we have our
Church attendance high, but when it comes to serving and being committed to
Christ by our actions daily, we fail.
It’s so easy to say “I am a Christian” but it’s so hard to live as a Christian.
How is it possible? Can it be done? Will I ever have victory over
this? These questions can come in our
mind and sometimes even in our prayer life, but there is good news, God can
answer all of those questions. Yes,
it is possible, yes it can be done and yes you will have victory over “this” if
you give more of yourself to God.
In the text Peter was face to face with one of the
biggest tests of his life. Earlier,
Christ told Peter that he would betray Him. (Matthew 26:34) Surely, this
couldn’t be right, Peter walked with God Himself in the flesh, Jesus Christ for
over three years. Peter was there when
the water was turned into wine, Peter was there when the Pharisees and Scribes
were confounded at the wisdom of God through Jesus, Peter was there when Jesus
came walking on water and Peter was even the only one to step out of the boat
and walk towards Jesus on the water. This couldn’t be possible, Peter deny Jesus?
Yea right! However, it seems sometimes so hard to do the will of God. It’s so
hard to obey. The Bible tells us earlier
in this chapter that Peter was bragging about his commitment to God. (Matthew 26:33) The Bible says “Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall.”
(1 Corinthians 10:12) In other
words, you shouldn’t boast about being super close to God or religious, because
if you walk in pride and arrogance, you are bound to fall. The Bible tells us pride comes before the
fall (Proverbs 16:18) and this is
what Peter at the moment was exhibiting, pure pride.
Peter was now face to face with a test. After Jesus was dragged
off only later to be crucified, Peter was standing beside a group of people and
they sensed that he was one Jesus’ followers.
What did he do? Certainly, he stood up and said “yes!” He didn’t, he denied Jesus Christ. It happened three times as God had
spoken. How often do we deny Christ? You
say “well, nobody ever asks if I am a Christian and I say no” but we deny Him
in our tithes, we deny Him in our lifestyle, in our clothing that is inappropriate
not only in Church but outside of it. We deny Christ in many ways; anyone can
look over their life and see a consistency of denying Jesus Christ until they
got to a point where God began to establish them in their faith. Do you want that? Do you want a real commitment and dedication to God? Do you want to be strong in your walk
with God? Do you want to be a source
of strength for your friends and family? Would you rather be the person with
the answer to people’s problems or the person that just hears the “he said, she
said” about everyone?
Fortunately enough, Peter, though
he fell has given us a clear system to getting back on track with God. Peter
and this text show us in great depth how to get back to God after a fall. From the looks of this text, it seems like it
just shows the problems! Look at Peter denying Christ, what’s good in
that? Well, there’s not much good in
that, but look at the response of Peter. Jesus Christ made sure this scriptural text
was in the Bible because it’s filled with factual information about what to do
when our actions don’t line up with our words.
1)
Remember
the Words of Jesus – The Bible says “and Peter remembered the words of Jesus.” What do you know about Jesus? What you know about Jesus determines your
stance in your relationship with Him. Do
you know how God works? Do you want to know how God works? Should you be
concerned when you are happy when people come to you with gossip? Each of these
questions and statements can reveal to you, your level of commitment to Jesus
Christ. The first thing that we have to
do to make our actions line up with our words is seek God. Seeking God is done through prayer and studying the Word of God. Begin to look at the word of God, examine it
and thoroughly find out what the answer to your dilemma is. Find a quiet place to look over the
Bible. Don’t worry, fear or say “I don’t
know the Bible” true, you may not,
but God does and if you are a
Christian God lives inside of you. The Holy Spirit is God and He lives in every
believer. God being with you and in
you is more than enough. Ask your Pastor
questions. Look up some good Bible teachers online. Check your local bookstore
and grab a nice study Bible. Begin to
ask God to teach you about Himself and just as importantly about you.
If you do these things you are very close to bringing more of your
actions in line with your words and we all struggle with that.
2)
Peter
separated himself – The Bible says “and he went out.” The
second thing you must do in order to find out how to be closer to God is to leave your surroundings. It may be hard to accept, but God can’t do
what He wants to do in and through you until you separate yourself from those
things hindering you. The things you
accept in your space and environment will dictate your character and
actions. Do you hang out with a big
crowd? What makes you do that? Are they influencing
you in the wrong way? Do you leave feeling closer to God or do you leave with
junk in your mind, all of the gossip and ridicule from everyone in your Church
family? Is it all in your face all day
long on Facebook and Twitter? Are you responsible for circulating rumors about
people that you know aren’t true? How
should you respond to that? Just like Peter you have to “go away.” You have to
make a firm decision that “I want to be all God wants me to be and that is what
I will be.” You have to begin to
separate yourself from the things that hurt your walk with Jesus
Christ. Peter left the area that
caused the betrayal of Jesus. There’s no
way you can walk away from sin and stay in a sinful environment. The second thing you must do in order to walk
with God and have your actions line up with your words is to separate yourself
from the crowd, the bar, the club, the wrong music etc. etc.
3)
Weeping/Broken
over sin – The Bible says Peter “wept bitterly.” One thing is for sure when you begin to draw
closer to God, you will begin to feel the effects of sin, not only on the
world, but towards the heart
of God. God begins to let you feel the effects of
your sin so you realize that it hurts the heart of God. Without knowledge that your sin affects God,
you won’t ever overcome it. You
can’t stand apart from sin until you realize that it affects God, everyone and
everything around you. Sin has a way of
coming into our life and dulling our ears to what the Spirit of God is trying
to say to us. Sin desensitizes us to the
will, plan, desire and purposes of God. Sin steps in between us and Christ. Sin always separates us from God. Sin has to be dealt with. The only way you can truly get away from sin
is to feel what the Bible calls “godly sorrow” in your heart. The Bible says “For godly sorrow
worketh repentance.” (2 Corinthians
7:10) The Bible is telling us that when we feel sin and how it’s messed up
our life, our family’s life, our cousin’s life, our uncle’s life those very
feeling causes us to repent. Without
knowing the problem of sin, you’ll never have a desire to get away from
it. Nobody is perfect, but nobody who is
a Christian should live in willful deliberate sin. You have to strive to fight against sin if
you want to be closer to Christ and have your actions line up with your
words.
We see that Peter ran away from the situation, but
what else happened with Peter? Was Jesus through with Peter because he denied
Him? Nope, we find the opposite to take
place. The Bible says “the goodness of
God leads us to repentance.” (Romans
2:4) Peter just did one of the worst sins of his life, he denied Jesus, but
we find something very significant take place at the resurrection of Jesus
Christ. The Bible is careful not to take
away things that are extremely important and this is evidenced within this text. God tells us that when Jesus rose from the dead,
just three days after Peters denial that an Angel met the women at a tomb and
gave a very specific command to them, the Angel said “But go
your way, tell his disciples and Peter that he goeth before you into
Galilee: there shall ye see him, as he said unto you.” (Mark 16:7) Isn’t it interesting that the Bible tells us that the
Angel said tell his disciples and
Peter that Jesus is coming? God
made sure that Peter knew he was not counted out or disowned because of his
mistake. God actually made a point in
adding “and Peter” to promote the
fact that Peter was still loved the same way as before the betrayal. Sometimes
we feel as though we have let God down when we sin or fall away from Him for a
long time. Sometimes we feel like we
aren’t worthy to come back to Jesus or call on His name for salvation or
freedom from a habit, language or bondage.
It’s true, we all get like that, we feel that way, but just like Peter
God gives personal appeals to come back.
You might say, where’s my
personal appeal? Well, if this message
has touched you, this is your personal appeal. Have you walked away from Christ, perhaps
even ran away? Don’t worry! If you feel this is for you, it’s because God loves
you; He led you here. God wants
to fix those issues of your life
that seem so hard to accept, it’s hard to apply the Word of God at times, but
like Peter, there are three things that we must and can do. What’s stopping you? God wants you to live a life
of blessings and satisfaction, sin has temporary benefits and long term
damaging effects, so why stay in it?
Why live a lifestyle of willful and habitual sin when God has His arms open
wanting to take you higher in faith through
Christ. Why wait on God for
something, but right before He gives it to you, you run away? Why stand back
and let God perform heart surgery on people, completely transforming
their lives without asking Him to do the
same for you. The truth is, it’s
a choice you have to make. Will you make
that choice right now?
Father in the name of Jesus I thank
You that You don’t give up on me. I thank You that You have never given up on
me and never will. Lord, fill me with Your Spirit. Give me a grace to stand
apart from sin and cling to Your will. Lord, help me to be a Christian that
impacts the world and that is fully dedicated and committed to You. Forgive me
for my lack of commitment and halfhearted walk with You. Lord, fix me, fix me
of those things that You and I both know are wrong. Make a way of escape. Fill
me with Your presence, power and joy. Let my life shine brighter. Protect me
from the falls and snares of the enemy. Let my life shine brighter because of
the fall. Like Peter, let it be used as
a testimony that Jesus Christ is absolutely awesome and filled with grace.
Thank You Lord for Your personal appeal to me as Your child. I love You and
appreciate You very much. I ask this prayer to be real in my life, fulfill it
in my life in Jesus name! AMEN!
_____________________________________________________________
Have you accepted Jesus Christ as
your personal Lord and Savior?
If not, here’s what you are missing.
You are missing satisfaction in life. You are missing the blessings of
God in and through your life. You are missing the blessing of being able to
know God intimately and know Him for the pardoning of your sins. You are missing the blessing of being able to
serve God and impact your community and the world around you. You are missing the beauty of God revealing
Himself to you and helping you in your daily life. You are missing out on such
great things. God wants the best for you
and His best starts with you admitting you have sinned against Him and that you
need a Savior for your sins, that Savior is Jesus Christ. Like me, will you rebel against God’s plan
and will for your life? Will you submit to Gods will so He can save you and
redirect your life? God can get you off
any drugs, any habit or addiction, nothing can stop God and God will stop at
nothing to stop it from stopping you from reaching your full potential for
Christ. God loves you so much, why wait
and why reject His message. If you want
to be saved for-real, just pray this prayer:
“Lord Jesus, I have sinned, I am a sinner, I have sinned and will sin, but I
have sinned only against You. Lord, I am in need of Your forgiveness. I believe
You died for my sins and You rose from the dead. I believe You are God and that
You have the capability to forgive me of my sins and cleanse me from my
unrighteousness. Lord, please save me and draw me to You by Your grace. Fill me
with Your Spirit. Baptize me in Your power and help me to live a lifestyle that
is pleasing in Your sight. Give me victory over temptation, Lord, strengthen me
to be all who You want me to be please in Jesus Name! AMEN!”
"God loved the world this way:
He gave his only Son so that everyone who believes in him will not die but will
have eternal life." ~ John 3:16 (God’s Word Translation)
"That
if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart
that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; for with the heart a
person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting
in salvation. For
the Scripture says, “Whoever believes in Him will not be [disappointed.” For
there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same Lord is Lord
of all, abounding in riches for all who call on Him; for “Whoever will call on the
name of the Lord will be saved.” ~ Romans 10:9-13 (NASB)
These links may help you in your walk with Jesus Christ. I urge you to take a look at some and
remember to draw closer to God through studying His Word and praying daily for
yourself and most importantly, others.
God Bless!
[List of Bible Promises!
http://www.intouch.org/resources/gods-promises?page480=2 ]
"So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God."
~ Romans 10:17 (King James Version)
http://www.cbn.com/spirituallife/PrayerAndCounseling/index.aspx [Prayer
Request; Have someone online pray for you!]
"The earnest prayer of a righteous person has great power and produces
wonderful results." ~ James 5:16 (New Living Translation)
http://www.OurPrayer.org [Prayer Request; People from all over the world can
pray for YOU, simple, fast, free and beneficial.]
http://www.Bible.cc [Great site for searching through the Bible and
comparing each version, also charts, commentaries and dictionaries]
"Don’t get drunk on wine, which leads to wild living. Instead, be
filled with the Spirit." ~ Ephesians 5:18 (Gods Word Translation)
http://www.biblegateway.com [Great site for Bibles of various kinds and
various languages]
"A heart at peace gives life to the body, but envy rots the
bones." ~ Proverbs 14:30 (New International Version)
http://www.Christianword.org [Great site for prayers; affirmations,
scripture references etc.]
http://www.e-sword.net [Great site to download Bible software; commentaries,
dictionaries, maps, charts, various Bibles]
"A patient person [shows] great understanding, but a quick-tempered one
promotes foolishness." ~ Proverbs 14:29 (Holman Christian Standard Bible)
http://www.twft.org [Pastor Chuck Smith's Through The Bible audio sermons]
http://www.c28.com [Christian Clothing, etc.]
http://www.intouch.org/itrn?utm_source=ITM&utm_medium=Web&utm_campaign=Home_top_slider
[In Touch Ministries 24/7 Radio Broadcast Online; Free Streaming]
http://www.intouch.org/resources/gods-promises?page480=2 [List of Bible
Promises! (Easy to Print)]
"In the fear of the LORD there is strong confidence, And his children
will have refuge." ~ Proverbs 14:26 (New American Standard Bible)
http://www.wmpress.org [FREE Christian Tracts] [Shipped to your doorstep for
free.] [Pass out, leave somewhere (school, bus stop, grocery store, mall,
shopping center, etc.), send in a Birthday, Holiday or Christmas Card; Simple
ways to plant seeds of faith in people, even without speaking.]
[ORDER FORM for WMPRESS.ORG] http://www.wmpress.org/booklet_order.php [BOOKLETS/STUDY GUIDES/ GOSPEL TRACTS
AVAILABLE TO ORDER FROM WMPRESS.ORG] http://www.wmpress.org/bksavail.shtml
http://www.intouch.org/about/in-touch-messenger/messenger-downloads
[Download 35 POWERFUL sermons from Charles Stanley in less than five minutes,
compressed ZIP FILE.] [3 Languages; Pray for the Ministry of donating, giving
and supplying these handheld devices to spread the Gospel to the remote areas
of the world and throughout the 'known' world.] [Pray!]
"For, Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be
saved." ~ Romans 10:13 (American Standard Version)
http://www.thruthebible.org/site/c.irLMKXPGLsF/b.4104233/k.BFE1/MP3_Download_of_5Year_Series.htm
[Dr. J Vernon McGee's Through The Bible 5 Year Series; Free downloads]
[THREE Great Biblical Prayers Ephesians 3:14-21, Ephesians 1:16-20 &
Colossians 1:9-14, pray them for you and others!]
http://www.biblegateway.christianbook.com [Buy Christian Bibles, great
selection of Study Bibles, commentaries, audio sermons, books, clothing, music,
gifts, art; etc.]
http://www.intouch.org/broadcast/today-on-radio [Charles Stanley's daily
radio broadcast; also clicking 'Audio Archives' can allow you to search years
back and download more of his radio broadcasts]
"I pray that the God who gives hope will fill you with much joy and
peace while you trust in him. Then your hope will overflow by the power of the
Holy Spirit." ~ Romans 15:13 (New Century Version)
http://www.intouch.org/broadcast/this-week-on-tv [Charles Stanleys 'This
Week on TV' site; clicking 'Video Archives' can allow you to search back and
find older Television shows; He also has sermon notes available on each
show/segment]
"And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured
into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us." ~
Romans 5:5 (English Standard Version)
http://www.twft.com/?page=C2000 [Pastor Chuck Smiths c2000 Through The Bible
series; free downloads of book by book, verse by verse Bible study/commentary]
"May God give you more and more grace and peace as you grow in your
knowledge of God and Jesus our Lord." ~ 2 Peter 1:2 (New Living
Translation)
http://twft.com/?page=Radio.Main [Pastor Chuck Smiths Radio Broadcast; 25
minutes of study on the Word of God. c3000 edition]
[Study Bibles I suggest looking at; at CBD.com] 'Life in The Spirit Study
Bible' 'Zondervan Study Bible' Nelson KJV Study Bible' and 'ESV Study Bible.'
Christian Books; "Disciplines of The Holy Spirit" by Tan/Gregg;
"How to Listen to God" by Charles Stanley; "Living Waters"
by Pastor Chuck Smith; "Handbook for Christian Living" by Charles
Stanley;
"That I may KNOW Him" ~ Philippians 3:10
Start your day off with a Word from God; Prayer and a Song of Praise/Worship
THE ROYAL PRAYER LINE
Every Wednesday Morning
6:15 a.m. - 6:30 a.m.[EASTERN USA TIME]
Dial-in# (712) 432-1001
Access Code: 491276491#
Just Listen and Be Blessed!!!
http://www.ustream.tv/channel/royal-baptist-sunday-services [PAST SERVICES
OF ROYAL MISSIONARY BAPTIST; SUNDAY SERVICES 8 AND 11 AM; Special Events and
Bible Study as well] Enjoy!
http://royalmbc.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=58&Itemid=109
[My Churches Live Streaming; Sunday's at 8 AM & 11 AM. Thursdays for Bible
Study 7 PM; Enjoy, there IS a Word from The LORD!]
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