SPEAKER_00: Good morning.
SPEAKER_00: Welcome.
SPEAKER_00: Welcome to Freedom.
SPEAKER_00: I'm so happy to be back with you this morning.
SPEAKER_00: And uh man, hasn't the has this been has this series been meaningful for you?
SPEAKER_00: Uh this miracle series that we've been in for the last few weeks.
SPEAKER_00: I hope it's been encouraging to you.
SPEAKER_00: Today we're wrapping that up.
SPEAKER_00: And so, man, I'm excited to be with you here.
SPEAKER_00: I know the last couple weeks I've kind of been a little bit out, and but uh I heard nothing but great reports and I just heard that uh I heard uh church went well the last couple weeks, and so so that's that's awesome.
SPEAKER_00: Anyway, I'm glad to be back with you here this morning.
SPEAKER_00: And um, yeah, this is our this is our last week of our miracle series.
SPEAKER_00: I've heard lots of great things.
SPEAKER_00: I know many of you are gathered in groups right now, and so that's kind of winding down right now and then and coming to an end.
SPEAKER_00: But like I said, I've just heard great stories of uh people just making taking next steps.
SPEAKER_00: I think I think sometimes we wonder what what's supposed to be the the end goal.
SPEAKER_00: And honestly, you know, and it's it's one of those things when you're following Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Oftentimes the the win in the current season is that you took a step.
SPEAKER_00: You took a step toward Jesus, or something that there's something that you that you you haven't done, or maybe you've been resistant to, and and now you're in a season where you know I I've heard stories already of people praying out loud in front of other people for the first time.
SPEAKER_00: And for some of you are like, what's the big deal?
SPEAKER_00: And then for the rest of you, you're like, that's a really big deal.
SPEAKER_00: Like praying out loud.
SPEAKER_00: And guess what?
SPEAKER_00: That's that's that's that's a next step, and that's a win, and and those are that's growth, and that's that's us moving toward Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And so, anyway, I'm super proud of you for going through this and going through this uh this um this series with us.
SPEAKER_00: Next week, we're starting a new series on family.
SPEAKER_00: We're talking about a better way to to lead at home, and so anyway, I'm I'm I'm looking forward to doing that and going through that with you for the month of May.
SPEAKER_00: It's a great uh series to be inviting people to as well.
SPEAKER_00: And so, anyway, come back next week for that.
SPEAKER_00: Have you ever um you ever been in one of the uh situations where you've you've messed something up bad, like you've really messed something up, and you instantly become like a professional excuse maker.
SPEAKER_00: You know what I'm talking about?
SPEAKER_00: You're like you gotta like, you know, the tools just weren't quite right, you know.
SPEAKER_00: It was the instructions, they were super just unclear.
SPEAKER_00: The weather was working against me.
SPEAKER_00: You know what it is?
SPEAKER_00: They put dye in our foods.
SPEAKER_00: It's red 40.
SPEAKER_00: My mom was feeding me Kool-Aid and Cheetos for all those years, and the red 40 is now in my brain.
SPEAKER_00: And so it's really not my fault, you know?
SPEAKER_00: It's really not my fault.
SPEAKER_00: We we got all kinds of excuses.
SPEAKER_00: That's what happens oftentimes when we when we fail.
SPEAKER_00: We instantly move toward managing the story.
SPEAKER_00: We we we instantly move toward, oh hold on, you need to know, you need to know where I'm coming from, you need to know how I got here, you need to know why I did that, you need to know what they did and what led me to this point.
SPEAKER_00: We instantly move toward management, story management.
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna talk to you this morning about the topic of failure.
SPEAKER_00: What do you do when you fail?
SPEAKER_00: In fact, the title of the message is not if I fail, the title of the message is when I fail.
SPEAKER_00: And I I really believe this is this is a really significant topic.
SPEAKER_00: Honestly, it's probably worthy of an entire series just around what do we do and how do we respond?
SPEAKER_00: How does God respond when when we fail?
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna do my best to kind of shove it into about a 35-minute window for you this morning.
SPEAKER_00: But this is a significant topic because for many of us, we've got a lot of just wrong perceptions about what it means to follow Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: What's it look like?
SPEAKER_00: Uh, you know, a lot of us are very comfortable going, I know I used to fail, but now I'm in Jesus, I'm in Jesus, so what do I do now when I fail?
SPEAKER_00: There's a lot of we got a lot of bad theology.
SPEAKER_00: We don't even know it's theology, it's theology.
SPEAKER_00: You got some bad ideas about God, some bad ideas about what he thinks about you when you fail.
SPEAKER_00: And for for many of us, what we think about God and how he sees us when we fail, for a lot of us, it's driving us.
SPEAKER_00: Some of us, you love Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: You love Jesus, and I and I can see it all over you because you like you love Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: You just you want to talk about Jesus, you're you you're just like, I know I messed up, but you know, Jesus has been so gracious to me.
SPEAKER_00: And there's others of you, you look like you love Jesus too.
SPEAKER_00: And you'll even say it.
SPEAKER_00: But beneath the surface is this like striving, and it's this, it's this effort, and it's this, it's this, I gotta do more for Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And it's actually not the love of Jesus that's compelling you, it's it's your failure that you feel toward Jesus that's compelling you.
SPEAKER_00: I want to set some of this straight.
SPEAKER_00: Hopefully, you can walk out of here today with a little bit more freedom around the idea of failure.
SPEAKER_00: It's a human thing.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know if you know that.
SPEAKER_00: It's not just for the people who don't follow Jesus, it's a human thing.
SPEAKER_00: Tell you a story.
SPEAKER_00: I like to ski.
SPEAKER_00: Anybody like to ski?
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, a few of you.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I didn't get to go skiing this year.
SPEAKER_00: I had this whole neck thing going on and just put me out.
SPEAKER_00: So, you know, I just had to stay indoors for six months straight.
SPEAKER_00: You know, just six months of just, you know, seasonal depression and no sunlight, long winter.
SPEAKER_00: It was okay.
SPEAKER_00: I love it.
SPEAKER_00: You know, I just I love that.
SPEAKER_00: Just like the rest of you.
SPEAKER_00: Just love that indoor stuff.
SPEAKER_00: I can't wait till spring, right?
SPEAKER_00: That's it's I thought it was upon us, and then it snowed this week.
SPEAKER_00: So I'm not bitter.
SPEAKER_00: I'm really not.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not bitter at all.
SPEAKER_00: I like I like to ski.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, so I didn't, I grew up going to the mountain every now and then, and I would snowboard.
SPEAKER_00: I grew up snowboarding.
SPEAKER_00: And and then after I got married, I thought, Beth Bethany's a skier.
SPEAKER_00: And I would see her, I would snowboard and she would ski, and she's really good.
SPEAKER_00: And and then I noticed we would get off the the chairlift, and she's just ready to like, you know, just woo, just right down the mountain.
SPEAKER_00: And I'm like, hold on a second, I gotta sit down.
SPEAKER_00: And and I was like, I'm getting tired of this sitting down business on my snowboard.
SPEAKER_00: I was like, I want to learn how to ski.
SPEAKER_00: So I tell Bethany, we didn't even have kids at the time, we were living in Southern California, and and so I'm like, hey, listen, uh, we're gonna go skiing this weekend, and I and I want to learn.
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna learn to ski.
SPEAKER_00: She's like, that's great.
SPEAKER_00: She's a good skier.
SPEAKER_00: She says, I'm gonna teach you how to ski.
SPEAKER_00: I'm like, that sounds great, you know?
SPEAKER_00: What could go wrong?
SPEAKER_00: Newlywed, and your wife wants to teach you how to ski.
SPEAKER_00: Let's go.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, this sounds like a deal, right?
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
SPEAKER_00: So then we get to the top, she's like, so I get my skis, and she's like, I'm like, let's what do we do?
SPEAKER_00: You know, she's like, let's head up.
SPEAKER_00: We'll pick the easy one.
SPEAKER_00: We look went for like a blue or a green or something, you know.
SPEAKER_00: So I'm like, yeah, that sounds, you know, that sounds good.
SPEAKER_00: I've been snowboarding for a while.
SPEAKER_00: How hard can this be?
SPEAKER_00: So we get up there, and I'm a little shaky.
SPEAKER_00: I get up to the top, I get off, and I instantly get off the chair lift, realizing I have made a horrible mistake.
SPEAKER_00: And so I'm there.
SPEAKER_00: And so Bethany's like, just follow me.
SPEAKER_00: And so she's like, here's what you do.
SPEAKER_00: You just kind of do this with your ski and you lift it right here and you turn, and then this is that's all you have to do, Jason.
SPEAKER_00: Bye.
SPEAKER_00: She was that she's like that small at this point.
SPEAKER_00: I'm just like, what are we doing?
SPEAKER_00: I mean, I was coming down that mountain.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, I was I was falling, I was probably saying things you can't repeat in church.
SPEAKER_00: I was I was furious, and I and I'm coming down to the mountain, and finally I'm I'm tired of falling.
SPEAKER_00: At this point, I'm like, I just got to get to the bottom, you know, just get to the bottom.
SPEAKER_00: And so I'm like, I just point my skis downward and I just start heading down.
SPEAKER_00: I'm thinking, you know, pizza, you know, I'll be okay.
SPEAKER_00: And I'm like going, and I start picking up speed like really fast, and I realized the pizza isn't working.
SPEAKER_00: I was like, this isn't working right now, you know.
SPEAKER_00: So I'm like, I'm trying, and I'm going, and I'm just like, what are we doing?
SPEAKER_00: And I'm headed for all the people.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, I'm headed straight for them.
SPEAKER_00: I'm like, no, this is not good.
SPEAKER_00: I'm now I'm sweating, and I and I kid you not, it was like a movie.
SPEAKER_00: Some guy sees me coming, he's like, Everybody look out.
SPEAKER_00: I'm like, you gotta be kidding me.
SPEAKER_00: And I'm like, well, thank God he said that, you know.
SPEAKER_00: So and I did.
SPEAKER_00: I the people like part the sea, I like plow through everybody finally.
SPEAKER_00: I'm just like, I just gotta fall down.
SPEAKER_00: I just had to so I fall.
SPEAKER_00: And I look over and you think Bethany's all sweet.
SPEAKER_00: I yeah, she got you all full.
SPEAKER_00: She did, you think she's so sweet and so kind.
SPEAKER_00: She is laughing hysterically.
SPEAKER_00: People were saying, I think the nicest thing anybody said to me as I was coming out was, who is this idiot?
SPEAKER_00: That's I think that's the nicest thing somebody said to me as I came crashing down, and they were right.
SPEAKER_00: And I got down, I was like, I was so mad, I got the skis off.
SPEAKER_00: I just, I'm like, I'm going to get a snowboard, you know.
SPEAKER_00: So and I did, and I enjoyed the rest of my day.
SPEAKER_00: And you know, and now that I see this was gonna be a story about my failure to ski, but now that I'm telling it, it's really a story about Bethany's failure to teach me.
SPEAKER_00: I didn't actually value.
SPEAKER_00: G foul, you found oh my goodness.
SPEAKER_00: Failure.
SPEAKER_00: You know, it's it's funny when it's a near-death experience skiing down the mountain with your with your new wife, right?
SPEAKER_00: That's that's a funny story.
SPEAKER_00: It's a little, it's a little less, it's a little less funny when we start talking about moments of like significant failure in our life.
SPEAKER_00: Failure that failure that that feels like you live in a glass house and everybody can see you.
SPEAKER_00: You know, you know what I'm talking about?
SPEAKER_00: It it's a it's a little bit different when we're when we're talking about a failure that that gets at uh what you've maybe at the core of your identity, and and you and you feel like you've you've let not just maybe others down, but maybe yourself, maybe God.
SPEAKER_00: We're gonna go to a story in John chapter 21, and this is a story of if you're familiar with your Bible, I'm sure many of you have heard this story.
SPEAKER_00: It's a story about Peter.
SPEAKER_00: Peter's Peter's in this moment, Jesus has died, he's been, he's he's resurrected even at this point, and this is where the story picks up in John 21.
SPEAKER_00: But but the the backstory is that just a few chapters before in John, Peter is there with with Jesus, and he hasn't gone to the cross yet.
SPEAKER_00: He's about to go to the cross, and and he's Jesus basically tells all his disciples, he says, You're all gonna, you're all gonna leave me.
SPEAKER_00: Peter, in that moment, because he's he's a leader.
SPEAKER_00: I really like Peter.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, people dog on him in the Bible all the time and try to make fun of him.
SPEAKER_00: I don't think that I think I think he was the guy that was just brave enough to ask all the questions we were afraid to ask and to do the things that we thought we were gonna like that's that's what I think about it.
SPEAKER_00: And so in that moment, he goes, Oh, not me, Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: I'm never gonna leave you.
SPEAKER_00: I'm never gonna, I'm never gonna deny you.
SPEAKER_00: I'm never gonna leave leave you.
SPEAKER_00: And and Jesus says, Oh, yeah, you will.
SPEAKER_00: And he says, No, no, no, I will die before I do that.
SPEAKER_00: I will die before I do that.
SPEAKER_00: I take guys to the mountains.
SPEAKER_00: I try to do that most most years and been doing that for almost 10 years, taking guys to the mountains.
SPEAKER_00: And it's amazing to me how many times I'll I'll have a guy and and it'll be like, I'm going to the top of the mountain.
SPEAKER_00: And I'll be like, Yeah, yeah, but we gotta we gotta prep and we gotta make sure this is right.
SPEAKER_00: And they're like, No, no, no, you don't understand.
SPEAKER_00: I'm going, I will die before I get to the top of the mountain, even before I quit going to the top of the mountain.
SPEAKER_00: It's amazing how many of those guys will just be like, I think I'm out.
SPEAKER_00: We're like, we got 2,000 more feet, though.
SPEAKER_00: You know?
SPEAKER_00: It's amazing what we think we'll do in our self-will.
SPEAKER_00: And here's Peter.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus, I will die before I deny you.
SPEAKER_00: And he says, Oh, no, no, no.
SPEAKER_00: The rooster's gonna crow three times, and then before, and then right after you you deny me.
SPEAKER_00: He's like, It's gonna cry after your third denial, the rooster's gonna crow, and then that's this is what's gonna happen.
SPEAKER_00: And so here's how the story goes.
SPEAKER_00: Luke actually says he's around a fire, and it says that a series of people, including a little girl, come and he denies emphatically.
SPEAKER_00: Like I'm talking like cussing.
SPEAKER_00: Like, I know I do not know this man.
SPEAKER_00: It says the rooster crows, and Luke actually says that Jesus turns and looks at him in the eye, right as the rooster's crowing.
SPEAKER_00: You talk about failure that you're not hiding from.
SPEAKER_00: And it says he went out and he was weeping bitterly, and he just used failure.
SPEAKER_00: It's recorded across every gospel.
SPEAKER_00: They were all talking about it, they all knew failure.
SPEAKER_00: So here's Peter.
SPEAKER_00: This is John chapter 21.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is dead.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, maybe he's resurrected at this point.
SPEAKER_00: Peter's just kind of like I would imagine it's a pretty depressing scene.
SPEAKER_00: And look how he says he says, I he looks at the other, there's seven disciples around each other.
SPEAKER_00: And he looks at you and he says, Hey guys, I'm going out fishing.
SPEAKER_00: I'm going fishing.
SPEAKER_00: The other disciples, they actually, there's like I said, the rest of them there, there's seven of them.
SPEAKER_00: They're like, Yeah, we'll come with you.
SPEAKER_00: Because see, they all denied it, but Peter did it on like an epic level.
SPEAKER_00: No, I will die.
SPEAKER_00: No, you you're gonna deny me.
SPEAKER_00: He's he's not going out, he's not he's not going fishing because he needs money.
SPEAKER_00: He's going fishing because he he knows how to fish.
SPEAKER_00: It's retreat.
SPEAKER_00: He's going back to what he's familiar with.
SPEAKER_00: Well, we've all been that we've all we've all do this.
SPEAKER_00: A lot of us have this tendency, a lot of us, addiction is our thing.
SPEAKER_00: This is this is one of the driving factors for addiction.
SPEAKER_00: We we we've we find ourselves failing, so we just kind of go back to what we're used to.
SPEAKER_00: We find ourselves in a in a moment where you're just kind of like, well, what's the point?
SPEAKER_00: I've already you know, I've already come this far, I've already failed, and so we just sort of go back to what we're familiar with, and that's what Peter is doing here.
SPEAKER_00: He's going right back to what he's familiar with.
SPEAKER_00: He goes back to his old life.
SPEAKER_00: Honestly, he's going back to what he can control.
SPEAKER_00: This is what happens.
SPEAKER_00: This is this is a natural response.
SPEAKER_00: We don't even have to think about this.
SPEAKER_00: Is a this is almost a at a subconscious level.
SPEAKER_00: We fail and we instantly try to try to control all the pieces.
SPEAKER_00: How can I order my life in a way that I can ensure that I minimize the damage or I can move forward in a way where I, you know, I can salvage maybe some of my reputation in this failure.
SPEAKER_00: See, this is what we tend to do.
SPEAKER_00: When we fail, we tend to do, we tend to hide, we tend to hustle, we tend to harden ourselves.
SPEAKER_00: This is this is this is this isn't just unbelief, this is all of us.
SPEAKER_00: Find ourselves in a moment of of failure, hiding.
SPEAKER_00: What's that look like?
SPEAKER_00: You know, some of us were like, well, I'm here, I'm not hiding.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah, but it's been like months since you've been willing to just pray.
SPEAKER_00: It's been months.
SPEAKER_00: You you're actually avoiding your Bible because you just feel so guilt-ridden every time you look at it.
SPEAKER_00: You're just like, well, I showed up to church, so that's got to count for something.
SPEAKER_00: And and it actually what it is, is is nobody can tell you're hiding, but you're hiding.
SPEAKER_00: It's like it's the it's the conversations that we're avoiding.
SPEAKER_00: Well, you know, you know, if you're married, you've had one of those conversations.
SPEAKER_00: You're like, I know I did that thing that last week, and I said that, and I responded that way, and so we're maybe we can just avoid ever talking about that ever again.
SPEAKER_00: Hide, hiding, hustle, hustle.
SPEAKER_00: What's that look like?
SPEAKER_00: I mean, some of us we're just like boom, we just pour ourselves into work.
SPEAKER_00: It's really just more like hiding.
SPEAKER_00: Some of us we hustle because we're just convinced.
SPEAKER_00: We'll say things like, Oh, I love God and I just love what He's done for me and He saved me, and I'm so grateful for Him, and then we put all of our effort into going, I just feel like I gotta do something to pay him back.
SPEAKER_00: And maybe we don't say that part out loud, but that's what we're doing.
SPEAKER_00: We're just no, I I gotta I gotta do this.
SPEAKER_00: We don't have any margin in our life.
SPEAKER_00: We're just hustling.
SPEAKER_00: If I'm busy enough, go on.
SPEAKER_00: If I'm just busy enough, I don't have to think about this anymore.
SPEAKER_00: We hide, we hustle.
SPEAKER_00: Some of us we we you got that like you got that inner rebel in you.
SPEAKER_00: You're just like, you know what?
SPEAKER_00: How about I'm just done?
SPEAKER_00: How about that?
SPEAKER_00: How about I just stop playing around?
SPEAKER_00: I'm done, I failed, I'm just moving on with my life.
SPEAKER_00: Try something different.
SPEAKER_00: Hide, we hustle, we hard.
SPEAKER_00: You know what, you know what I find?
SPEAKER_00: The hardest part is not admitting that we have failed.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, I find that most people don't have any problem actually saying, Yeah, I'm I'm screwed up.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I I should have done better.
SPEAKER_00: I I don't find that that's the hardest part for most people.
SPEAKER_00: I find for the most people it's it's when you've failed, it's actually walking back into the room with your spouse, with your kids.
SPEAKER_00: It's it's when you fail and you feel like you live in a glass house, it's actually being willing to go back to your small group.
SPEAKER_00: It's being it's being willing to come back to church in a place where people where other people might be aware that you've kind of failed.
SPEAKER_00: See, that that's the hardest part.
SPEAKER_00: How do I re-engage with the people who know that I have failed?
SPEAKER_00: I find that that tends to be the hardest part.
SPEAKER_00: I want you to see this because how Jesus responds here, because this is not passive.
SPEAKER_00: Like Jesus' response to our failure is not a is not a passive response.
SPEAKER_00: He's not just sort of like just waiting on the sidelines, seeing how what we're gonna do next.
SPEAKER_00: Will you make the right move?
SPEAKER_00: No, no, no.
SPEAKER_00: He looks at Peter.
SPEAKER_00: Look what happens.
SPEAKER_00: This is verse 4, 21, verse 4.
SPEAKER_00: It says, early in the morning, Jesus stood on the shore.
SPEAKER_00: Remember, they're out fishing, but the disciples didn't realize that it was Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: This is a really familiar scene, by the way.
SPEAKER_00: They're kind of they're re this is a reenactment of when Peter was actually called to follow Jesus at the very beginning.
SPEAKER_00: So it's a total reenactment of that of that whole scenario.
SPEAKER_00: He says they didn't recognize him.
SPEAKER_00: He called out to them, friends, haven't you any fish?
SPEAKER_00: No, they answered.
SPEAKER_00: He said, Throw your net on the right side of the boat, and you'll find some.
SPEAKER_00: And when they did, they were unable to haul the net in because of the large number of fish.
SPEAKER_00: I love this.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus shows up on the shore, they don't recognize him, they don't see him, they don't know who he is.
SPEAKER_00: He is he is intentionally reenacting an entire scene that they've already lived.
SPEAKER_00: And it actually goes on to say Peter actually, in that moment, he right he realizes, oh, I know who this is.
SPEAKER_00: It's all coming back to him.
SPEAKER_00: He's like, Oh man, I know, I know this.
SPEAKER_00: I imagine the little bit of the joy of his salvation.
SPEAKER_00: The joy of that moment when he first initially found Jesus and Jesus found him, and he actually started falling.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, I had a feeling he said, Cast your name.
SPEAKER_00: He said, Oh my goodness, I know exactly what's about to happen.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is coming through for us.
SPEAKER_00: He actually says he gets out of the boat and he actually starts moving toward Jesus, but he's only moving toward Jesus because Jesus has moved toward him.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, in fact, you want to know what God does when we fail?
SPEAKER_00: He moves toward us.
SPEAKER_00: Don't let this just be words that you hear me say and then walk out of here and just be like, great message, Pastor.
SPEAKER_00: No, no, no, no.
SPEAKER_00: You need to let that sink in.
SPEAKER_00: Because some of us we've grown up in this bad theology that says, oh no, no, no.
SPEAKER_00: When you sin, God can't be in the presence of sin.
SPEAKER_00: So somehow, sin failure in your life is a moment where you are not shunned.
SPEAKER_00: I'm just telling you, this bad theology.
SPEAKER_00: From the very beginning of the Bible, the very beginning.
SPEAKER_00: Go back to Genesis chapter 3.
SPEAKER_00: The very beginning.
SPEAKER_00: People fail.
SPEAKER_00: God moves toward his people.
SPEAKER_00: God moves toward us in our failure.
SPEAKER_00: It's amazing.
SPEAKER_00: Honestly, this is a miracle story.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, cast your net on the other side.
SPEAKER_00: They can't.
SPEAKER_00: It's an amazing story.
SPEAKER_00: It is a message in and of itself.
SPEAKER_00: Because here they are in their failure, trying to manage the story, trying to make sense of their life, going back to something they can control.
SPEAKER_00: And it's amazing.
SPEAKER_00: They can't catch a thing.
SPEAKER_00: It's like they can't, they can't, they can't do it.
SPEAKER_00: And then Jesus comes along and he says, What you the purpose of your life and the things that you're going to accomplish in your life, you can't do it without me.
SPEAKER_00: That's really what he's saying in that moment.
SPEAKER_00: You can't do it without me.
SPEAKER_00: He moves toward them.
SPEAKER_00: Too many of us, we we look at failure as something that disqualifies us from our faith.
SPEAKER_00: We think in terms of like, am I qualified?
SPEAKER_00: Does it, does this, I'm I'm not, I'm no longer qualified.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, maybe the little stuff, but you don't understand, Pastor.
SPEAKER_00: I messed up big.
SPEAKER_00: I like really big.
SPEAKER_00: And we we have this idea that that disqualifies us from Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Here later today, we're gonna do, we have a bunch of people getting baptized later this after the after the second service.
SPEAKER_00: You should come and hang out with us and celebrate them.
SPEAKER_00: We'll be out in the lobby, we're gonna, we have several people getting baptized.
SPEAKER_00: Isn't that awesome to be a part of a church where you got people making decisions?
SPEAKER_00: And yeah, isn't that neat?
SPEAKER_00: Super proud of all of them being baptized today.
SPEAKER_00: Let me just say this though.
SPEAKER_00: You know, it's one of them, it's one, it's been one of the greatest joys of my life these last five plus years now here at Freedom Church with you.
SPEAKER_00: And there's many of you in the room.
SPEAKER_00: I've baptized you.
SPEAKER_00: I've um there's many of you in the room.
SPEAKER_00: You you have you have your your relationship with Jesus started here, and I I can see some of you in the room right now.
SPEAKER_00: It's it's an amazing thing.
SPEAKER_00: I I love that.
SPEAKER_00: I love that this was the place that you that you went into the water and and you went public with your faith.
SPEAKER_00: I love that.
SPEAKER_00: But but I'll be really honest with you.
SPEAKER_00: Here's the other side of it.
SPEAKER_00: There's also a lot of people that we've that we've baptized, and I don't just mean here, I mean all the years I've been in ministry, and I don't know where they're at anymore.
SPEAKER_00: And it's not because we don't try, it's not because we don't call them, it's not because we don't have people that are connecting with them, it's not it's not for that.
SPEAKER_00: It's amazing to me what how how people how people find they they they get this enthusiasm about Jesus, and then they find themselves in this in this place, and they and they don't know where they know how to respond because because they're they find out they're not perfect.
SPEAKER_00: And they and they have this idea that following Jesus meant that they were going to be moving forward, and then they've get the harsh reality that they're far from perfect and they don't know how to respond to failure, and so it it's an unfortunate story.
SPEAKER_00: And and I and I try to get ahead of this and I try to tell it, and there's some of you in the room, I've told this to you point blank.
SPEAKER_00: You're gonna you're gonna get baptized and you're gonna begin to follow Jesus, and you're gonna be all excited, and then you're gonna fall flat on your face, and you're gonna feel like, what do I do now?
SPEAKER_00: And I tell you, don't run.
SPEAKER_00: Away.
SPEAKER_00: Don't run away.
SPEAKER_00: We think failure disqualifies us from Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And in fact, it actually can be the very place you have an encounter with Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: So you gotta you gotta rethink.
SPEAKER_00: How you are thinking about failure.
SPEAKER_00: This next part of the story, honestly, this is a painful part of the story.
SPEAKER_00: This is a bit painful.
SPEAKER_00: Truthfully, this next part of the story with Peter, this is probably what most of us are avoiding.
SPEAKER_00: At least we're trying to avoid this next part of the story.
SPEAKER_00: It's like we it's okay to read about it as long as it's him, but the moment it's us, it's like, ooh, this stings a little bit.
SPEAKER_00: This is 21 verse 17.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus goes through this series.
SPEAKER_00: Remember, I told you, what did Peter do?
SPEAKER_00: He denies him three times, right?
SPEAKER_00: He's already been reenacting the first scene, right?
SPEAKER_00: We reenacted when he first calls Peter.
SPEAKER_00: So now he he he invites him, says, Hey, come on, Jesus is cooking some food on the shore, and he says, Hey, did you it actually says it's a charcoal fire?
SPEAKER_00: It's kind of wild.
SPEAKER_00: It's only two places in the whole Bible.
SPEAKER_00: It says there's a charcoal fire.
SPEAKER_00: One when Peter denies Jesus, and now here when Jesus is about to reinstate him.
SPEAKER_00: It's amazing.
SPEAKER_00: So it matters.
SPEAKER_00: So here he is.
SPEAKER_00: He knows a story.
SPEAKER_00: I can only imagine.
SPEAKER_00: I bet Peter's just thinking to himself, okay, he's all excited because it says he jumps out of the boat, runs to the shore.
SPEAKER_00: Then he helps him with the boat.
SPEAKER_00: You know, he kind of got ahead of himself.
SPEAKER_00: He's like, oh yeah, I gotta help these guys.
SPEAKER_00: You could tell he's like excited, so he goes back to help with the fish.
SPEAKER_00: He's back up there on the shore.
SPEAKER_00: And I would just imagine in that moment, Peter's eating and he's just kind of hoping, maybe we can just kind of blow over what happened a couple days ago.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe we could just, maybe, uh maybe Jesus is like, hey, no, no big deal, right?
SPEAKER_00: Hey, we all know I failed.
SPEAKER_00: Can we just not talk about it?
SPEAKER_00: Can we just not go there?
SPEAKER_00: But he he starts asking him, hey Peter, do you do you love me?
SPEAKER_00: Um yeah?
SPEAKER_00: Okay, feed my sheep.
SPEAKER_00: Peter, um, do you love me?
SPEAKER_00: Didn't he just ask me this question?
SPEAKER_00: Yes, um, I do.
SPEAKER_00: Feed my sheep.
SPEAKER_00: And then it look what it says.
SPEAKER_00: It says, the third time he said to him, Simon, son of John, do you love me?
SPEAKER_00: Peter was hurt.
SPEAKER_00: You know what a part of the reason he's hurt?
SPEAKER_00: Because he asked him the third time.
SPEAKER_00: You know why?
SPEAKER_00: Because he knows in that moment, oh, we're reenacting another scene.
SPEAKER_00: We're re we're reenacting another one.
SPEAKER_00: We're we're undoing something here.
SPEAKER_00: Do you love me?
SPEAKER_00: And he said, Lord, you know all things, you know that I love you.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus says to him, feed my sheep.
SPEAKER_00: Here's what Jesus saying.
SPEAKER_00: He says, We're not going to pretend like that didn't just happen.
SPEAKER_00: We're not gonna pretend.
SPEAKER_00: Listen, I know, by the way, you know he just went to the cross to die.
SPEAKER_00: This isn't a forgiveness thing.
SPEAKER_00: This is this is why we avoid this moments like this, because we go, can we just not talk about it?
SPEAKER_00: Can we just forgive and forget?
SPEAKER_00: Do you you realize that Jesus isn't bringing this up because he needs to work through a process so that he can learn how to forgive Peter for betraying him?
SPEAKER_00: He forgave him a long time ago.
SPEAKER_00: He he actually just died for that sin.
SPEAKER_00: He's fully right.
SPEAKER_00: This isn't a forgiveness.
SPEAKER_00: See, this is the problem.
SPEAKER_00: For a lot of us, our failure, especially when we fail the people that we love in our life, we think that this always a forgiveness, it's not always a forgiveness issue.
SPEAKER_00: For those of us that are on the failing end, we have failed.
SPEAKER_00: Going back and talking about it, going back and addressing it.
SPEAKER_00: The fact that your spouse goes, hey, I know we need to talk about that.
SPEAKER_00: You're just like, oh my goodness, really?
SPEAKER_00: We got to go there again, we got to talk about that.
SPEAKER_00: Can we just move on?
SPEAKER_00: It's not about a for it's not about forgiveness, it's actually about healing.
SPEAKER_00: And that's what Jesus is doing.
SPEAKER_00: We ain't gonna pretend like that didn't happen.
SPEAKER_00: Actually, we're gonna hit it straight on because we're gonna heal it.
SPEAKER_00: This is an important thing.
SPEAKER_00: See, here's what God does not do, He's not condemning Peter.
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna say something that's semi-controversial.
SPEAKER_00: You ready?
SPEAKER_00: Because there's this, there's this cultural, in I'm talking about in the church, there's this cultural approach toward the word shame.
SPEAKER_00: Like, oh, shame is bad.
SPEAKER_00: All shame is bad.
SPEAKER_00: Guilt is, guilt is, you, you know, you did something.
SPEAKER_00: Shame is that you are bad.
SPEAKER_00: Hold on a second, hold on a second.
SPEAKER_00: First of all, that's not in the Bible.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not talking about at an identity level that that somehow you are not uh not somebody who can be and is loved by God.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not talking about that.
SPEAKER_00: I'm talking about a dictionary definition of shame.
SPEAKER_00: It is this awareness that I have screwed up.
SPEAKER_00: Jason's definition right there, right in the dictionary.
SPEAKER_00: That's shame.
SPEAKER_00: It is this awareness, it's this feeling oh my goodness.
SPEAKER_00: I am aware of the wrong in my life.
SPEAKER_00: That's called shame.
SPEAKER_00: Here is the difference.
SPEAKER_00: Here is the Bible, here's the difference between the shame that the enemy wants to put on you and the shame that leads to repentance.
SPEAKER_00: It's the motive.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is calling Peter out in front of all his friends.
SPEAKER_00: How many of us would be in that moment like, why is Jesus in the shaming business now?
SPEAKER_00: Why is Jesus wanting to shame me like this?
SPEAKER_00: He's not shaming him to condemn him, he's bringing that which he was hoping would stay in the dark into the light so that he can heal him.
SPEAKER_00: That's what he's doing in this moment.
SPEAKER_00: He's actually addressing his sin directly.
SPEAKER_00: He's giving him an opportunity to undo the denials that he had toward Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: He's giving him an opportunity to heal.
SPEAKER_00: I'm sure in the moment, like all of us, when we've in our failure and people want to address it, and people go, we gotta talk about it.
SPEAKER_00: And you're in that moment we're just like, oh, you're you're against me.
SPEAKER_00: No, no, no, no.
SPEAKER_00: This is for you.
SPEAKER_00: That's what Jesus is doing.
SPEAKER_00: I'm giving you an opportunity.
SPEAKER_00: See, this is what Jesus doesn't do, he doesn't pretend that sin is no big deal.
SPEAKER_00: See, we got some, some of us got some bad ideas about grace.
SPEAKER_00: And I'm a grace guy.
SPEAKER_00: I I will talk about the grace of God, I will preach about the grace of God.
SPEAKER_00: Listen, the grace of God, we can't overpreach it, overstate it.
SPEAKER_00: But for many of us, we we like to we like to lean on the grace of God to to give us an excuse to sort of overlook the failures of our life.
SPEAKER_00: And when you here's what happens if you have to, if you minimize the failures, you gotta minimize the grace needed to cover it.
SPEAKER_00: I'm just I'm just saying, he doesn't pretend like it doesn't matter.
SPEAKER_00: He goes, no, no, no, it matters.
SPEAKER_00: Because it didn't just, it's not just something that happened, it's something that's corrupted, it's something that's broken.
SPEAKER_00: And he goes, I want to, I wanna fix it.
SPEAKER_00: I want to fix you, I want to help you.
SPEAKER_00: He doesn't punish Peter forever either.
SPEAKER_00: He's not punishing him.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, he's reinstating him.
SPEAKER_00: Feed my sheep, take care of my church.
SPEAKER_00: That mission I've had you on for the last three years, it's not over.
SPEAKER_00: He's actually in the business of reinstating him.
SPEAKER_00: He doesn't label Peter by his worst moment.
SPEAKER_00: And this is for some of us, this is this is the internal battle we face.
SPEAKER_00: We're like, we we have this struggle to walk in to face our spouse without being going, I'm the cheater.
SPEAKER_00: It's just the label, we just feel like there's this label that we walk around with.
SPEAKER_00: I'm the I'm the drunk.
SPEAKER_00: Label.
SPEAKER_00: I'm the guy that loses his temper.
SPEAKER_00: Label.
SPEAKER_00: I'm the I'm the I'm the one that can't figure it, figure things out.
SPEAKER_00: I can't seem to get my life in order.
SPEAKER_00: It's not even all bad stuff either.
SPEAKER_00: It's just like, oh, I'm single.
SPEAKER_00: We just take on these, we take on these labels.
SPEAKER_00: We go, I don't want to be like that, I don't want to be that, whatever, whatever that might be.
SPEAKER_00: I'm divorced.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, what I'm just telling you, Jesus isn't in the business of labeling us based on the things that that grieve us.
SPEAKER_00: Specifically those things where we've where we've failed.
SPEAKER_00: No, no, no.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus goes straight to love, then he goes straight to calling.
SPEAKER_00: Isn't that amazing?
SPEAKER_00: You love me?
SPEAKER_00: Great.
SPEAKER_00: Get on mission.
SPEAKER_00: You love me?
SPEAKER_00: Awesome.
SPEAKER_00: Let's remember your purpose.
SPEAKER_00: You love, do you love me?
SPEAKER_00: Good.
SPEAKER_00: Let's move forward.
SPEAKER_00: Let's take ground.
SPEAKER_00: This is like, well, hold on.
SPEAKER_00: No, no, no.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, but I should probably fast for a while so that I really feel it.
SPEAKER_00: You know, and then and then I can kind of make it up to you a little bit.
SPEAKER_00: It's like, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.
SPEAKER_00: He doesn't say that.
SPEAKER_00: He says, You love me?
SPEAKER_00: Great.
SPEAKER_00: Let's get on mission.
SPEAKER_00: Let's take a step forward.
SPEAKER_00: Let's keep moving.
SPEAKER_00: You know the Bible says, Colossians 3, it says that when you die and you're in Christ, it says that your life is hidden in Christ.
SPEAKER_00: The problem for most of us, when this moment happens, when your failure becomes visible, when it's when somebody invites you to take your failure and bring it out of the darkness into the light, most of us aren't hiding in Christ, we're hiding from Christ.
SPEAKER_00: We're hiding from Jesus, we're not hiding in Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: That's oh no, no, no, we don't have to talk about it.
SPEAKER_00: We don't have to go there.
SPEAKER_00: Hold on a second.
SPEAKER_00: No, no, no, no.
SPEAKER_00: Your life is hidden in Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: It doesn't mean you take your failures and you hide them from Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: This is a big deal.
SPEAKER_00: It's a big deal.
SPEAKER_00: See, Peter learns a lesson here.
SPEAKER_00: He learned something.
SPEAKER_00: He learns something, and we don't get a whole lot about what he learned.
SPEAKER_00: He has a there's a little bit more dialogue between him and Jesus after this moment, and and it's clear.
SPEAKER_00: It's clear.
SPEAKER_00: Like Peter's still got some insecurities.
SPEAKER_00: We kind of read that in the next few verses.
SPEAKER_00: There's still a little bit there, and Jesus is like, I can work, I can work with that.
SPEAKER_00: I can work with that.
SPEAKER_00: We actually find out a little bit about what Peter has learned because this is out of 1 Peter 5, verse 6.
SPEAKER_00: I love this because this is who we've been reading about.
SPEAKER_00: Look what he says.
SPEAKER_00: He says, humble yourselves, therefore, under God's mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time.
SPEAKER_00: So there's something here.
SPEAKER_00: This is the guy.
SPEAKER_00: This is the same guy who denies Jesus around a fire.
SPEAKER_00: It's the same guy that Jesus reinstated around the fire.
SPEAKER_00: This is this is the guy that says, I thought I failed, so I just went back to fishing and went back to my old life because I disqualified myself from even serving Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: This is the guy that Jesus goes, I don't think so.
SPEAKER_00: You don't get off the hook that easy.
SPEAKER_00: And he realizes, oh man, the key to being lifted up is to get low.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, this is how we should respond.
SPEAKER_00: We humble ourselves.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, how easy it would have been for Peter to just be like, you know what?
SPEAKER_00: I'm done, and just walk away in that moment.
SPEAKER_00: I don't need, I don't need this.
SPEAKER_00: Receive grace.
SPEAKER_00: I love this next step.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, he obey the next step.
SPEAKER_00: You know what I love about what Jesus says?
SPEAKER_00: He doesn't go, Peter, if you're up for it, maybe you could take the next step.
SPEAKER_00: And I think the next step might be for you to go ahead and start feeding my sheep.
SPEAKER_00: He don't say that.
SPEAKER_00: He just says, do it.
SPEAKER_00: Let me give you a practical response.
SPEAKER_00: It's a practical way to live this out.
SPEAKER_00: You ready?
SPEAKER_00: When I fail, what do I do when I fail?
SPEAKER_00: First of all, you own it.
SPEAKER_00: No excuses.
SPEAKER_00: I love that because that's what you don't hear that from you don't hear that from Peter.
SPEAKER_00: He just sort of he's in it.
SPEAKER_00: Of course, Jesus kind of said it in a way there was no getting out of it, didn't he?
SPEAKER_00: So let's let's replay this scene.
SPEAKER_00: That's how you do it.
SPEAKER_00: When you fail, you own it.
SPEAKER_00: Stop the excuses.
SPEAKER_00: Stop stop the blaming.
SPEAKER_00: Just you own it.
SPEAKER_00: Return to Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Don't run away.
SPEAKER_00: You know what that looks like?
SPEAKER_00: I think so.
SPEAKER_00: We overcomplicate this so much when we fail.
SPEAKER_00: When we find ourselves in moments and seasons and behaviors that we're ashamed of, and we think we hear this, like don't run away from Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Like, what does that look like?
SPEAKER_00: It means like it means like keep doing the Jesus things.
SPEAKER_00: Like keep gathering.
SPEAKER_00: Keep showing up.
SPEAKER_00: Keep stay engaged.
SPEAKER_00: Stop hiding.
SPEAKER_00: Stop hardening yourself.
SPEAKER_00: Stop trying to stop trying to pretend like you're that you're somebody that you're not.
SPEAKER_00: Stop trying to be the tough guy everywhere you go because you think that's what it's supposed to look like.
SPEAKER_00: I'll just say it like return to Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Receive restoration.
SPEAKER_00: What does that mean?
SPEAKER_00: That's kind of churchy.
SPEAKER_00: Receive restoration.
SPEAKER_00: It means trust that when some of you are hearing stuff right now.
SPEAKER_00: You're hearing things right now.
SPEAKER_00: And you're recalling the things that your wife wants to bring up, or your spouse, your husband wants to bring up, and you're just kind of like you, you're you've been avoiding it, and you know it, and you're going, oh, I'm thinking of conversations I need to be willing to have right now in my life.
SPEAKER_00: And you those are kind of going through your head, and maybe you're even just soft enough right now, you're kind of like, okay, I think I'll do it.
SPEAKER_00: But there's a good chance you're gonna leave here and you're gonna get like all the feels, and the nice little music's gonna go away, and it's just gonna all kind of dissipate, and you're gonna be like, Yeah, I think I'm good.
SPEAKER_00: I think I can, I'll probably be all right.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: Jesus knows my heart.
SPEAKER_00: Let him let him shine some light in there.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: It isn't to shame you, it's not to condemn you, it's to heal you, it's to restore you, and then obey your next assignment.
SPEAKER_00: Obey your next assignment.
SPEAKER_00: I love that.
SPEAKER_00: If you're up for it, Peter, would you want to feed my sheep?
SPEAKER_00: No, no, no, no, no, no.
SPEAKER_00: Get on assignment, get on mission, feed my sheep, keep moving forward, take the next step.
SPEAKER_00: For some of us, we we think that the the goal of the Christian life is to never fail again.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, I got I'm in Jesus, so now moving forward, I'm just I'm gonna never I'm gonna never fail again.
SPEAKER_00: The goal is to actually come back to Jesus as quickly as possible when you fail.
SPEAKER_00: Maturity, maturity.
SPEAKER_00: As you mature, failure will decrease.
SPEAKER_00: Not because you decided that you were gonna try harder and you were going to fail less, because it's just what happens when you mature.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, you don't even have to be a Jesus follower.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, I think about some of the dumb things I did when I was a kid, a teenager.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: And you get a little bit older, you just get some maturity about you.
SPEAKER_00: It's the same, when you're in Jesus, you follow Jesus long enough.
SPEAKER_00: You just like, but it doesn't happen because you're like, I've decided I'm not gonna, I'm gonna, I'm gonna, no, no, no, hold on a second.
SPEAKER_00: Just grow in Jesus, be with Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: The goal is not to never fail again, it's to come back to Him as quickly as possible.
SPEAKER_00: When you fail.
SPEAKER_00: Let me tell you a little secret that a lot of you don't even realize.
SPEAKER_00: And it's this when your life is actually hidden in Jesus, when you're in Jesus, your failures, when you look back on your life, I can think of some for my own life.
SPEAKER_00: I could think of failures.
SPEAKER_00: I was in the Navy for several years.
SPEAKER_00: There are some things I wish I could undo that I did back then.
SPEAKER_00: You know, there's things in my past that I just go, oh man, I wish I had, if I could go back, I'd have done that differently.
SPEAKER_00: You know, can I just tell you this?
SPEAKER_00: When your life is hidden in Jesus, your failures are no longer those things that you avoid.
SPEAKER_00: They actually become, they're intended to become the actual moments and stories where Jesus met you and restored you and healed you, and they actually become, they actually become encouraging moments of your life.
SPEAKER_00: You go, oh, that's why Jesus died for me.
SPEAKER_00: That's it right there.
SPEAKER_00: That's this is what he's done for me.
SPEAKER_00: This is what he does for me.
SPEAKER_00: This is, I'm only here because oh man, I know me.
SPEAKER_00: Listen, I know me.
SPEAKER_00: Some of you think, oh, the lay people are here and the pastors up here.
SPEAKER_00: I know me.
SPEAKER_00: I ain't up here.
SPEAKER_00: I'm just gonna tell you, you know, my my my my He just says we're gonna overcome by the blood of the Lamb and the word of our testimony.
SPEAKER_00: And for many of us, for many of us, we think, we think the word of our testimony is, man, I lived a great life and I did the best I could.
SPEAKER_00: You don't need listen, if that's your testimony, what's the point of the blood of the lamb?
SPEAKER_00: No, no, it's the blood of the lamb who died, and my and the word of my testimony is I was broken and I was lost, and I came to Jesus again and again, and he's restored me, and he's done something in me I couldn't have done on my own, and I'm so grateful for him.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus.
unknown: That's right.
SPEAKER_00: Let's pray.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus, we love you.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus, we need help.
SPEAKER_00: We need help.
SPEAKER_00: For some of you right now, you've you've got conversations going through your mind, you've got you've got scenarios going through your mind, you've got you've got a weight of failure that's just resting on your shoulders right now.
SPEAKER_00: You you can't even laugh this morning.
SPEAKER_00: You're just like, it just weighs you down.
SPEAKER_00: And I'm gonna and I'm gonna say this is that before we talk about we could talk about taking a practical step to experiencing freedom.
SPEAKER_00: But I'm gonna tell you right now, the only way to experience real freedom is to actually first be in Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: You have you actually have to be in Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Your life actually has to be hidden in Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: It says you have to die first.
SPEAKER_00: What does that mean?
SPEAKER_00: It means that you take a moment, this is Colossians 3.
SPEAKER_00: It says that you actually, your life dies as you know it.
SPEAKER_00: You lay your life down and you trust in Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And hide your life in his and you begin to follow him, and your ways become, or his ways become your ways.
SPEAKER_00: Your life no longer belongs to you, it belongs to him, and you and you follow him.
SPEAKER_00: And the Bible says that when that when you do that, he he he died, and when you were willing to die with him, it says that he will resurrect you with himself.
SPEAKER_00: And that's called salvation.
SPEAKER_00: For some of you, that's your first step, and you need to do that this morning.
SPEAKER_00: And so just tell him in your own way, Jesus, I give you my life, I give you my life.
SPEAKER_00: I'm all yours.
SPEAKER_00: I choose to follow you.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you for dying for me and dying for my sin and raising me to new life with you.
SPEAKER_00: I not even understand all of that, but I choose to follow you from this day forward.
SPEAKER_00: From this day forward.
SPEAKER_00: Some of you in here.
SPEAKER_00: Some of you you're going, oh, I've been following Jesus for some time.
SPEAKER_00: But I I'm but that you have these failures that got you on sort of like this like yo-yo faith.
SPEAKER_00: You, your, your faith seems to only be as strong as you feel like you are strong.
SPEAKER_00: Your relationship seems good as long as you feel like you're doing good, and you just need to get off of that roller coaster this morning.
SPEAKER_00: You need to get off the roller coaster.
SPEAKER_00: Getting off the roller coaster isn't trying to go, isn't a moment where you go, I you know what, just blow off the sin and the bad habits and the bad decisions and all the things and all the pain maybe I've caused other people in my life.
SPEAKER_00: That's not how you, that's not how you move past that.
SPEAKER_00: You move past it by allowing Jesus to address it in your life.
SPEAKER_00: By being willing to go there, by being willing to confess.
SPEAKER_00: You realize that confessing your sin and professing Jesus is not just a one-time salvation thing.
SPEAKER_00: You do that one time for salvation, it's also the pathway to healing in your life.
SPEAKER_00: Did you know that?
SPEAKER_00: How do I get rid of this?
SPEAKER_00: Confess.
SPEAKER_00: Confess to one another so that you can be healed, be willing to go there.
SPEAKER_00: So, this is going to be my prayer for you this morning that you would have the courage leaving here this week.
SPEAKER_00: Some of you are wrapping up your groups, your community groups.
SPEAKER_00: I pray right now that you would have the courage to actually have real conversations about the failures in your life, not to shame you in order to condemn you, but in order to lead you to real healing in your life.
SPEAKER_00: So that you can actually get restored and get back on mission.
SPEAKER_00: Some of you, you, you, and I'm so grateful for this.
SPEAKER_00: For some of you, this Freedom Church is one of your first experiences in the years, decades for some a willingness to come back to church, but you're still on the sidelines.
SPEAKER_00: And you don't want to take a step, you don't want to engage, you don't want to go to a group, you don't want to get on a team, you don't even want to give because you're in this place where where your failures are going, I'm I'm just not ready yet.
SPEAKER_00: And I'm just telling you, here's what Jesus is going.
SPEAKER_00: You love me?
SPEAKER_00: Great, get on mission.
SPEAKER_00: Get a hold of your purpose again.
SPEAKER_00: Keep moving forward.
SPEAKER_00: I pray right now that you would have the courage to take this step.
SPEAKER_00: Not just take obey the next step.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus, thank you.
SPEAKER_00: I thank you, Father, for encouraging us that we are not labeled by our worst moments, we're not labeled by our failures and our mistakes, but we are in you.
SPEAKER_00: Life is hidden in you.
SPEAKER_00: That you are the God who sees us, moves toward us, fully aware of our failures and our brokenness, and yet you want to heal us.
SPEAKER_00: I thank you for healing right now in Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you, Father, for restoring people's purpose and their calling on their life here this morning.
SPEAKER_00: And it's in Jesus' name we pray.
SPEAKER_00: Everybody said, Amen, amen.
SPEAKER_00: Come on, let's put our hands together, celebrate Jesus.