The Three Danger Zones of Life

Dr. Ryan Rush | John 13:36-38

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

On November the 4th, 1993, I received a title that changed my world forever. I became a dad that day, and now as a three times over dad, I can tell you that there is no greater honor than to carry the title of father. Let me say happy Father's Day once again to all the men among us. You just wish our dads a happy Father's Day once again. Thank you for all the sacrifices you make. I have a special privilege in this particular service because I get to preach in a room where my dad is. Happy Father's Day, Dad. I've got the best over here and grateful for you. And dads, we have a gift for you today. As you go out, we have a uh a special uh treat and a devotion that's written by our own pastor Omar Garcia called Forged in the Wilderness. It's incredible. I've had an opportunity to have a sneak preview of this, walking through some of the men in the Bible and some of the challenges they faced in the wilderness and how God brought them through. So you'll be blessed by it. And uh they're available this Father's Day for the very low price of free. So you can take those with you. In fact, if you haven't gotten your dad anything, sneak out there, grab one, and wrap it up or something. We also have there may be a few of these left, another incredible book by Omar, a little devotion called The Deathbed Challenge: 10 Things Every Man Should Be Able to Say to His Wife from His Deathbed. Really good stuff, guys. And so that's our gift to you. We're grateful for all that you do. This morning we're continuing the Gospel of John, and I want you to turn with me, if you would, to John chapter 13, 13th chapter. We're going to be down in verse 36, if that helps you know which page to turn in John chapter 13. As you're turning, once again, I'm grateful that we have all the boys and girls here from Vacation Bible School. And thank you to all of you as we relived a little bit of that, gave you a taste of uh how so many poured the gospel into these kiddos all week long. And so when you add the two uh campuses together, well over 2,000 were in vacation Bible school among us, lifting up the name of the Lord Jesus Christ all week long. And uh thank you for accommodating us this Sunday as well on Vacation Bible School Sunday. We don't have any community groups because so many of the classrooms and parts of the campus are being put back together after that time. And so we get to worship together with all generations and uh lift up the name of Jesus together. Uh a reminder that we begin on June 24th our 24, our 250 hours of consecutive prayer for the nation. And uh really grateful, thank you to all of you who signed up. Every hour of those 250 hours is covered. And uh, so this is the week, if you haven't already, to pick up that prayer guide and take it with you so you can fill that hour. If you have not yet signed up, you can still sign a name next to another household or individual that signed up for that hour. So I want you to be a part of that as well. So John 13, in this chapter, remember, Jesus has observed the Passover meal with his disciples. By the time we read this text, Judas Iscariot, the betrayer, has left them, and Jesus gives Peter some really bad news. Peter's going to mess up in a major way. He's going to deny Jesus. Now, here's what it says in verses 36 through 38. Lord, Simon Peter said to him, Where are you going? Jesus answered, Where I'm going, you cannot follow me now, but you will follow later. Lord, Peter asked, Why can't I follow you now? I will lay down my own life for you. And Jesus replied, Will you lay down your life for me? Truly I tell you, a rooster will crow until you've denied me three times. Peter is all in with Jesus. He's determined that there's nothing, even death, that can keep him from following his Savior and that could make him forsake his Savior. And Jesus knew exactly what was about to happen. Now, we're going to turn over to several passages today, but I want you to fast forward maybe three pages in your Bible, four or five, maybe to John chapter 18, beginning in verse 15, because I want you to see how this goes after Jesus made the promise of what Peter was going to do. Simon Peter was following Jesus, as was another disciple. That disciple was an acquaintance of the high priest, and so he went with Jesus into the high priest's courtyard. But Peter remained standing outside the door. So the disciple, the one known to the high priest, went out and spoke to the girl who was the doorkeeper and brought Peter in. Then the servant girl who was the doorkeeper said to Peter, You aren't one of this man's disciples, too, are you? I am not, he said. Now the servants and the officials had made a charcoal fire because it was cold. And they were standing there warming themselves, and Peter was standing with them, warming himself. Now look down at verse 25. Now Simon Peter was standing and warming himself. And they said to him, You aren't one of his disciples, too, are you? He denied it and said, I am not. One of the high priest's servants, a relative of the man whose ear Peter had cut off, said, Didn't I see you with him in the garden? And Peter denied it again. Immediately a rooster crowed. So today's message is a warning. A warning for all of us of what happens when we compromise. A warning for what can happen to anybody who doesn't see that there's a work of an enemy. Now I know that uh sort of a uh a famous um uh promise in in the church that on Mother's Day we talk about how great moms are, and on Father's Day we beat up the dads. I know that. But this is really not just for fathers today, this is for everybody who recognizes that we're susceptible to the work of the enemy, and that's all of us. So this is a warning that has a really happy ending. Like we don't have to live this way. But I think it does have special relevance to the dads in the room, because we recognize that when compromise comes into our lives, it doesn't just impact ourselves, but it impacts our children and our entire families. And so this is a warning that we need to heed here when we look at Peter's example. Listen, if Peter can get that low, I know I'm certainly capable. I wonder if that's true for you as well. How do we avoid the threat of sin? Well, we do so by looking at three steps that led to failure. There are three steps that Peter took that led to the failure in this case. I call them steps because they're sequential. You're gonna see. One leads to another, leads to another. And here's the first step: overconfidence. Overconfidence will get you in trouble every single time. When I was a teenager, 15 or 16, I went out to eat with my buddy John and his parents. We went to a restaurant, and his parents were still talking at the table, and so we went outside. It's the front to just hang out by ourselves, and we're standing there, and right out in the front of the parking lot of the restaurant was this beautiful red Porsche sports car. Just incredible. And I noticed that coming down the block were two lovely young ladies, probably older than us, but uh beautiful. And so I told my buddy, I said, we should go lean on the sports car, you know. And he said, That's a great idea. Now I don't remember if I said we should go lean on the sports car because, because I'm not picking on you teenage boys, but your brains aren't fully developed. I don't know what my end game plan was, but I went over and I just I just just kind of implied that it was mine. I just leaned on the sports car, you know. Sure enough, the ladies saw me, kept walking toward us, and I thought, I didn't really plan out this whole game plan. I don't know how this is gonna go. And and sure enough, one of the ladies walked right up to me, said hello, pulled the keys out of her purse, and unlocked her sports car, got in the Porsche, and drove away. Hadn't thought everything through, and I was not as smooth as I thought I was. But that's often the case, right? That's what gets us in trouble. That's what got Peter in trouble. Remember the ominous word in John 13, 37. Lord Peter asked, Why can't I follow you now? I will lay down my life for you. Peter said, No way will I betray you. Maybe he thought back to his name change. He said, My name was changed from Simon to Peter to Rock. I'm not gonna mess up here. And so uh sometimes even the blessings that we receive can go to our head and we think we deserve them. Don't be too impressed with yourself. We see another example of Peter's overconfidence in John 18, 10 through 11. This is when the soldiers came to arrest Jesus. Peter cut off one of their ears. And here's what it says. Then Simon Peter, who had a sword, drew it, struck the high priest's servant, and cut off his right ear. The servant's name was Malchus. At that, Jesus said to Peter, Put your sword away. Am I not to drink the cup the Father has given me? In other words, Jesus says, I don't need your help, Peter. So sometimes we think that we're we're gonna come to God's aid. Now listen, we have the privilege of being in on God's plan, but he's not desperate for our help. You understand? We get to be a part of his plan. He's not gonna come along beside our plan. And so Peter's plan was evading arrest. Jesus had a plan that was more important than evading arrest. I'll tell you where overconfidence usually comes from. It normally comes from comparison. I look around at other people and say, at least I'm doing better than so-and-so. Mark 14, 28-29, remind us of this. Jesus said, But after I have risen, I will go ahead of you to Galilee. And Peter told him, even if everyone falls away, I will not. He's saying, These other knuckleheads, Jesus, they may fail you, but I'm better than they are. That's not the way it works. You know what's problem the problem is? If you just base your life on comparison, is you're comparing yourself to other broken people as well. Christ is our standard, and we look to him, and we need Jesus. Rich Mullins had a song years ago that was aptly titled, We're Not as Strong as We Think We Are. And that's true. Beware overconfidence, because when we're overconfident, it inevitably leads to the next step. And here it is prayerlessness. After the Lord's Supper, the disciples and Jesus went to the Garden of Gethsemane to pray. And Jesus specifically invited Peter, James, and John to stay up and pray with him. What a privilege! And Jesus had words specifically for Peter to remain with him and pray. Listen to Matthew 26, 40 through 41. Then he came to the disciples and found them sleeping. And he asked Peter, So couldn't you stay awake with me one hour? Stay awake and pray, so that you won't enter into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak. Three times Jesus asked these men to pray, and three times they fell asleep. Now, to be fair, they're exhausted. Think about all the tension that had come from the last few hours and days with Jesus. And yet the very thing that they needed when this tension arose was prayer. And that's what Jesus is telling them. That wasn't what they needed to find time to save. And so to get the nap in, they needed to be praying. Prayerlessness doesn't seem like that big of a deal at first, does it? Because you could just keep going, but it catches up with you. When I was a 19-year-old youth pastor, I took a group of students to Big Bend National Park on a trip in an 18-passenger van. And if you've ever driven out toward West Texas, you know that those towns get farther and farther apart. Well, we just passed Ozona. We're just coming out of Ozona, past that last gas station. When you get out that way, they even give you reminders. Hey, no gas station for X number of miles. I looked down at my gas tank. I had about a half a tank. I thought, I don't want to stop yet. I'll just stop in Fort Stockton. Well, I ran out of gas about 20 minutes out of Fort Stockton. That's a terrible thing to do when you have a van full of kids, you know. A local came, rescued me, filled up that van. We went. And if that story ended there, you say, okay, we've all been there. No, no, no. Let me tell you what your pastor did. We went to Big Ben, we're there for the week. I'm leaving Big Ben with our students. We leave the hotel and I look down at the gas gauge and I'm at half a tank. And I thought, I'll just get gas in Fort Stockton. And I ran out of gas 20 minutes outside the other side of Fort Stockton with a van full of kids. I ran out of gas round trip. Talk about a slow learner. But I wasn't paying attention to my desperate need because I just kept going, right? And that's how prayerlessness goes. Do you see? You don't really see the downside at first. You go without prayer for a day and life keeps going. You go another day, and life keeps going, you go another day, and you don't even realize what's happening until all of a sudden you start losing strength and wisdom and peace and courage and spiritual power until you're running on empty. You see, Peter didn't just fail because he was weak in the moment of denial. Peter failed because he neglected the place where strength is found. Jesus told Peter, watch and pray so that you won't enter into temptation. Prayer prepares us for the battle. What causes failure? Well, it starts with overconfidence, which leads to prayerlessness, which inevitably leads to compromise. See, when Peter denied knowing Jesus around the campfire, just as Jesus promised he would, it was actually the culmination of a series of compromises that had taken place in his life. Most compromise doesn't happen at once, does it? I never met the person who wakes up and says on Monday morning, I just think I'll ruin my life and reject my God and do something that's going to tear up my family. That's not the way it works. We take these little subtle steps that lead to something else. Compromise usually leads to something, begins with something subtle. One little shortcut, one tiny excuse, one small decision. Luke 22, 54. After Jesus was seized, not long after Peter tried to fight the soldiers, it says he was following at a distance. Now Peter didn't completely abandon Jesus. He's following at a distance, and to be fair, he uh he was probably doing it with good motives, but he stopped following closely. And compromise usually begins this way. In fact, remember Mark 14, 28, I read a while ago? Remember, Jesus told the disciples to go on ahead of him to Galilee. Now that would happen after the resurrection, but if Peter took Jesus at his word, shouldn't he be on his way to Galilee? So he found himself doing what he thought might have good motives, but it was not what God called him to do. And that's what happens in compromise. You do something you perceive as innocent or even good, but you know it's not God's best for you. And by doing so, you don't renounce Jesus, you just create a little distance, and it makes room for more. And as we've seen by John 18, during Jesus' trial, Peter warms himself by the fire. And by Matthew 26, every denial becomes stronger. Some of you have been to the Holy Land with me, and you know in Jerusalem, my favorite spot is the uh church of St. Peter in Galicantu, which means of the rooster crow. And uh it's built on the ruins of Caiaphas's house where the trial took place. Uh I'm looking forward to taking another trip there in November. And when you go there, you'll see where the trial took place. But out in the courtyard, there's a riveting statue of Peter right about where he would have been. And you see Peter surrounded by people who are opposed to Jesus. There's a little charcoal fire at his feet, and he's got his hands up as if to say, I tell you, I never knew the man. He finds himself in this place where he's gone from simple denial to denial with an oath, to denial with a curse. He's living out the warnings of Psalm 1 in real time. How happy is the man who does not walk in the advice of the wicked, or stand in the pathway with sinners, or sit in the company of mockers, to walk, to stand, to sit. Peter walked at a distance, he stood far off, he sat with the mockers. Distance, then affiliation, then denial. Peter would have never gone straight there, but he had the little bits of compromise. You see what the enemy wants to do in your life? Now I don't want to end on the bad news because I want to tell you some good news. This isn't the end of Peter's story. After the rooster crowed, Peter wept, Peter repented, Jesus restored Peter. Peter ended up being one of the great preachers of church history. The very first sermon at Pentecost in Acts 2. Peter preaches boldly and thousands come to faith. God used him when he was restored. So no matter what you think back in your past and say, well, I just remember I walked this same road and it it just hurts so much. Jesus can restore you because of what he's done. Do you see? Some of you haven't been there yet, but my prayer is that this will prevent you from going down that road again. So how are we supposed to avoid that? Well, we do the opposite of these steps, don't we? Instead of overconfidence, we choose surrender. Instead of prayerlessness, we choose dependence. Instead of compromise, we choose conviction. And in fact, just as the others are steps, you begin with the first step because if you choose surrender, dependence and conviction are gonna come. Just surrender. In fact, isn't that salvation? Recognizing that I can't solve my own sin problem, but Jesus has come into this world and paid the penalty for my sin on the cross, and I receive the gift of forgiveness that he offers, and I walk in freedom. That's the invitation that we're given. So, my friend, I wonder if somebody came today and you say, I never trusted Jesus. Today's that day. Dad, can I say something to you? The greatest gift by far you can give your family is to walk with Jesus. And for all of us, we need to recognize the enemy has a plan to take you out. We know the strategy, it's not a secret. And we don't have to accommodate that at all. We can walk in freedom. Would you bow with me? We're gonna close in just a moment and we'll sing a song of response. Right now, would you just allow the Spirit of God to speak to your heart? Father, I thank you for your word for this reminder. God, I pray that we wouldn't leave here today discouraged and thinking, well, I guess I'll do the same. No, Lord, thank you that you've given us insight and the power of the Holy Spirit, Lord, is that we can choose a better way that we might walk in freedom. I pray that if there's one within the sound of my voice who's never trusted you as Savior and Lord, that today would be the day of salvation. So, Holy Spirit, do what only you can do right now. Shape our hearts, draw us to you. And we pray this in Christ's name. Amen.

SPEAKER_00 20:38

Hey, Pastor Ryan Rush here, and I just want to thank you for being with us at Kings and Online today. What an honor. But I'll tell you what'd be even better. We'd love to see you get connected with the physical church in the days ahead if you haven't already. And that means maybe if you're local in the West Houston area, we'd love to see you at Kingsland. Otherwise, regardless, we'd love to help you facilitate uh jumping into a local church near you, and we can do that together. You can go to Kingsflugor slash online connect. Kingslinorg slash online connect to find out the next episode of your journey. Listen, thanks again for being with us today at KingsLuck.