Unknown: Well, I just want to welcome you. My name is Jason.
Unknown: I'm on the teaching team here at Madison church. And I'm so glad you're joining us on line today.
Unknown: You know, I've known your Pastor Steven for a very long time. And one thing you may not realize about him, but you may I'm not sure is that he is an avid golfer, he is always invited me to go golfing, he always tells me Hey, I've been working to my swing, let's go out I can show you how amazing I am. And sure enough, every time we go out that Stephens there and he takes his beautiful slow, methodical swing, and he pipes it right down the middle of the fairway.
Unknown: And I'm always in awe of how he hits it so perfectly. Now the thing though, is that you would think that I would know how to swing that way because I've been playing golf, literally 40 years longer than Stephen has. But I don't see here's what I do. When I step up to the tee box, I channel my inner Tiger Woods and I think that I am like Tiger Woods and so I try to hit the ball as hard as Tiger Woods so I swing as hard as I possibly can.
Unknown: And the ball always flies a very long way. Three fairways over in a parking lot, or on somebody's deck is always out of bounds.
Unknown: It's always a bad shot. And inevitably Stephen will say to me, here, why don't you take a mulligan? Now, for those who don't play golf or have any desire to ever play golf and think golf isn't really a sport that is just for lazy athletes like myself. Let me help you understand what a mulligan is. a mulligan is a do over. It's completely illegal in golf. But for those of us who are not professionals, we like to take Mulligan's and So sure enough, he gives me a mulligan, he says, just do it over, start over. And so I tee the ball up, I get my inner Tiger Woods again. And I usually actually end up hitting in the exact same spot. But I love taking the Mulligan. I think john ortberg coil a lot of these thoughts too is right.
Unknown: When he says when it'd be nice if in life. We got malines you know, you get pulled over by a cop and he asked for your license and you say it's okay officer, I'm taking my Mulligan, right here. Or you forget to study for a test and you turn it into your profit. And you say it's okay that it didn't get any of the answers, right, I'm taking my mom again. And while we smile at those, there are bigger areas of life where we want to start over where we'd love to take a mulligan.
Unknown: Maybe you have a relationship with a kid.
Unknown: And maybe he or she's an adult right now. And as their parent, you never thought this relationship would be so broken.
Unknown: And yet it is you want a mulligan and maybe you're in the throes of an addiction and you look back and you know, you know where I went wrong, you know where there was that tipping point. And everything turned south and the addiction got worse and worse and worse. You want a mulligan?
Unknown: Or maybe you've said yes to everything in anything in life, and now you feel like you're so busy. You can't even think straight. If you could go back and say no to certain things you would you want a mulligan or maybe this year it's really the first time you've tried to reconnect with God and a long time. The last year or two or five have been years where you've drifted not intentionally, but you've drifted away from God. And if you could do it all over again, you would you you want a mulligan My guess is that in some way, big or small. We all need a mulligan.
Unknown: And we've been in the series called starting over and this series could really be summed up in this one question God asking us.
Unknown: Do you want a mulligan? You want to start over again? Do you want a story of redemption that you don't have right now?
Unknown: Well, in john chapter 21, we meet a man who took his Mulligan in a big way. The Apostle Peter, you see, Peter, when you first meet them in the Bible, his name is actually Simon. He's doing the family business. He's a fisherman. But then one day Jesus sees Simon fishing and fishing and he sees that Simon is having no luck. And so he says the assignment, hey, throw your nuts on the other side. And sure enough, Simon throws his that's on the other side of the boat. And what shouldn't happen does happen in this huge catch of fish happens. So much so that the Nets begin to break. In that moment. Simon knows that this Jesus is different than any man he's ever met that this Jesus is actually God. And then that moment, he falls at his feet and starts to worship Jesus. And Jesus says to him, follow me now. And Simon follows and Jesus gives him a new name.
Unknown: It's his name is no longer assignment. It's Peter and Peter are literally petroff means rock or solid one or somebody who is the foundation of everything and Peters. You know, he's one of these people that if he jumps into something, he jumps in all the way he's loud He's passionate. He's totally bought in. He says things before he thinks and you know, he's the guy at the football stadium that comes in freezing temperatures with his chest painted and his phone bigger up and the cheese head on. He's yelling at the refs the whole game, because he's that into it. He's a Packer fan. He's a wisconsinite. He's a leader.
Unknown: And when Jesus asked everybody else to do something, then they won't, Peter will. One day, Jesus is walking on water and all the disciples are freaked out. But Peter isn't. He gets out of the boat. He says, I believe I can walk on water too.
Unknown: And he does. What Jesus asked his disciples, who do you say that I am? It was Peter who gave you the answer? You are Christ, the Son of the living God.
Unknown: He's Petrus. He's the rock.
Unknown: He's a passionate follower of Jesus.
Unknown: And yet, in the moment that Jesus needs Peter the most.
Unknown: Peter fails.
Unknown: In the moment when Jesus needs Peter to be by his side.
Unknown: Peter turns the other way.
Unknown: You know, the story Jesus had been arrested, falsely accused, dragged off to be executed. All the other disciples have bailed on Jesus Peters by a fire. And three different people come up to him and and they asked him, aren't you with that man, Jesus?
Unknown: Are you one of his followers?
Unknown: And each time Peter says, No, I'm not.
Unknown: I don't even know him.
Unknown: And now let's give Peter a bit of a break here. He partly says that because he knows if he admits to it, he probably will be killed too.
Unknown: Yet in that moment when Jesus needs him the most.
Unknown: Peter says, I don't even know that guy.
Unknown: And this is what happens the third time.
Unknown: And Luke chapter 22. After Peter denies some fascinating words, it says this, the Lord turned and looked straight at Peter, then Peter, remember the word The Lord has spoken to him, before the rooster crows today, you will disown me three times.
Unknown: And then it says Peter went outside and wept bitterly.
Unknown: Now the story continues, you know the rest of the story, Jesus dies, he rises again from the dead. And Peter doesn't give up on his belief of Jesus, he just doesn't think Jesus wants to use him anymore. He must have thought that Jesus no longer can use him because he's damaged goods now. The best he can be is a distant follower. After all, Jesus had once said, If you deny me before, men, I will deny you before my Father in heaven, and Peter had denied him. So Peter goes back to the one thing he started out doing. Before he met Jesus, he goes back to fishing.
Unknown: And we find him back in his boat. Back to the life he used to know back away from Jesus, he's just damaged goods. He's staring failure in the face.
Unknown: He's at the place where you look at the mess you've made. And you ask yourself, how could I have been so stupid? God can use me anymore now.
Unknown: But what Peter doesn't realize is that in this moment, Jesus is about to give him the Mulligan of a lifetime.
Unknown: I want to read the story to you.
Unknown: So just buckle up and I want you to listen in and just stick with me as I read this john chapter 21 verse one. Afterward, Jesus appeared again to His disciples by the Sea of Galilee. It happened this way. Simon Peter Thomas, also known as demist, Nathaniel from Cana in Galilee, the sons of Zebedee, and two other disciples were together.
Unknown: going out to fish, Simon Peter told them, and they said, we'll go with you. So they went out and got into the boat. But that night they caught nothing. Early in the morning, Jesus stood on the shore, but the disciples did not realize it was Jesus. He called out to them friends, haven't you any fish?
Unknown: No, they answered. He said, throw your net on the right side of the boat and you'll find some. When they did, they were unable to hold on that end because of the large number of fish.
Unknown: And then the disciple whom Jesus loved he's referring to john said to Peter, it is the Lord.
Unknown: As soon as Simon Peter heard him say it is the Lord. He wrapped his garment around him for you taking it off, and jumped into the water. The other disciples followed in the boat, towing the net full of fish, for they were not far from shore at about 100 yards. When they landed, they saw a fire burning coals there with fish on it, and some bread.
Unknown: Jesus said to them, bring some the fish you have just caught.
Unknown: So Simon Peter climbed back into the boat and drag the net ashore. It was full of large fish 153. But even with so many, the net was not torn. Jesus said to them calm and have breakfast.
Unknown: None of the disciples dared ask them who are you? They knew was the Lord.
Unknown: Jesus came, took the bread and gave it to them and did the same with the fish.
Unknown: This was now the third time Jesus appeared to His disciples after he was raised from the dead.
Unknown: Sea, Jesus is offering Peter a mulligan. And as we see him do this, we realize that he's offering the same to us in our lives today. But if we're ever going to start over, if we're ever going to have a redemption story in our lives, there are three questions we must answer.
Unknown: And the first one is probably the hardest question. It's the question we have to ask when we're staring our failure, dead in the face. And it's this. How did I end up here? How did I end up here? See, oftentimes don't feel like a failure. We want to just have a quick fix without really examining what is goddess there in the first place. And yet David would say in the Psalms you desire truth in the inner parts. In other words, God, in order for me to get where you want me to go, I first have to understand why I'm where I am. And so the question is, are we willing to open up the inner parts of our lives and ask the tough questions? No, I think when Peter was in his boat back fishing, he was getting really honest with himself. I think he spent a long time examining how he fell so fast, so hard.
Unknown: I've often wondered what it would be like to just sit down with Peter and ask him so Peter, how did you get to the point of denying Jesus?
Unknown: I think he would say several things. The first thing I think he would say, though, is I was overconfident. I was overconfident.
Unknown: You know, Peter, assume that while everybody else would fail, he went. He was overconfident.
Unknown: Listen to what Peter said to Jesus in Matthew 26. Even if all fall away on account of you, I never will. Even if I have to die with you, I will never disown you. In other words, Peterson, Jesus, everybody else.
Unknown: They're kind of spiritual babies. But I'm not. I'm Petrus on the rock, you can always count on me.
Unknown: But what he forgot is that he was human.
Unknown: And all of us and our humanity.
Unknown: We fall and we stumble. And we're not actually as strong as we thought we once were.
Unknown: My guess is that when it comes to the area of your life, where you feel like you're failing, you never thought you would be there. Other people maybe would get there, but not you. You never thought you would have that financial insecurity. You never thought that you wouldn't have a great relationship with your parents or with your kids.
Unknown: You never thought your marriage would end or be on the ropes like it is now, you never thought you would have that ongoing struggle. You never thought you would lose your confidence. You never thought you'd have this depression that you struggle with those failures were for other people, less mature people now you Eugene Peterson paraphrases First Corinthians 10 this way, he says Don't be so naive and self confident. You're not exempt. You could fall flat on your face as easily as anyone else.
Unknown: For those of you who know my story, you know that I'm an overcoming recovering sex addict. I shared my story several months ago, here at Madison church. By God's grace, I am now 867 days sober. And I hope tomorrow will be 868 days sober. But I remember when I was in the throes of my addiction.
Unknown: And while trying to lead a church at the same time, I was thinking to myself, I can beat this. I know other people need to go to recovery groups. And I know they need to admit their struggles to somebody else. But I can't do that. So I'm just gonna beat this on my own. In fact, I'm spiritual enough. I'm the pastor of the frickin largest church in Wisconsin, after all.
Unknown: I got this.
Unknown: I can do this.
Unknown: But I couldn't.
Unknown: And I didn't.
Unknown: And it cost me my ministry, my job, my reputation, my finances, and my marriage.
Unknown: Don't be so naive and self confident. First Corinthians 1012. You're not exempt. You could fall flat on your face as easily as anyone else.
Unknown: I think Peter would say that's what I did. I was overconfident.
Unknown: But I also think he would say you know what I was alone.
Unknown: That's why I ended up whereas I was just alone. You see, when Jesus was arrested, all the other disciples took off and Peter still following, but he's out on an island by himself. You see, when you're alone, you do things you never thought you would do you promised not to do, but you end up doing them because you just kind of drift.
Unknown: You know, the 12 step recovery groups that I'm a part of there is an acronym that we use, it's called halt, h a l t, hungry, angry, lonely, tired.
Unknown: And the thought is, is that anytime you're one of those or a combination of any of those, you're more than likely to struggle with things you don't want to struggle with. And I think the one we struggle with the most is when we're lonely.
Unknown: Because when we're lonely, we drift into behaviors and things and thoughts that we never thought we would and it starts at an early age. I mean, when my son Micah was three years old, he was the cutest The sweetest boy you could ever imagine. I mean, he would just come up and cuddle with you sit on your lap and he would laugh, he would smile, he would melt your heart.
Unknown: But when I would leave the room, something would switch inside his brain, this saint would become a double. And I don't know what actually happened, but he'd become extremely mischievious. I remember one time, I left the room, but just a couple minutes, I went to my bedroom, and I came back and Miko at three years old was sitting on top of the refrigerator. And other times, I love to go out to the garage, and I came back and mica had two huge knives. And he was just going like this with them, pretending to attack somebody, another time, I laughed, and he was drinking some clean air from underneath the sink. And all the time, he would do this, he would usually be naked, he would just shed his clothes, I was so proud. But here's my point. And I actually do have one. When left alone, even in early age, we tend to drift from what we know is right.
Unknown: So it's when we're alone on a business trip or alone with awake with her worries, or at our desk in anger that we give free rein to thoughts and actions that we normally wouldn't.
Unknown: We don't have to be physically alone for this to happen. We just need to feel like we're all alone.
Unknown: And when we feel like we're alone, and nobody's watching, or even worse, that nobody cares.
Unknown: Our worst version of ourselves comes out.
Unknown: If not in action, at least in our thoughts. We kill people in our minds. We worry. We gossip, we go into habits and things that we promised we wouldn't have. We drink too much. We eat too much. We spend too much. We numb out too much on Facebook and Netflix. We get our fix. And sometimes we stay medicated on those things for years.
Unknown: But that fix never really delivers what it promises. And we end up where Peter did I place a failure. So I think he would say I was alone. I was overconfident. But the final thing I think he would just say is you know what, the reason I ended up where I'm at i was i was just confused. You see, I found that oftentimes in life when life doesn't make sense, when you're in a job transition when you're contemplating change, or when you're in the middle of a pandemic that has robbed all sense of normalcy in your life, that you are most likely to stumble. And I think it was the same for Peter, he was come to us the person he had given everything to in his life, Jesus was now taken from him.
Unknown: And it was easy for him to just drift in that moment to do things he never thought he would do. So let me ask you in the area of your life where you're facing failure, have you asked yourself?
Unknown: How did I get here?
Unknown: How did I end up here? Maybe it's one of those reasons, maybe it's something else. Whatever it is, until you figure out where you're at, you'll never be able to go to where God wants you to go. You'll never be able to take that Mulligan. So the first question you need to ask yourself is, How did I end up here? The second, if you want to find a redemption story in your life? The second question you need to ask is this. Do I know how Jesus feels about me? Do I know how Jesus feels about me?
Unknown: See, the story goes like this, Peter and his disciples haven't caught anything ball fishing, when all of a sudden they hear a familiar voice from the shore saying, throw your nets on the other side. Now, immediately this triggers Peters memories back to the first time he met Jesus, where Jesus said, throw your nets on the other side of the boat.
Unknown: And all of a sudden fish like it did before start coming out of nowhere.
Unknown: Peter remembers who Jesus really is, how he feels about him. And when he finds out that it is Jesus on the shore, he jumps out. I mean, he remember Peter is kind of crazy. He just jumps out of the boat and starts swimming as fast as he can to see Jesus, why he doesn't just roll with the rest of the disciples, I have no idea. But he swims the length of a football field to get there. But he doesn't care. He just wants to be with Jesus. And I find that fascinating because if I were Peter, I would stay in the boat, maybe set sail again go far away from Jesus at all costs.
Unknown: But Peter doesn't. The reason he doesn't is because he knows that facing Jesus is a whole lot easier than facing the daily demons of shame and failure and regret.
Unknown: Not wonder how many nights before that, that Peter had replayed the scene over and over again in his head of denying Jesus. I wonder if anytime he heard a rooster crow, if it sent shivers down his spine.
Unknown: If he would just do anything he could to get away from that life of guilt.
Unknown: And yet, instead of running away from Jesus, Peter swam to Jesus.
Unknown: And the reason he did that, I think is that he realized that the pain of staying in the boat was far greater than the pain of facing the consequences of his failure. See that happens in our lives that we have to come to a point of realizing that the pain of staying where we're at is far greater than the pain of dealing with our stuff. So Peter just jumps out of the boat swims to the shore and then what happens next is very fast.
Unknown: And verse nine says this, when they landed, they saw a fire with burning coals there with fish on it and some bread. Now that may seem insignificant to you, but it's a huge, huge verse. Because the only other time in the New Testament where we hear of a fire of burning coals is when Peter denied Jesus when he stood at the fighter, and Jesus looked straight at him after he denied him for the third time. And if I'm Peter, I'm thinking to myself, okay, Jesus is building the fire to remind me of that my greatest failure in life. That's why he built it here to remind me of the time that I denied him where I was supposed to be there, but I wasn't. I'm gonna have to turn in my discipleship badge, I'm gonna have to just give up he's gonna give me the pink slip.
Unknown: But he doesn't like what Jesus does next. Verse 12, Jesus said to them, I love this common have breakfast.
Unknown: Jesus doesn't say get back in your boat.
Unknown: Jesus doesn't say, Hello, Peter.
Unknown: How could you?
Unknown: Jesus just says, Do you like syrup on your pancakes? Can Can you pass the oj?
Unknown: See, when Peter was expecting rebuke and disappointment, he found the presence of God. He found intimacy and he found love and forgiveness and grace.
Unknown: And what Jesus offered Peter is what he offers us.
Unknown: When we think he doesn't want anything to do with us, he just says, you just have some breakfast with me.
Unknown: And so Micah, who was a crazy child at age three, would often get into trouble.
Unknown: And like I said, he was energetic, and he would do things that his, his brain went out of control. And I remember one day he was playing with one of my belts, and he thought in his mischievious way, that it was a good idea to just swing it around his head as fast as he could and, and I remember talking to him, I said, Mike, if you don't stop swinging that around, you're gonna break something, or even worse, hurt somebody and you, Mike, my child will get in trouble. And so being obedient child that he was he swung it even more and even harder and, and I wasn't paying attention. I knew you're still swinging, but I had to go get something that came back, and he was still swinging it. And all of a sudden, the belt buckle whacked me in the head. And in that moment, I didn't have my greatest parenting moment I kind of mumbled on my breath. Micah, I told you not to do that. This is what happens when you are a devil. This is how you hurt people.
Unknown: And I'll never forget my little boy ran to his room downstairs.
Unknown: I heard the door slam and unlock.
Unknown: I was still upstairs nursing my my wound, not paying attention to what was going on. And then several minutes later, I went down to his room.
Unknown: The door was locked. And so I did what any good parent would do. I picked the lock.
Unknown: I opened the door. And I saw my little boy curled up in the corner of his room in his bed with his head down in his hands like this. And he had been sobbing for several minutes. And it was just that, you know that deep breath that short breaths that little boys take when they've been crying for a long time.
Unknown: And I watched him there and to my embarrassment, I stood there a little bit longer than I should have because it was so cute.
Unknown: And I wondered what was going through his mind. I wondered if he thought he had just committed the unpardonable sin. I wonder if he was thinking about the other families who maybe could adopt him. You know, the boy who hurts people with belt buckles.
Unknown: I wonder if he thought this was the end of the road for him. And so I walked over to the edge of the bed. He still didn't move, I think grabbed him and put him in my lap. I just started stroking his hair.
Unknown: And I took his hands. I took my hands and put his face in them and I said, Miko Look at me.
Unknown: And I said, Do you know what you did? And he said, Yes, dad. I swung the belt and I hurt you.
Unknown: And I did sintef and I'm so sorry. I said, Okay.
Unknown: Now mica Do you know how much I love you?
Unknown: You said I think so. I said my god do I love you this much?
Unknown: said No dad. So Micah, do I love you this much?
Unknown: No, dad.
Unknown: Like a How much do I love you?
Unknown: Dad You love me this much?
Unknown: I said yeah. Mica. No matter what you do.
Unknown: I will always love you this much.
Unknown: This is the story of Christianity.
Unknown: That no matter how much we think we are not deserving of God's love that Jesus on the cross said I love you this much.
Unknown: So here's the deal. There are actually no free Mulligan's in life.
Unknown: Life is not a game.
Unknown: A score is taken and it's a matter of life and death.
Unknown: And there had to be a cost.
Unknown: In order for us to get a mulligan for the wages of sin, Paul would write his death.
Unknown: But the gift of God, the Mulligan is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord.
Unknown: So, Jesus went to the cross.
Unknown: He said, I'll take your failures on me. I'll become the worst moments of your life. I'll become your ugly so you can become my beautiful, not the cross with his arms stretched out the perfect Son of God was saying to us, I love you this much. You are not your divorce, you are not your dismissal or you're just demotion you are not your addiction. You are not what your kids said of you. You are not the poor student you are not the second string you are not the bad child. You are not who they say you are. You are not too young, too old, too rich to poor, you are not washed up or used up. You are not just $1 figure you are not just a title.
Unknown: No, you are somebody that I died for. Because I love you this much.
Unknown: And so here's your Mulligan.
Unknown: So the question is, will you take it? And if you're gonna take it, there was one more question Jesus needs you to answer.
Unknown: Is this Do you still love Jesus?
Unknown: You and I have to answer this question. Do I still love Jesus?
Unknown: See, Jesus isn't done with Peter. He still needs to talk to them. So they go for a walk. And Jesus has a question for Peter.
Unknown: And I wonder if Peters singing Okay, the breakfast thing was a charade. Now he's gonna really lay into me. Now he's gonna tell me now he has me all alone. He's gonna tell me what he really thinks. But look at what Jesus does instead. Verse 15, when they had finished eating, Jesus said to Simon Peter, Simon, son of john, do you love me more than these? Yes, Lord. He said, You know that I love you. Jesus said, Feed my lambs. Again, Jesus said, Simon, son of john, john, do you love me? He answered, Yes, Lord, you know that I love you. Jesus said, take care of my sheep.
Unknown: Third time he said to him, Simon, son of john, do you love me? Peter was hurt because Jesus asked him the third time. Do you love me? I said, Lord, you know all things, you know that I love you.
Unknown: Jesus said, Feed my sheep.
Unknown: As Jesus asked him three times, do you love me? Do you love me?
Unknown: Do you love me? He is again, bringing Peter back to that moment of three denials.
Unknown: And I think he's saying that three times because he wants Peter to know that Peter doesn't have to live in the past, that he still has a future there still is a redemption story. But the future is predicated on how Peter answers this one question.
Unknown: It's a very vulnerable question for Jesus to ask. Jesus is putting it out there and saying, Peter, I'm not gonna force you to love me. I'm offering you this Mulligan, but you have to choose. Because love true love is about choice. Peter, I'm not gonna presume you want the intimate relationship with me that you once had. I'm not here to force it on you. I'm not here to guilt trip you into this. You can stay here and fish if you want to. I'll still love you.
Unknown: But you have to choose to love me if you want this redemption story if you want to start over.
Unknown: And so Jesus in a moment of vulnerability is just asking, will you love me?
Unknown: Peter, will you take this?
Unknown: Three times he just said yes.
Unknown: Yes.
Unknown: And then verse 19. Jesus, all right.
Unknown: And let's go follow me.
Unknown: And Peter follows and as you watch Peters life, you see Peter leading the church. You see Peter, who is so powerful that when his shadow passes over, over somebody, they are healed.
Unknown: You see Peter, who has competence again, who is leaving a new story. He takes the Mulligan and Jesus is asking you today, do you still love me?
Unknown: You're not gonna force it on you.
Unknown: But if you want a new chapter in your story, if you want to take the Mulligan you have to say yes.
Unknown: So the question is, will you take your Mulligan