What Will You Do With The Grace You Carry

Staring into the sky is easy. Living after the sky moment is harder. We start on the hillside outside Jerusalem as Jesus ascends in Acts 1, and we admit how familiar that feeling is when life flips into an “after” season after disappointment, loss, or a prayer answered differently than we hoped. 

From there, we follow Peter’s full arc, not the polished version. We talk about the impulsive disciple who promises big and collapses fast, the painful weight of denial in Luke 22, and the deliberate restoration of Jesus in John 21: three questions, real love, and a clear commission. If you carry shame from your past, this is the reminder you need to hear: your before does not cancel your calling. 

Then we get into what changes everything for Christian faith and spiritual growth: Jesus says it is for our good that he goes away, because the Holy Spirit comes. We trace how Jesus moves from being beside Peter to being inside Peter, and how that turns fear into boldness at Pentecost in Acts 2 and courage under pressure in Acts 4. We also talk stewardship, because grace is never meant to sit still. Your gifts, your story, your time, and your scars are meant to serve. 

Finally, we sit with Peter’s wisdom on suffering and perseverance, trials as refining fire, and the daily choice to remember instead of drift. If you want practical next steps rooted in Scripture, it ends with one simple command that can reset your whole week: grow in grace. Subscribe, share this with a friend who needs strength, and leave a review so more people can find it. What is your “after” season asking of you right now?

Transcript

From Weather To The Hillside

SPEAKER_00 1:05

Roller coaster weather. What was it, eighty something yesterday? And now we're what ten? Feels like it anyway. So let me take you somewhere for a moment. I want you to imagine it with me. You're standing on a hillside outside of Jerusalem, the air is cool, the dust is settling, and right in front of you, Jesus is rising into the sky. That's where Peter is. A fisherman, a follower, a man who has messed up more times than he can count, a man who has been forgiven more deeply than he ever deserved. And now he's watching Jesus, the one who changed everything, disappear into a cloud. In Acts 1, 9 through eleven it says, After he said this he was taken up before their very eyes, and a cloud hid him from their sight. They were looking intently up into the sky as he was going, when suddenly two men dressed in white stood beside them. Men of Galilee, they say, Why do you stand here looking into the sky? This same Jesus who has been taken from you into heaven will come back in the same way that you have seen him go into heaven. And when Jesus is gone, Peter is just standing there, neck back, eyes squinting, heart pounding. And in that moment, Peter steps into something brand new. His life in the after. After the resurrection, after the restoration, after the ascension, after the visible Jesus is no longer beside him. And that's where we live too. We live in the after, not an afterlife, the after ascension life, the spirit-filled life. And Peter becomes our guide for how we live in it. And this is where many of us are right now. We're standing in our own after. Maybe it's after a diagnosis, after a breakup, after the disappointment, after the prayer that didn't get answered the way we hoped, and we're wondering, what now? But before we talk about the Peter who leads the church, we need to talk about the Peter who needed leading. So let's be honest. Peter's life was a mess. He was impulsive, he was emotional, he talked too much, he acted too fast, he promised big and delivered small. He was the guy who said, Lord, I'll never leave you, and left him before the rooster crowed. But Jesus saw something in him. In John 1, 40 through 42, it says, Andrew, Simon Peter's brother, was one of the two who had heard what John had said and who had followed Jesus. The first thing Andrew did was to find his brother Simon and tell him, We have found the Messiah, that is the Christ. And he brought him to Jesus. Jesus looked at him and said, You are Simon, son of God, son of John. You will be called Cephas, which when translated means Peter. So Jesus basically says, Right now you're Simon. You're shaky, inconsistent, unpredictable, but I'm calling you Peter, the rock. Jesus names him not for who he is, but for who he will become. And isn't that just like Jesus? He speaks to your future while you're stuck in your past. And Peter had some incredible moments, walking on water, confessing Jesus as the Messiah, but Peter also had some terrible ones. He was sinking in fear and denying Jesus. In Luke twenty two, fifty four through sixty two it says, Then seizing him, they led him away and took him into the house of the high priest. Peter followed at a distance. And when some there had kindled a fire in the middle of the courtyard and sat down together, Peter sat down with them. A servant girl saw him seated there in the firelight. She looked closely at him and said, This man was with him. But he denied it. Woman, I don't know him, he said. A little later someone else saw him and said, You also are one of them. Man, I am not, Peter replied. About an hour later another asserted, Certainly, this fellow was with him, for he is a Galilean. And Peter replied, Man, I don't know what you're talking about. Just as he was speaking, the rooster crowed. The Lord turned and looked straight at Peter. Then Peter remembered the word the Lord had spoken to him. Before the rooster crows today, you will disown me three times, and he went out and whipped bitterly. That's that's probably Peter's rock bottom. But Jesus wasn't done there. In John twenty one, fifteen through nineteen it says, When they had finished eating, Jesus said to 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, do you love me? He answered, Yes, Lord, you know that I love you. Jesus said, Take care of my sheep. The third time he said to him, Simon, son of John, do you love me? Peter was hurt because Jesus asked him a third time, Do you love me? He said, Lord, you know all things, you know that I love you. Jesus said, Feed my sheep. Very truly I tell you, when you were younger you dressed yourself and went where you wanted. But when you are old you will stretch out your hands, and someone else would dress you and lead you where you do not want to go. Jesus said to him, said this to indicate the kind of death by which Peter would glorify God. Then he said to him, Follow me. Three denials, three questions, and three commissions. Jesus didn't just forgive Peter, he restores him, he recommissions him, he says, Feed my sheep. And that's where Peter's after begins. And some of you need to hear this, myself included. Your before does not disqualify your after. Jesus is not intimidated by your inconsistency. He's not surprised by your weakness. He's not done with you because you failed. If Jesus can turn Simon into Peter, he can turn your story into something stronger than your past. So let's go back to the hillside. The angels basically say to Peter, Why are you staring at the sky? It's your turn now. And that's a very scary moment because Jesus isn't physically there anymore. And let's be honest, we've all had these moments where we wish he was. If only I could see him, if only I could hear him, if only he were right here. But Jesus said something surprising. John 16, 5 through 7, it says, But now I am going to him who sent me. None of you ask me where you are going, rather you are filled with grief because I have said these things. But very truly I tell you, it is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the advocate will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you. Thinking to myself, How is it better when Jesus isn't here? If we look through history, we see how dark it got, how dark it can be today. So how is it better? Because the Spirit was coming. John 14, 15 through 20 says, If you love me, keep my commands, and I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you be with you forever. The Spirit of Truth. The word cannot accept the world cannot accept him because it neither sees him nor knows him, but you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you. I will not leave you as orphans, I will come to you. Before long the world will not see me any more, but you will see me because I live. You also will live. And on that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you. Then Matthew twenty eight, eighteen through twenty says, Then Jesus came to them and said, All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you, and surely I am with you always to the very end of the age. Side note, if you've ever heard me preach before, I use that section a lot. I think it's just powerful, and I think it's so important. So Jesus moved from being in beside Peter to being inside Peter, and that changed everything. A lot of us are living like Jesus is still out there somewhere, but the Spirit of God is not distant. He's not silent and he's not passive. He's in you, he empowers you, he guides and strengthens you. We're not living in this after alone. And then when the spirit falls on Acts 2, Peter becomes someone we've never seen before. The man who hid now stands, the man who denies now declares, and the man who ran now leads. Acts 2, 14 through 21 says, Then Peter stood up with the eleven, raised his voice, and addressed the crowd. Fellow Jews, and all of you who live in Jerusalem, let me explain this to you. Listen carefully to what I say. These people are not drunk as you suppose. It's only nine in the morning. No, this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel. In the last days God says, I will pour out my spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesize, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams. Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my spirit in those days, and I will prophesize, and they will prophesize. I will show wonders in heaven above, and signs on the earth below, blood and fire, and billows of smoke, the sun will be turned to darkness, and the blood to moon, before the coming of the great and glorious day of the Lord, and anyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. Then further on into Acts, Acts 4, 8 through 13, then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them, Rulers and elders of the people, if we are being called to account today for an act of kindness shown to a man who is lame and are being asked how he was healed, then know this you and all people of Israel, it is by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, but whom God raised from the dead, that this man stands before you healed. Jesus is the stone that builders rejected, which has become the cornerstone. Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which must be saved. When they saw the courage of Peter and John and realized that they were unschooled, ordinary men, they were astonished, and they took note that these men had been with Jesus. And in this moment, suddenly Peter isn't following Jesus. He's representing him. He's become a steward, not just a spectator. Peter writes in 1 Peter 4, 7 through 11, The end of all things is near, therefore be alert and of sober minds so that you may pray. Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers a multitude of sins. Offer hospitality to one another without grumbling. Each of you should use whatever gifts you have received to serve others as faithful stewards of God's grace in its various forms. If anyone speaks, they should do so as one who speaks the very words of God. If anyone serves, they should do so with the strength God provides, so that in all things God may be praised through Jesus Christ. To him be the glory and the power forever and ever. Amen. So Peter finally understands that my life isn't mine, my gifts aren't mine, my story isn't mine. Everything is grace. And that's true for us too. We're not just here to watch, we're here to carry something. So I want you to ask yourselves, what am I doing with the grace that God has given me? Your story is a ministry, your scars a testimony, your gifts are tools, and your time is an offering. You're not just an audience member in God's kingdom, you're a steward. So use these wisely, your gifts, your time, and even your story. And Peter's transformation didn't stop with boldness, though. God also reshaped his heart. While Peter was praying, he received a vision and heard a voice say, Do not call anything impure that God has made clean. When he entered Cornelius' home, the meaning became clear. God has shown me that I should not call anyone impure or unclean. Acts ten, twenty-eight. As preached, the Holy Spirit came on all who heard the message, showing that God welcomed the Gentiles just as he welcomed the Jews. Peter later defended this work by saying, Who was I to think that I could stand in God's way? Acts eleven, seventeen. And even later, when he slipped back into his old fears in the book of Galatians, God continued shaping him. The gospel will stretch you beyond what feels comfortable. The Spirit will challenge your assumptions, expand your compassions, and lead you toward people that you once avoided. And remember that your growth isn't linear. Even Peter, the rock, had his setbacks. God doesn't discard you when you stumble, he keeps forming you. So you can be growing and still need correction. You can be spirit-filled and still be a process. You can be used by God and still have blind spots. No one is perfect. That's why we need Jesus. And then Peter writes to believers who are hurting. In 1 Peter 4, 12 through 19, it says, Dear friends, do not be surprised at the fire ordeal that has come on to you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice in as much as you participate in the sufferings of Jesus Christ, so that you may be overjoyed with his glory when his glory is revealed. If you are insulted because of the name of Christ, you are blessed. For the spirit of glory and of God rests on you. If you suffer, it should not be as a murderer, or thief, or any kind of criminal, or even a meddler. How even if you suffer as a Christian, do not be ashamed, but praise God that you bear that name. For it is time for judgment to begin with God's household. And if it begins with us, what will be the outcome for those who do not obey the gospel? And it is hard for the righteous to be saved, what will become of the ungodly and the sinner? So then those who suffer according to God's will should commit themselves to their faithful Creator and continue to do good. Peter doesn't say if trials come, he says when they come. All of us are going to go through trials. Some may be easy, some may be difficult. But we have to understand what Peter is saying here. Because Peter knows what that fire does. He says in 1 Peter 1 3 through 9, Praise be to the God and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. In his great mercy he has given us new birth into living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil, or fade. This inheritance is kept in heaven for you, who through faith are shielded by God's power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time. In all this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith and greater worth than gold, which perishes, even through though refined by fire, may result in praise, glory, and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. Though you have not seen him, you love him, and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him, and you are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy. For you are receiving the end result of your faith, the salvation of your souls. Peter learned that fire doesn't destroy faith, it purifies it. I'm going to talk about a goldsmith for a moment. A goldsmith refiner heats the gold until impurities rise. As that process is happening, dirt, grime, and other bacteria not bacteria, but impurities rise to the surface. That refiner skims those off until he can see his reflection in the gold. And Peter says that's what God is doing with us. He's purifying us, removing all of our impurities and any of that dirt. So Peter says in 1 Peter 5, 6 through 11, humble yourselves, therefore, under God's mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time. Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you. And be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour. Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that the family of believers throughout the world is undergoing the same kind of sufferings. And the grace, the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will himself restore you and make you strong, firm, and steadfast. To him be the power forever and ever. Amen. So don't waste that fire. Ask yourself, Lord, what are you removing from me? What are you strengthening in me? What are you revealing in me? Your trials aren't a punishment, it's a preparation. Then by the time Peter writes 2 Peter, he's older, he knows his time is short, and he wants to leave believers with something that will outlive him. He writes in 2 Peter 1, 3 through 15, His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life, through our knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and goodness. Through these He has given us His very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in divine nature, having escaped the corruption in the world caused by evil desires. For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness, to your goodness knowledge, and to your knowledge self-control, and to self-control perseverance, and to your perseverance godliness, and to godliness mutual affection, and to mutual affection love. For if you possess these qualities in increased measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of your Lord Jesus Christ. But whoever does not have them is nearsighted and blind, forgetting that they have been cleansed from their past sins. Therefore, my brothers and sisters, make every effort to confirm your calling and election, for if you do these things you will never stumble, and if you receive a rich welcome into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. So I will always remind you of these things, even though you know them and are firmly established in the truth you now have, I think it's right to refresh your memory as long as I live in the tent of in this tent of a body, because I know that I will soon put it aside, as our Lord Jesus Christ has made clear to me. And I will make every effort to see that after my departure you will always be able to remember these things. So Peter says, I'm going to keep reminding you because you forget. And he's right, we do forget. We drift, we get busy with life. Oh, I can make time for that later. It's not that important right this moment. Tomorrow's another day. But in Hebrews 2 1, it says, We must pay the most careful attention, therefore, to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away. When we drift, we stop remembering. But Peter points us back to the word. In 2 Peter 1 16 through 21, for we did not follow cleverly devised stories when we told you about the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ in power, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty. He received honor and glory from God, the Father, when the voice came to him from the majestic glory, saying, This is my Son, whom I love, with him I am well pleased. We ourselves heard this voice that came from heaven when we were here on the sacred mountain. We also have the prophetic message as something completely reliable, and you will do well to pay attention to it. As to a light shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts. Above all you must understand that no prophecy or scripture came about by the prophet's own interpretation of things. For prophecy never had its origin in human will, but prophets, though human, spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit. Peter continues in 2 Peter 3, 8 through 18, do not forget this one thing, dear friends, with the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day. The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead, he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to Perish, but everyone to come to repentance. But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, the heavens will disappear with a roar, the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything done in it will be laid bare. Since everything will be destroyed in this way, what kind of people ought you be? You ought to live holy and godly lives as you look forward to the day of God, and speed is coming. The day will bring about the destruction of the heavens by fire, and the elements will melt in the heat. But in keeping with his promise we are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth, where righteousness dwells. So then, dear friends, since you are looking forward to this, make every effort to be found spotless, blameless, and at peace with him. Bear in mind that our Lord's patient means salvation. Just as our dear brother Paul, who also wrote you with the wisdom that God gave him, he writes the same way in all his letters, speaking in them of these matters. His letters contain something that are hard to understand, which ignorant and unstable people distort, as they do other scriptures to their own destruction. Therefore, dear friends, since you have been forewarned, be on your guard so that you may not be carried away by the error of the lawless and the fall from your secure position, but grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and forever. Amen. Peter's final command is a very simple one, but a very powerful one. Grow in grace. So build rhythms for your remembrance. Open the word. Speak scripture over your fears. Remember who God is. Remember who you are. Remember what Jesus has done. There's no neutral in a Christian life. Either you're growing or drifting.