Lord, I'm Willing
Notes
Transcript
Willing to try again
Willing to try again
Good evening, LFY! You know this is always my favorite place to be and I hope its yours too on a wednesday evening. If you’re new here or maybe this youth group thing is new to you I wanna welcome you and say you’re in the right place. If you’ve never heard about Jesus or the Gospel, then I hope I communicate who he is in the best way possible for you. He’s everything in my life, he saved me from addiction, fear, hopelessness and he instilled purpose in my life. I hope he becomes the savior in your life tonight. Let’s get right into it- anybody been hit in the face by a ball?
I dont have kids yet so for sermon stories I get to use my siblings. I won’t say which sister but when Lani was young, our family use to go out to play tennis. We would play with our old youth group right we weren’t pros. We just went to hit to see how bad our hand-eye coordination was, not me because I was good at it. Anyways we’re playing and my older sisters hand eye coordination was so good that when lani was crossing the court hits square in the head. And after that lani was like I’m just gonna sit this out. Like the sport, not the game, the sport she never wanted to play again. We go again a month later we tell lani, it’s ok just come its fun. She gets on the court and I’m playing against her, and I accidentally land a shot in her face, this time shes done. This isnt even the last time she gets hit cause throughout the years we go, she comes, she gets hit and we don’t even try it just happens. But what could’ve happened was that shame or embaressment couldve settled in and she could’ve hated tennis and never go play ever again. But last year we went to play and lani was crushing. She was whooping me at my own sport and you know when your sibling is getting a little bit better than you at your sport you get a little concerned, but she killed it and shes great at it.
See lani had what most people don’t. But as christians we’re encouraged to have this behavior this attitude. And that thing is called resilience.
(Slide) Resilience - the capacity to withstand or to recover quickly from difficulties
I said believers should have it so heres the biblical understanding of that word;
(Slide) Resilience - the ability to adapt to stressful life changes and "bounce back" from hardship, persevering through trials and tribulations with faith and hope, ultimately finding strength in God's grace
This is our last week of “Lord I’m willing” and our title, if you’re a note taker, is this.
(Slide) “Lord, I’m willing to try again”
9 So let’s not get tired of doing what is good. At just the right time we will reap a harvest of blessing if we don’t give up.
Galatians 6:9 NLT
21 Don’t let evil conquer you, but conquer evil by doing good.
Romans 12:21 NLT
The bible has this common theme of, keep going, keep pressing, do good. Theres blessing in this, this is a good thing. “But I’m tired”. I’m struggling, its hard to keep getting rejected by my faith. It hard having to go home and my parents are yelling at me. It’s hard to keep reading my word to keep praying. I’m trying and its hard. But see Resilience is to withstand or recover.
I want to talk to two groups of people tonight. So my first group of people are the Ones doing good but they’re getting tired. My people who are withstanding.
See Paul showed great resilience after his life-altering encounter with Jesus (Acts 9). When he was transformed from religious Pharisee to radical Christian, many were not happy with his message. He was beaten, stoned, criticized, jailed, and nearly killed many times (2 Corinthians 11:24–27). One incident especially shows Paul’s exceptional resilience. In Lystra in Asia Minor, he was stoned, dragged out of town, and left for dead, but, when his enemies left, Paul simply got up and went back into the city (Acts 14:19–20). His missionary endeavors continued unabated. Godly resilience enables us to be undeterred from our mission, regardless of the opposition. Why? Because we’re more than conquerers.
No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.
He tells us he gives rest to the weary:
“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”
The point isnt to be perfect its to stay commited on jesus. The point isnt to do whatever it takes to get to the Goal its to have done it with the best of your ability. We get confused because we have become very task oriented very I read my word, i did my 10 min of praying. But its not the task its the process of pressing forward.
My 2nd group is this; We try again because we fell, so it’s time to get back up. My recover people.
Peter’s story comes right after Judas’, and though he doesn’t proactively hand over Jesus to death, his silence (or passivity) is deafening. When Jesus is arrested and put on trial, Peter follows close by but keeps himself recluse. I like to think he had a fake mustache on, but they all likely had facial hair back then, so how did anyone ever try and blend in? On three occasions people attempt to identify Peter as a friend of Jesus, but Peter denies knowing his mentor. He even curses the final accuser. He let Jesus go alone to his grave and made sure everyone knew he was no friend of his.
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 had 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.”
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 outside and wept bitterly.
Both of these men betrayed Jesus. They both had two options, the same two options we have today when we betray Jesus:
Will they trust their feelings of shame and guilt, thinking they are too far gone or broken to return to God? Or, will they trust their God, who longs to pour out his grace on them?
See the enemy uses this to drive us away from God, he wants you to have no resilience.
Judas chose the former path. He saw what he had done and knew he was in the wrong. But he thought his story was over. He thought there was no way back. He thought Jesus was done with him. He chose death - literally, by suicide that same day (Matthew 27:3-5).
Peter chose the latter path. He saw what he had done and knew he was in the wrong. But he knew his story was still being written. He knew there was a way back. He knew Jesus was still for him. He chose life - by sprinting to Jesus the next time he saw him, knowing his God would redeem him.
God did (if you didn’t know). After Jesus is resurrected, he finds the disciples out fishing, doing the only thing they ever knew how to do pre-Jesus. When Peter sees Jesus on the shore, he jumps out of the boat and swims to him immediately (John 21:1-14).
We see no hesitation from Peter. No internal wondering if he will be met with a punch to the face. Only trust in the character of Jesus that he knew.
Jesus’ response? He makes Peter breakfast. Seriously. Okay, not an omelette tough (they had just caught some fish, remember?). After eating, He restores Peter and affirms him of his calling (John 21:15-19).
Jesus reinstates peter. Meaning there is never too far gone for Jesus. There is never “This is the end” after one mess up.
As we go into small groups to talk more about it I want you to reflect on this- that your story is not over no matter how hard, not matter how many times you’ve messed up. It’s not over.
