Grace, mercy, and restoration

Scripture

1.Run to God with every thing you are

2. Grace vs mercy

3. You restored in your identity and calling

opening

main body

when we look at the life of peter we see a story of the power of Gods grace, mercy, and restoration.

Part of the reason I want to discus the life of peter, is in a lot of ways we are like him. When we look at peter through out the course of the gospels we see Peter walk in tremendous faith and have theses great moments with the lord, and tremendous failure , often times right next to each other. How many of us can relate to this? I Know that I definitely can. I want to focus specifically on peters biggest failure His denial of Jesus. not to celebrate his failure but to look at Gods grace and his mercy. Let me set the scene for you Its the night before Christ was crucified. Jesus and his disciples are having the Passover feast, Jesus breaks the bread of his body, and passes the cup of his blood. Then Jesus tells his disciples that one of them is going to betray him, they all start trying to figure out who and arguing that its not true. 3 Peter said to him, “Lord, I am ready to go with you both to prison and to death.” 34 Jesus said, “I tell you, Peter, the rooster will not crow this day, until you deny three times that you know me.” Later that night Judas the disciple who betrayed Jesus comes with a mob demanding Jesus come with them. Peter then cuts the ear off of one of the high preats servant. Jesus Tells peter to stop and grabs the wounded mans ear; he puts it back on and heals the man. The mob takes Jesus and most of the disciples scatter, peter follows behind at a distance. Then a servant girl, seeing him as he sat in the light and looking closely at him, said, “This man also was with him.” But he denied it, saying, “Woman, I do not know him.” And a little later someone else saw him and said, “You also are one of them.” But Peter said, “Man, I am not.” And after an interval of about an hour still another insisted, saying, “Certainly this man also was with him, for he too is a Galilean.” But Peter said, “Man, I do not know what you are talking about.” And immediately, while he was still speaking, the rooster crowed. And the Lord turned and looked at Peter. And Peter remembered the saying of the Lord, how he had said to him, “Before the rooster crows today, you will deny me three times.” And he went out and wept bitterly. Now the men who were holding Jesus in custody were mocking him as they beat him.” But the story did not end there. After Jesus was crucified and laid in the tomb.

Mark 16:1–7 “When the Sabbath was past, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices, so that they might go and anoint him. And very early on the first day of the week, when the sun had risen, they went to the tomb. And they were saying to one another, “Who will roll away the stone for us from the entrance of the tomb?” And looking up, they saw that the stone had been rolled back—it was very large. And entering the tomb, they saw a young man sitting on the right side, dressed in a white robe, and they were alarmed. And he said to them, “Do not be alarmed. You seek Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has risen; he is not here. See the place where they laid him. But go, tell his disciples and Peter that he is going before you to Galilee. There you will see him, just as he told you.”

There is a reason that he tells them to tell the disciples and peter, peter did not consider himself one of the disciples he had disqualified him self. So peter goes back to his life before knowing Jesus.

John 21:3–19 (ESV)

3 Simon Peter said to them, “I am going fishing.” They said to him, “We will go with you.” They went out and got into the boat, but that night they caught nothing.

4 Just as day was breaking, Jesus stood on the shore; yet the disciples did not know that it was Jesus. 5 Jesus said to them, “Children, do you have any fish?” They answered him, “No.” 6 He said to them, “Cast the net on the right side of the boat, and you will find some.” So they cast it, and now they were not able to haul it in, because of the quantity of fish. 7 That disciple whom Jesus loved therefore said to Peter, “It is the Lord!” When Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he put on his outer garment, for he was stripped for work, and threw himself into the sea. 8 The other disciples came in the boat, dragging the net full of fish, for they were not far from the land, but about a hundred yards off.

9 When they got out on land, they saw a charcoal fire in place, with fish laid out on it, and bread. 10 Jesus said to them, “Bring some of the fish that you have just caught.” 11 So Simon Peter went aboard and hauled the net ashore, full of large fish, 153 of them. And although there were so many, the net was not torn. 12 Jesus said to them, “Come and have breakfast.” Now none of the disciples dared ask him, “Who are you?” They knew it was the Lord. 13 Jesus came and took the bread and gave it to them, and so with the fish. 14 This was now the third time that Jesus was revealed to the disciples after he was raised from the dead.

Jesus and Peter

15 When they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these?” He said to him, “Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.” He said to him, “Feed my lambs.” 16 He said to him a second time, “Simon, son of John, do you love me?” He said to him, “Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.” He said to him, “Tend my sheep.” 17 He said to him the third time, “Simon, son of John, do you love me?” Peter was grieved because he said to him the third time, “Do you love me?” and he said to him, “Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you.” Jesus said to him, “Feed my sheep. 18 Truly, truly, I say to you, when you were young, you used to dress yourself and walk wherever you wanted, but when you are old, you will stretch out your hands, and another will dress you and carry you where you do not want to go.” 19 (This he said to show by what kind of death he was to glorify God.) And after saying this he said to him, “Follow me.”

when we look at this passage of scripture we see the mercy and grace of God made clear.

Gods mercy was His forgiveness for what peter had done. In Jewish belief at this time betrayal and denial of God was considered the chief among sins. Jesus even said to the disciples “If you deny me before man I will deny you before my father”. Peter knew this and had the faith to run to Jesus. Jesus had the full right to deny him right then and there but he didn't, he forgave him and restored his relationship with the father, but Jesus did not stop there. He showed him Grace. His grace was to call peter. His grace was to still consider him one of his disciples. When he restored peter He restored his relationship, his calling, and his identity. When Jesus asks peter do you love me, he asks him 3 times because he denied him 3 times. when Jesus tells him to feed his sheep and to follow him; he is telling peter he is still called to be a Shepard and disciple.

One of the greatest traps of the enemy is to keep us in shame and condemnation. The word condemnation is a term used in construction when a building is condemned it means it is no longer fit for use. See the enemy wants to make you believe that you have done too much to be used by God. when you are trapped in shame and condemnation you cannot fulfill gods calling on your life. Does any one in here believe that what we believe has power? what do you think the out come of believing you are not fit for use is. The result is that you don’t believe what God says about you. Peter shows us the key for getting free from shame and condemnation… RUN TO JESUS! Peter did not run or hide from him but he came directly to him. When we fail it matters how we respond. all through out scripture we see one chairiture trait that God distinctly values, those who run to Him when they fail. science the very beginning of humanity or first reaction to failure has been to run and hide from God even though He is the only one who can help us. When we fail the only one who can help us is Jesus, but often times the enemy uses shame and condemnation to keep us away from him. What you Run to is what You belong to. romans 8;1 So now there is no condemnation for those who belong to Christ Jesus. when we run to him He doesn't just want to forgive us but he restores us wholly. He restores us not only in our relationship with him but he restores us to our calling. You cannot fix yourself enough for you to be qualified. There is some truth to the lies of condemnation. You are not qualified, you have done to much but HE makes you qualified. If that tomb is empty than anything is possible. The beauty of Jesus calling on your life, is that it requires his grace, his strength, his power for you to complete it. The only thing you have to do is Follow him. Your calling is not based on you its based on Him.

testimony

Part of the reason I am sharing this word with you today, is that I my self relate to the story of peter. If yall are not aware of my testimony, I was a drug addict and alcoholic and by the grace of God he set me free. My first semester at cfni( Christ for the Nations) I had these great moments with the lord. Where I made promises to God that “ I would serve him for ever, I would never leave him, ect..” I am going to be completely honest my real reason why I went to cfni is i was hoping it was going to fix me. Then I made a mistake, I royally screwed up. I relapsed and i remember that night like it was yesterday. I was in my bed alone and the only thing I could say is God im sorry. I wasn't saying God I'm sorry for what I've done but I was sorry for what I was. I was sorry for being a disappointment, Im sorry he chose the wrong person. I thought I had messed up to much for Him. So instead of running to Him, I ran away from Him. And i ran hard. I chose to go back to what I knew before knowing him for me it was substances. That eventually caught up to me and i Got to place where I didnt know how to escape. I ended going to a Christian rehab program called adult and teen challenge. The first staff member I talked to his name was Big mike and i remember the first piece of advice he gave me. “ your gonna have to stop running from God and start running to him”. I didn't like that advice at the time. a few months later I was till tiring to “fix myself” and figure out how to get good enough for god. Then we hade a gest speaker named Chris Kelly, he was a Pentecostal pastor from Paris Texas. I remember the mot important conversation we had, He knew a little bit about me, That I thought I was a failed pastor… It was one of the most prophetic conversations I have ever had. He asked me a question “so did God call you to be a pastor?” I said Yes he did but i gave that up when I relapsed. “does God know everything” I siad well yes “ so God knew the mistakes you were going to make before He called you, You don't get the luxury to disqualify yourself” “He is still calling you now, you have the opportunity to be obedient to His calling, but first you need to run to him with all of you with every part of yourself” “ you are trying to disqualify yourself based on your scars, but its his scars that qualify you.” Once I started running to Him He restored me both in my calling and my relationship with him. I didn't have to start from square one but he brought me back to where I was, if not further. When i Started running to him the whole coarse of my life changed. I exsperiend Both his grace and His mercy

Application