Lightly edited for readability while preserving the speaker’s meaning and substantive statements.
[Music] lord god we without you we can do nothing that's what you said lord you told your disciples without me you can do nothing and lord i know what that means nothing of substance nothing of real eternal value lord i don't know how much wisdom we think we have and how much knowledge we think we have no matter how much lord we think we're anointed bottom line lord you have to move you have to touch and in the end it's all yours it's all done by you father we thank you for this lord we pray it in jesus name amen praise be to god that's an old song there by ken henry in the end there spirit touching church boy do we ever need that somebody say amen you know there's a there's a few passages that i want to look at this morning and share some things with you that i think is important um you know one of the big problems in the body of christ and it has been for centuries is that we can't stay in the road we can't we get in this ditch over here or we get in this ditch over here we go too far this way or too far that way um i'm going to talk a little bit about leadership this morning talk a little bit about the gifts and when i talk about the leadership gifts i'm talking about you know people that god has called to be leaders in the church apostles prophets evangelists pastors teachers elders deacons um because in the sense of you know we got one of two extremes in the body of christ and i've watched it for years we've got the group over here in this ditch on this side that doesn't respect or honor leaders and elders and those that are called or have gifts and that are older and have more experience or more wisdom and so you got this group over here that they just pretty much reject leaderships a lot of people that just rejected leadership they've gone they've gone aside and don't even attend a church they don't even have a pastor they don't have any spiritual fathers or spiritual mothers in their lives they just kind of an island unto themselves and and and i understand because there's a lot of junk out there and there's a lot of counterfeits a lot of wolves and sheep's clothing a lot of people who are abusing their authority and things of
that nature so but you got that ditch okay then you've got the other ditch on the other side the other ditch is that any man or woman of god that's used of god to do anything gets exalted above measure almost to the point of being worshiped um you know i saw that in the brownsville revival where god was moving so powerfully through steve hill through john kilpatrick through dr brown through dick rubin and some of the other guys and and women that were being used in the revival in a powerful way and you saw people literally chasing them around um every night and um almost like to the point of they were you know more holy than everybody else and could do no wrong and you know and and and i've i've watched this i mean if you're going to be in the ministry at all in any regard of leadership you're going to face the two extremes they're going to be people that love you probably uh and lift you up and love you more than you ought to be not that you shouldn't be honored and respected if you're a leader but they're gonna be people that that that push that too far i mean i got somebody right now you know and and when you're when you're a minister you know you like to hear the nice things because you hear the bad things plenty you hear you know because you got the two extremes you got those people that that love you thank you on the moon and you got these people that hate your guts and wish you would die i mean you really have both people right both extremes and paul the apostle paul wrestled with this he wrestled with this and tried to explain that we need to be balanced i guess what i'm saying today is it doesn't matter what you see in a man or woman of god's life no matter what great revelation they might have no matter what great wisdom they might have no matter what great miracles might jesus might work through them or what gifts they have you still have to be careful to focus yourself on jesus and focus yourself on the truth and on the message more than the messenger amen god's going to use look i look at the the story of solomon it's probably one of the most revealing stories in the bible of the vanity of men of the emptiness because god appears to solomon first of all god picks solomon to be the next king just to follow david king david one of his sons david had many sons could have picked any of them but god picked solomon the son of the of
bathsheba that he had an affair with doesn't sound like something god would do does it but yet that's how he is he doesn't always pick the most holy the most righteous or what looks the most holy and most righteous in the in the eyes of men and women god knows what he's doing but he picks solomon and then solomon becomes king and david has given him instructions on how to build the the temple david has seen the entire layout and blueprint from heaven god revealed it to him then david also saved up all the the finances to build the temple all solomon had to do was do it when it was time because god said he wouldn't let david do it because david's hand had blood on him because he'd been a warrior so he said a man with blood on his hands not building my temple right so solomon builds it and then solomon builds his own house and then solomon goes and he prays and god appears to him now think about this you guys god appears to solomon two times but when solomon was young he prayed this prayer he prayed for wisdom and discernment he didn't pray for his enemies to be crushed under his feet he didn't pray for finances and wealth and everybody knows the story and god comes to him and says because you've asked this thing you've asked for wisdom and discernment above everything else to be able to judge correctly between my people and to do right because you didn't ask for your enemies to be subdued under your feet and you didn't ask for riches i'm going to give you air all of it and the bible says that god gave solomon more wisdom more understanding more revelation and understanding of spiritual matters and earthly matters than any man that would ever live until god himself would become flesh and become a man this is this is beyond our comprehension and solomon described he said i had a great experience of wisdom i mean god just opened his spirit and his soul his being up and filled him with supernatural understanding wisdom and revelation more than me more than you more than anyone think about that jesus even said it he said the queen of the south speaking of the queen of sheep queen chiba so she came from far distance to hear the wisdom of solomon solomon wrote proverbs ecclesiastes
song of solomon we have these in our bible they are part of the holy bible part of the inspired infallible inerrant word of almighty god yet this man did not finish the race he made statements and and he made statements about you know ecclesiastes what's what's beautiful about ecclesiastes is the raw honesty of a man who knew god walked with god had great wisdom and revelation understanding of all spiritual matters and earthly matters and human matters but yet wrestled in in in admitted how he wrestled with discouragement depression realizing how much of of of obtaining all these things ultimately was vanity he said emptiness it's it's really mind-boggling that the man that god gave the greatest amount of wisdom in the world ended up not using it i mean we know the rest of the story about solomon that he knew god's word he probably knew god's word as good as his father david did or maybe even better but he knew god's word about not multiplying wives to himself not multiplying silver and gold to himself not doing all these things but but he began to disobey the scriptures the word of god even though he would preach he called himself the preacher i'm going to read it in a second he called himself the preacher who laid down many proverbs and many much wisdom for men to live by men and women to to follow and obey and it was inspired by god it is part of god's word and yet solomon himself could not control his lust could not i mean 300 wives and 700 concubines can somebody say houston we have a problem right then the bible tells us that he let his wives and he took many pagan heathen wives as well and he let those pagan heathen wives it says turn his heart away from the lord and he turned to idols to worshiping idols did he ever leave worshipping god no he believed in god almighty yahweh
jehovah the god of abraham isaac and jacob the god of his father david did he ever quit believing in him no he never quit believing in god because god had revealed himself to him but his heart turned away to idols so he added idols idol worship in with his worship of jehovah then he began to build temples for pagan demon gods for to satisfy his wives and then he began to go into those places those temples deep pagan temples in worship with his with his wives what should this teach us this is teach us several things really it should teach us number one no one no matter how much revelation you get from god no matter how much wisdom no matter how many visions no matter how many dreams no matter how many gifts of the spirit work through you no matter how much anointing you flow in no matter how many sermons you preach no matter how many people you've led to the lord no matter how many people you've you've laid hands on and been healed in the name of jesus no matter what you are still capable of falling away completely screwing it up royally you know that's where we get the scripture in first corinthians 10 12 and 13 there but verse 12 in particular when he says wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall so we should learn number one is no one's immune so if no one's immune it doesn't matter how much they're gifted whether they're an apostle or a prophet or an evangelist or a pastor a teacher an elder a deacon sunday school teacher theologian multiple degrees on the wall in theology it doesn't matter because any person can get into error can get into sin can fall can get into idolatry can screw it up royally but now here's something that here here's the other side of this picture see we got a lot of people right now who think they've got it all together out there in the world i hate to say this i mean this is younger believers i was like this too in my 20s i thought i had it all together because i could i could read the scripture and i could see what was wrong in the church world and i thought i had it all right well you live a little bit
you live a little while and you find out just having it all right in your head doesn't mean it's all going to work out doesn't mean you're going to be able to do it any better than anybody else you know what i'm saying i know i i know y'all might be having a hard time but i'm trying to go somewhere with this because we look at solomon now and there were some people if they were looking at them at a modern situation like i mean we can use jimmy swaggart i've used him before jimmy swaggart had two very visible moral failures that took his ministry down from one of the top ministries in the world down to the ground crash burn right but jimmy swaggart had preached a lot of great sermons a lot of great messages god had used him to lead a lot of people to jesus a lot of people now granted his fall brought shame it brought reproach upon the church world upon him and his family it was a painful situation and and pretty much put a dent in a big dent in him being able to continue the way he had but what i'm getting at is he didn't negate the message he preached it didn't negate the souls that were saved for all eternity the lives that were changed that jesus and the cross was exalted that repentance was preached that many people came to faith many were healed many were baptized in the holy spirit see if we if we look at men too much if we thought it was all about men then what we should just throw out the books of ecclesiastes and proverbs and song of solomon because solomon screwed it up in the end right but god is not that way you know who's always fascinated me out of the apostles is peter here what i'm about to tell you this is for somebody today i don't know maybe somebody here maybe somebody's listening but this is for somebody today peter has always intrigued me peter was passionate he was very passionate about jesus
he was passionate about the ministry he was passionate to do what god wanted him to do but he was also flawed right and this is what i love i picked up the bible everybody just turn with me to to mark chapter nine for a second i'm just going to let the holy spirit directly this today because i opened the bible last night in church and this just leaped off the page at me so it's for somebody but it does go with what i'm preaching to you today mark chapter i'm sorry did i say chapter nine i meant chapter 8 and 9. we'll look at chapter 8 first but this is verse 27 now this is as when jesus went out and his disciples into the towns of caesarea philippi by the way he asked his disciples saying whom do men say that i am and they answered john the baptist but some say elijah another one of the prophets and he said but whom say ye that i am and peter answered and saith thou art to christ the son of the living god of course in matthew 16 jesus goes on to say blessed are you simon because flesh and blood has not revealed this unto you but my father which is in heaven so here's simon peter with jesus and the and the father god almighty by his spirit is giving peter supernatural revelation that he is looking at the christ the messiah the son of the living god and jesus notices this and he says wow simon flesh and blood didn't tell you this your brain didn't tell you your body didn't tell you this your soul and emotions didn't tell you this my father in heaven revealed this to you supernaturally [Music] and then let's keep reading verse 31 and he began to teach them that the son of man must suffer many things and be rejected of the elders and of the chief priests and the scribes and be killed and after three days rise again and he spake that saying openly and peter took him and began to rebuke him but when he had turned about he looked on his disciples and he rebuked peter saying get thee behind me satan for thou savers not the things that be of god but the things that be of men so he's he one minute peter's flowing in the holy ghost speaking an inspired prophetic revelation and the next minute he's letting the devil talk to him anybody ever felt that kind of spiritual schizophrenia
listen this is us i don't care who you are i don't care how spiritual you are i don't care what you're called to do i don't care how strong you are i don't care how much revelation understanding wisdom anointing power i don't care how many signs and wonders you've done you are a spiritual schizophrenic every true born-again christian is peter right here you say well the other apostles didn't know they did worse some of them can you imagine going to the last supper walking with behind jesus going to the last supper and and and all of them arguing who's going to be the greatest some people said peter won that argument that's why he ended up denying jesus but can you imagine that's us these were not the crowd following jesus the fickle crowd these were not even the 70 following jesus this was the 12th and we look at another place and we find that peter james and john did the same thing we're not even talking about judas here we're talking about the three pillars so i'll read this i'm reading this and of course jesus goes on to say i'm not going to leave this out this is important verse 34 right after he rebukes peter and calls him satan and when he called the people unto him with his disciples also he said to them whosoever will come after me let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me for whosoever will save his life will lose it but whosoever shall lose his life for my sake and the gospels the same shall save it for what shall it profit a man if he gained the whole world and lose his own soul or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul or whosoever therefore shall be ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation of him shall i also shall the son of man be ashamed when he cometh in the glory of his father with the holy angels i'm reading this last night just before the service started and i looked down let's skip down into chapter nine verse two so six days later we're talking about within a week the same week says that after six days jesus taketh with him peter james and john and leaded them up into a high mountain apart by themselves and he was transfigured before them and his raiment or his clothing became shining exceedingly white as snow as no fuller on earth can whiten them and there appeared elijah with moses and they were talking with jesus and peter answered and said jesus master it is good for us to be here peter had a talking problem master is good for us to be here let us
make three tabernacles one for thee one for moses one for elijah for he was not what to say for they were sore afraid or amazed and there was a cloud that was overshadowed them and a voice came out of the cloud saying this is my beloved son hear him and suddenly when they had looked round about they saw no man anymore say jesus only with themselves and they came down from the mountain and he charged them that they should tell no man that what things they had seen till the son of man was risen from the dead and they kept saying to themselves questioning one another what the rising of the dead should mean so when i was reading this last night of course i looked and saw where peter one minute he's flowing in the holy spirit because god has called him everybody look at me god calls and god anoints flawed and imperfect people our problem is when we try to make them something they cannot be you hear what i'm saying i can tell you this right now ecclesiastes chapter 7 we may turn there in a second but i'll just give you the chapter solomon makes this statement very simple he said there's no man that sinneth not right [Music] paul said don't make me out to be something i'm not paul even called himself the chief of sinners okay now don't anybody take wrong what i'm saying here because i'm not saying that a man a woman of god or any christian or any leader should just blatantly willfully live in sin indulge sin and rebellion and their lust and their all that that's not what i'm talking about okay i know some people might try to twist this and take it that way it's not what i'm saying but then we got people on the other side of the ditch and i know some of them that actually say that if you're born again christian you will never sin i don't know where they're getting that from what it does say in first john chapter 3 it does say he that is born of god sinneth not but you have to look up the greek verb tenses to understand that that means will not practice a sin will not live in a lifestyle of it right and we've talked about that here at fire and grace church quite a bit preached on it talked about i think we all understand that but i do say that because we have new people listening all the time okay that's why i wrote the book grace abuse to define the difference between a christian whose struggle sometimes and sins versus a christian who has just decided they're going to live in it indulge it do whatever they want
and think they're going to be okay with god in the end that's not it at all because see what am i getting at today i'm getting at this we're going to go back to this scripture but i'm getting at this point no matter where you are in the body of christ leadership or not no matter how many gifts no matter how much wisdom or how much understanding you have amount of knowledge you think you have no matter how much you think you might have it right at the moment there will never be a time never you hear what i'm saying there will never be a time and god's made it this way there will never be a time that you do not need the blood of jesus christ there will never be a time that you do not need the grace and power and help of the spirit of god to live this life and do what you need to do god has made us this the the creature is subjected to this weakness you hear me should you you should endeavor to live as holy and righteous and obedient to god as you possibly can but don't ever think that this pastor says that you're going to reach some state of perfection or you're going to reach some state of where you never do anything wrong or sin or struggle or could fall no we're all frail and vulnerable and this is why we should always remember when we see a brother or sister do something that's wrong we should always remember before we say anything it's not wrong to say something it's not wrong to bring correction it's not wrong to bring instruction it's not wrong to bring rebuke but before we do it we should always remember that we do the same thing sometimes so that's why i should always come forth with as much gentleness and compassion as we can because anything we might accuse someone else of or rebuke or correct someone else of even if we're not doing it at that moment we have the potential that we can this is why we need to be gentle and you know honestly i can say i haven't always been as gentle as i should be or compassionate or kind i'm learning god's letting me get beat in the head sometimes by the devil to remind me be gentle be compassionate understand people people are screwing up and we never want to we never want to see people or make people feel like there is no hope for them
i don't care how bad you screw it up how bad you fall how bad you sin how bad you mess it up all you got to do is not quit don't give up don't decide to live there don't decide to just make your camp there you hear what i'm saying i thank god that when my world fell apart and i went through my period of the darkness beyond darkness when i became a lukewarm i thought i'd never become what i used to preach against and i became a lukewarm christian and i didn't want to go to church anymore and i didn't even want to be around christians i hear you talking about it was somebody who pastored a church who pastored multiple churches youth pastor singles pastor evangelist teacher author of a book missionary preached to thousands was it a point in my life i didn't want to even go in the door of a church i didn't want to be around christians i told the lord i didn't care if i ever preach again and all that hurt and all that pain and all that bitterness made me a person that was that was getting in danger of going to hell but one thing i refused to do is give up because i would still pray god i don't want to be this way i don't want to i had unforgiveness in my heart toward those that hurt me i had bitterness in my heart i had anger i had confusion i had just just torment depression discouragement for everything that happened that went wrong didn't want to preach didn't want to teach even though god called me to do it didn't want to do it anymore actually at that point was just like god i don't care if i live another day only reason i even cared about living another day at that one because i was so down and so depressed and so discreet the only reason i cared about living another day is because i had two little girls at the time that needed daddy to somehow pull it together now see the difference is you know what i was going through the same stuff that a lot of unsaved people go through remember the storm comes to the just and the unjust well the storm came to my life the only reason i'm still here the only reason i made it out of that dark pit
because i refused to completely give up and go back to the world i said jesus i know i have unforgiveness in my heart help me forgive jesus i know my heart's broken please heal it and fix it jesus i know you've called me to preach and eventually i'll have to do it again but i haven't i don't have it now and i refuse to let go jesus i'm not going to live i'm not going to go back and live and see i don't want to die and go to hell i know the truth see what i clung to was i knew all i knew i knew several things that were unmovable jesus was real the cross he died for me he rose from the dead he loved me he wanted me he wanted me to make it i knew that believers as well as unsaved unbelievers we're going to go through dark difficult times in our lives people are going to hurt us do us wrong we're going to fail we're going to fall down we're going to screw it up royally make bad decisions sin hurt other people so i knew bad things could happen to people who were even trying to live for god so i knew that truth i also knew and believed never never has been shaken never will be shaken that god's word is true and i would always say god i know your word is true therefore i refuse to let go i don't know how many times i would say there's nowhere else for me to go but i don't i don't want to be around those mean christians anymore god has had to deal with all that and and you guys know the rest of the story god began to show me he helped me forgive the people who hurt me severely you always don't have judas in your life listen there's no walk with real walk with jesus until there's a judas until you've been betrayed and broken that's what am i getting at you got to refuse to let go see i'm going back to this story here i was reading this story and i re i read how peter jesus called him out he said he was a stone he was a piece of the rock
let me think about that that's basically jesus saying you're you're like me you're a part of me you're a chip off the old block here you're you're you're my son you're my you know jesus loved him jesus called him jesus anointed him jesus was trying to teach him how to be a leader right but look at jesus listen to me everybody this this is this is what's amazing about god jesus knew when he called peter come follow me and i'll make you fishers of men he knew peter had issues when he called him he knew he would have issues after he got saved after he got baptized in the holy ghost after he healed and said he knew and that's why i was reading this story i read this and i said look at jesus right here peter flows in the holy spirit you are the you're the christ the son living god not you know an hour or two later later on that day he's letting satan talk through him and jesus having to rebuke him and calling satan yet jesus takes who up to the mount of transfiguration peter james and john he also took peter up there knowing that very soon shortly thereafter peter was going to deny him three times then he even knew him in curse in the process of denying think about that can i say this when god drew you to the faith of jesus christ when he drew you to the cross no man can come to jesus unless the father draws him when god began to draw you he knew and still knows every time you were going to blow it he knows it and yet he will keep calling you what did he do i love this here peter let satan talk through him so he screwed up before the mount of transfiguration jesus knows he's going to screw up after this yet he takes peter up on the mountain is transfigured the glory comes on jesus he's shining bright light so bright that it's just blinding moses and elijah are standing there talking to jesus and the glory of god comes the cloud and the glory of the presence of almighty god comes and hovers over them and speaks to them just like
with moses on the mountain he says this is my son my beloved son hear him and give it this experience is given to a man who just blew it and who's going to blow it again you know why i'm going to tell you why because i believe jesus knew i have here a man with his flaws with his passion this good one minute and bad the next with his blabbering mouth i have a man though here that's made up his mind he's coming after me no matter if he trips no matter if he falls no matter if he stumbles no matter what he's coming after me and he's not going he's going to get up dust himself off and keep running can i say that's what god is looking for in in every believer don't give up don't back up if you fall down if you mess up if you sin if you your mouth the devil uses your mouth and talks through you if you go through a period where you're angry or you have unforgiveness or you hurt or you or you fall into lust or whatever you've got a decision right then give up and go live in whatever it is dwell in it dwell in bitterness dwell in unforgiveness dwell in lust and sexual perversion or whatever dwell in it or get up and say jesus wash me forgive me help me um clean me off clean my my straight knee put the band-aid on it because i'm continuing the journey i'm continuing the pursuit anybody know what i'm talking about you know shortly after this we know the last supper none of them understood see this is where i need to get i hope i can impress this upon you none of us understands the way we ought to understand i don't care how much you think you understand here the 12 are sitting with jesus at the at what we now call the last supper at the passover meal where jesus is giving them the the revelation of communion of the new
testament in his blood the bread his body the wine his blood he's giving them this testimony he's telling them he's been telling them for some time i am going to die they are going to kill me they heard it but they didn't hear it and they're sitting at this meal and they're still having these discussions and debates as who's going to be the greatest who should sit at his right hand in his left hand you know who's going to sit and who's going to sit next to jesus in the kingdom well i think it should be i think you should be me you know i'm holier than the rest of you people right i mean this was going on at that table and then you had one getting ready to try to force jesus to do something that he didn't want to do that it wasn't time to do so you had judas with his agenda getting ready to betray jesus i believe not just for the 30 pieces of silver because jesus didn't really everybody says it was for the money it wasn't for the money why did he throw the money down when jesus was he saw jesus wasn't gonna fight it or disappear or fight the romans and set up the kingdom right then if it was about money he'd have kept that money and went to vegas or whatever right no went about the money he was trying to force jesus hand so you you you got people trying to manipulate you got people out there who's going to be the greatest and then jesus has to turn and look it look at peter now listen to me this is luke 22 you can read this for yourself but jesus turns and he looks at peter and he says satan has desired to have you that he may sift you as wheat oh think about this here's a man that when jesus wanted to go launch out into the deep and fish again he didn't want to do it here's a man who's rebuking jesus say you're not going to die you're not going to cross this ain't going to happen lord you got this wrong right here's a man arguing with everybody who's going to be the greatest i mean if we looked at him and we were voting on who who's going to preach who's going to be the head apostle and preach the day of pentecost we wouldn't have picked peter because that's what we human beings do right but you got this you got this guy doing all this stuff right but not only did god see peter's potential in what peter would do for him satan saw it
satan saw this sheer determination in a in an individual who yes flawed but loved jesus and loved the word of god and loved the truth above all else see this this is it folk this is this is this is what it boils down to if you love jesus with all your heart soul mind and strength and you love the truth you love the word of god and you're gonna you've made up your mind you're pursuing that no matter what comes your way even if you fail even if you fail yourself you've made up your mind i'm getting up and jesus will clean me off and i will fulfill my destiny and my calling and my purpose see satan saw satan has desired to have you peter now peter should have paused for a moment and remembered the story of job and had he paused and remembered the story of job he might have fallen on his knees and really prayed for a while because whenever satan desires to have you and god permits it for a season things about to get rough right satan has desired to have you he said to peter but i have prayed for you that your faith failed not and when you are converted strengthen your brother now think about those statements satan's going to have you peter i'mma let him tempt you test you you're gonna see your weakness see listen folks all god has to do is pull his hand back for a second and let satan work with what's already in us and we'll crumble like a house of cards in a whirlwind you hear me god pulls back his hand of grace then i'm talking about the grace that gives you the strength and ability to walk with god and obey god and live for god god pulls his hand back and let satan come in to test you or sift you or to try you you will fold up like a house of cards in a tornado how many of you know you've seen yourself be strong one minute and crumble the next this is the reality of our battle never think for one minute that you are
strong and you got it all together you are nothing apart from the grace and the power of god and the blood of jesus and the power of the holy ghost helping sustain you and give you the ability to walk this thing out now you have to want to but you cannot do it without him and there will be times that he steps back and lets satan come in like a flood to remind you you are nothing you hear me you are nothing you are no better than anyone else the only thing that makes you special is because god almighty loves you and wants you think about that see that's why there's no place for racism there's no place for people who have money looking down on people don't have there's no place for all this stuff because no one is anything apart from the grace and power of jesus christ and even if you have the grace and power of jesus christ it doesn't make you better than somebody else because guess what you got the same sin disease that the unsaved person's got you just got somebody helping you and washing you and forgiving you the same one they need [Music] i like what some people have said i'm not better than you i'm just the beggar who found who had the bread you need to find who's got the bread of life or who is the bread of life man because we got to continually eat that bread and drink that cup and it's not about taking communion every day i'm not talking about that i'm talking about the jesus the bread of life the wine of his blood the wine of his spirit you see what i'm saying he said continually partake continually continually he's saying you'll never have a time you will never ever have a time you don't need me that's what jesus is saying you'll never have a time you don't need my strength my grace my forgiveness my power you just gotta stay you gotta stay humble you gotta confess when you sin you gotta back up your mind that you're gonna do your best to walk away from it that you are going to follow after him that you're going to do what you need to do chasing after him that you're going to be like peter and love him now see here's what happened to peter everybody knows this story what's he say to jesus
i'll never deny you no peter you're going to deny me three times before mourning how would you like to get that prophecy first of all here's here's a prophetic word for you satan's desire to have you and you're going to fall because when he says you will be converted that means you fall satan's desire to have you he's requested to have you you're going to fall but when you come back you'll strengthen your brethren right oh no jesus i'm not going to fall no g listen if jesus says you are guess what you are right somebody would say that that was a false prophecy that wasn't a new testament gift of prophecy working because it didn't edify and exhort and encourage i'm just picking right now but what does he say he said i desire he said satan's desire to have you he may sift you as weak but i've prayed for you that your faith failed not peter's like lord i'm not gonna deny you yes you will three times before the morning they go to the garden of gethsemane the soldiers show up now hear me what i'm about to say peter meant what he said i'm not going to deny you i he even said i will fight to the death for you why do you think the only one of the 12 that pulled his sword out to fight the soldiers i mean peter didn't have a chance against all those roman soldiers he took out a sword and cut a man's ear off meaning he missed tried to hit his head i guess here's a man willing to fight to the death to save jesus from oh and i think this is what crumbled him when jesus said no no no stop stop stop stop stop let this happen and jesus picks the man's ear up puts it back on at that point peter runs out mark 14 i believe it is says they all forsook him and fled and then they follow him to where he's arrested and i think they're thinking you know he escaped every other time right he'll just escape again he'll disappear no they saw john especially john and peter stood there and saw them start beating him they knew why is he doing this why is he why is he letting this happen
listen folks this is always going to happen in your walk with it why is god allowing this to happen why are these bad things happening people are asking this why now why is god why is god allowing isis to behead christians and kill children why is he a lot of people are questioning god why and and their questions are causing are driving them away from god instead of to god you think about what peter did i don't know him cursed and maybe it was out of confusion maybe it was out of fear but he did he denied jesus and cursed and jesus is the one said if you deny me in front of men i'll deny you this is a serious offense right a very serious offense but again it didn't catch god by surprise and the bible says you'll read that on you read in luke 22 in the other gospels you can read it says peter went out and wept bitterly you know why a true born-again christian that loves jesus with all their heart when they sin when they fail when they blow it it breaks their heart they care about it they care that they've blown it that they screwed it up i can tell you the one that's not really living for god and walking with god or may not even be born again is the one who can who can sin who can fall who can mess it up and and they they make excuses they justify they they try to reason it away oh it's no big deal no the one who understands that sin is serious and the one who doesn't want to lose their relationship with jesus and doesn't want to fall away and don't want to be deceived not want to be lost takes it seriously and they'll weep barely and they'll repent and they hate it see the difference between the difference between a christian is going to make it and one that's not going to make it is the christian who's not going to make it is the one who just says you know what i can pretty well do what i want it's no big deal god understands he'll forgive me versus the one who realizes this can destroy me this can take me away from god this can hurt my relationship this can cause me to miss eternity with him this is serious i'm not going to let this happen to me i'm not going to live in this see it's a big difference you're going to live in it are you gonna hate it see i love the scripture in hebrews chapter one it talks about jesus how god anointed him basically he anointed him with the oil of gladness above his fellows and it tells you why he says you have loved righteousness
and hated iniquity or sin can i say this if you love jesus with all your heart you will hate anything that gets in your way anything that can harm that or take you away from you will hate it now you might trip over it you might fall you might you might you might do something you don't want to do remember the apostle paul said there's things i don't want to do that i do but i refuse to live in it i refuse to stop right here i refuse to make theological excuses i refuse to get angry or bitter or stop my pursuit of god of knowing god knowing his word amen see the lukewarm christians the backslidden christians the struggling christians the christians that got it going on okay at the moment bottom line is we're all fighting the same demons and the same devils and the same fleshly lust and fleshly sins we're all fighting and living in this world and we're all fighting the same thing the only thing that makes us different is what we what we do with it how we look at it how we approach it do you make excuses to keep doing it do you get angry at god and frustrated god because he let this happen or some people listen i get the emails i get the phone calls i talk to people all over the place a lot of people are angry at themselves they literally are angry and bitter at themselves because they they're like i tried but i failed i tried but i failed i tried but i think i tried but i keep failing and what i'm sad about is the people the christians who said i'm done trying i can't do it i can't live it so i'm going to quit trying those are the ones in trouble serious
trouble you can't quit you can't give up let me read this passage everybody turn with me hebrews chapter 12. hebrews chapter 12 verse 1 he says here wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses let us lay aside every weight and the sin which does so easily beset us and let us run with patience the race that is set before us looking unto jesus the author and finisher of our faith who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross despising the shame and is set down at the right hand of the throne of god for consider him that endured such a contradiction of sinners against himself lest he be you be weary and faint in your minds you have not resisted unto blood striving against sin this says it all right here let us run the race keep running the race lay aside the weights what are those things unforgiveness frustration confusion doubt fear lay aside these things and the sin the sin you struggle with what you talk about the sin the easily with senses what do you what do you struggle with some people's anger some people's lust some people it's pride some people it's doubt and unbelief or fear and jesus said let it lay it aside set it aside set it aside keep running the race with patience now patience just means endurance keep running don't quit don't give up don't draw back there's going to be a lot of people make it to the finish line that we thought never would make it there's gonna be a lot of people that we thought were surely gonna make they're not any of us can give up at any moment in time yes ma'am first corinthians 9 24 27 yes it does no first paul said first yeah just go
ahead and turn to that first first corinthians 9 and this does it's a it's a parallel passage as paul said it dovetails with this and it's actually quite quite scary and when you really look at what the words mean this is what paul said let's read it first corinthians chapter 9 verse 24. he says know ye not that they which run in a race run all but one receiveth the price so run that you may obtain every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things now they do it to obtain a corruptable crown but we are incorruptable and then paul starts speaking of himself he says i therefore so run not his uncertainty so fight i not as one that beateth the air but i keep under my body and bring it into subjection lest that by any means when i have preached to others i myself should be a castaway i mean you think about that the word castaway there is a seldia in greek and it means to become a reprobate it's the same word used in romans 1 when he says those who give themselves over to fornication and going after strange flesh and get into homosexuality and all other kinds of perversion it says god will give them over to a reprobate mind to become a reprobate is someone who is completely cast away gone thrown off done and paul says that about himself he said this is a race that we've got to run to win and we got to keep running and see this is this is the good news if you keep running after god if you keep going to him again in this race if you fall down you get up you don't quit and walk off the track you hear me you think about some of the races we've seen even in the olympics you've seen people in these races fall down and injure themselves even and they'll get up and maybe limp and struggle but they are determined they're going to finish the race but if you walk off the track if you leave the the the race then you you fail you're disqualified you're cast aside you become this castaway this reprobate this is what paul said see if we could just get this in to people pursue jesus love jesus with all your heart love the word of god love the truth never quit digging for the truth never quit seeking for knowledge and wisdom and understanding never quit going after god worshiping god praising god thanking god pressing in to know god more pressing in to know his word better pressing in to live as as godly and obedient christian life you should but i don't care if you fall if the devil
trips you up if you get beat down if you get tempted sifted if you screw it up like solomon like david like peter you hear what i'm talking about if you screw it up just don't walk off the track i don't care if you got to drag one leg if you got to limp across the finish line you get up and let the blood of jesus cleanse you let god strengthen you and even in your weakness cross the finish line and enter into heaven and be able to stand before god and say you know what i'm here because i didn't quit and i'm here because the blood of jesus washed me because i wouldn't quit the blood of jesus is not for the quitters the blood of jesus or for those who get in the race and stay in the race amen man i'm going to tell you back when my when my darkness hit and everything blew up in my life and went downhill i could have quit i really almost did i could have gone back to the drinking and the drugs and the sexual sin and all that stuff and died in sin and gone to hell but i made up my mind i may be i may have a broken heart and a broken leg i may be full of unforgiveness and bitterness and hatred and anger and confusion and in lust and and strife and bitter just just eating alive with everything and the devil trying to torment me and destroy me but i just kept saying jesus i'm not turning loose to you i turned loose to church for a little while but everybody i'm not saying you you need to be in church do not forsake assembling yourselves together as a matter of fact i was disobeying that scripture in hebrews 10 25 i was disobeying that but i turned lucidchurch for a while i turned lucid christians for a while i turned loose of a lot of things that i really shouldn't have but i did because i was i had all this stuff going on but i'm going to tell you i had i had at the time married women trying to have affairs with me left and right i mean hotly pursuing an affair i mean they were married i was going through divorce i mean i could i could name three right three of them that at any moment if i just said yes
they cheated on their husbands i could have went down that road but i remember when when those temptations came i remember even though i was depressed and angry and confused i remember one scripture it kept coming to mind he that commits adultery but it won't lacks understanding i said lord i don't want to lack understanding i can be accused of a lot of things you can call me a devil but i don't want to be called stupid right that was just me i don't want to be called stupid by you but i remember i remember telling my dad about this i said it you got to understand when you when you've been divorced and and you didn't do it you didn't want the divorce and you've been left you're lonely you're depressed you feel rejected you feel lower than lower and so as a man feeling like that when you have several nice looking ladies wanting to spend quality time with you you know what i mean that's not that's a temptation that's easy to just dive right on into some men do it i thank god that i had enough sense to say lord help me through this now i didn't with everything with that i did i went through that period i told y'all i did slip up start drinking something i did slip up and start hanging around people i shouldn't hung around i got some situations where i shouldn't have been i was in danger i was drifting you get what i'm saying but i refuse to let go completely and finally god dealt with me and finally i just said you know and i think some of the some of the drinking that i did was just because i was in so much pain i just didn't want to feel it anymore so i understand i don't beat people up i mean look i just want you to make it i know you may be going through a hard time some people fall to lust some people fall to sex some people fall to alcohol some people fall to drugs some people fall to to you know pity parties they just live in darkness live in their own pity party world and start hating everybody around but here's the good news i don't care what you're how bad you're hurting i don't care how far you've fallen i don't care you get up i'm not going i'm not going to stay there patrick aren't you glad you didn't stay there getting up is good the forgiveness of god is good heaven all of us i mean we could tell our stories in this christian walk there's been plenty of times it it got difficult it got miserable
there's a lot of people you know paul and marlene you guys gone through difficult times they're easy to just give up but the one that loves jesus that loves the word of god that's determined they want to be with god forever just because i might have got knocked down i might have let myself get beaten ahead i might have been stupid and completely all my fault failed and blew it i might have been hurt by other people even a pastor even a church church people but i'm not going to give up i'm not going to walk away from jesus i'm not going to walk away from the word of god i'm not gonna crucify him afresh and put him to an open shame i'm not gonna deny him or be ashamed of him or leave him i'm gonna get up and i'm gonna keep walking and see here's this this is going back to how i started this whole thing yes there are people called to different ministries different levels of leadership in the body of christ but we all are on the same level playing field of dealing with all that the devil and demons and our own flesh and mind and psyche nobody's elite that's why i just cringe when i hear them call the pope holy father or his holiness oh jesus if one of you called me his holiness i would which i know you wouldn't but i just had to slap you some sense right into your head what are you doing no man or woman human being is his holiness not the pope not the dalai lama they call him that too by the way there is none righteous no not one there is no righteousness or goodness or holiness or purity apart from the blood of jesus christ of nazareth and unless that blood is on your life through faith and confession and walking
with him unless that blood is upon your life there is nothing good in you i don't care how moral you are i don't care how much you give to charity i don't care how much you help people i don't care how good you think you are there is none righteous without the blood of jesus christ and the righteousness of jesus christ in them and upon them and no one lives a sinless life no one is his holiness or her holiness no one is perfectly righteous as as solomon said there is no man that sinneth not john the apostle john said in john chapter 1 john 1 if we say we have no sin we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us but if verse 9 we confess our sins he jesus is faithful and just to forgive us of our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness and then you do what take up your cross and follow him i love what he said daily i believe that's in the luke 13 luke 14 when he's talking about it he says daily take up your cross daily amen somebody say forgiveness is good fact there's forgiveness with god can i read one more passage and let y'all i'm going to read one more this is the one i was going to start with and never got to it psalm 39 this last one we close with this i hope i'm communicating this the way i should psalm 39 are you there verse four this is this is what we've tried to do today this is for all those here all those listening all those who will listen all the especially all those that think they got it all together and they're better than others here's what he said psalm 39 verse 4 lord make me to know my end and the measure of my days what it is that i may know how frail i am y'all hear that lord make me to know how frail i am help me understand that behold thou has made my days as a hand
breath and my age is nothing before thee verily every man at his best state is altogether vanity surely every man walketh in a vain show surely they are disquieted in vain he he the riches and knoweth not who shall gather them and now lord what wait i for my hope is in thee and look at verse 8 deliver me from all my transgressions make me not the reproach of the foolish well this is a passage you really ought to look at and break down help me to know how frail i am help me understand i am the house of card in a whirlwind unless god keeps the whirlwind from me he said man at his best state is altogether vanity so we can't get into man worship because even the best of us are still vanity emptiness and then he says every man walketh in a vain show you know what that means none of us none of us in reality are what we appear to others he says lord my hope i just hope in you deliver me from all my transgressions and make me not the reproach of the foolish see humility folks humility is the key i am frail even at my best i'm still emptiness god you're the only thing that makes me anything the fact that i am loved the fact that you want me is what makes me something and the fact that i'm willing to respond to that makes you happy it doesn't make me better than somebody else amen hopefully this has helped you you know i get discouraged sometimes because i see a lot of preach a lot i see a lot of do a lot of counseling do a lot of preaching do a lot of teaching but sometimes you just don't see a lot of you don't see a lot of people changing their ways and
getting saved and getting getting getting on the right path it's easy to get this you know get discouraged sometimes but then i have to remind myself well you know they're they're struggling with what they struggle with just like i struggle or anybody else struggles so we all struggle but i just have to remember something god just says preach the word preach the truth and i can't stress that enough how important it is to understand when i talk about loving jesus you can't love jesus without loving the truth the truth of god's word sound doctrine what is right in the scripture but if you love jesus with all your heart and you love the word of god and you refuse to let go you refuse to give up and leave the race you'll make it and that's all i want i want people to make it i want people to make it to heaven i want them to finish their their race to finish their course i want you to do it i want everybody that's ever heard me preach do it and i hope they understand that i know they're not going to do it perfectly they're going to fall down they're going to sin they're going to fail they're going to get in the flesh sometimes you know the good thing about you know what we if we we went outside patrick right there on on the the table outside and built a house of cards the wind might come and blow it down but you know the good thing is we can build it again so as for somebody if everything your house has come crumbling down guess what you and jesus can build it again man you can always rebuild with him now without him you can try and the wind will come again you know what i'm saying there's hope there's a lot of christians out there that really have honestly bought into the lie that there's no hope because they can't overcome a certain thing in their life no there's hope some people have fought things for years maybe they fought it for five years and deliverance is coming on year six don't quit some folks have fought things for 20 years deliverance is coming on year 21. how many people have quit right before god was about to intervene right don't quit
that's going to mean different things to different people this morning but don't quit pursuing god pursue god's word pursue jesus pursue righteousness and pursue hearing his voice pursue and desire the gifts of this holy spirit pursue him and he'll help you make it give up though leave walk away here's the here's the amazing thing you can give up and walk away he chases you some people he doesn't give up on you he'll chase you down the holy spirit will chase you down and try to drag you back but it's still up to you he won't force you somebody say god is good god loves us he wants us to make it can i say this to you the race is fixed if you stay in it if you don't quit you cannot lose if you quit you lose everything amen let's pray father in heaven we love you this day we praise you this day we thank you that lord there is forgiveness and mercy that you lord you're a patient loving father we don't always understand your ways and what you're doing at a certain time we get confused we get discouraged like peter did we find ourselves lord denying you or doubting you or doing things we shouldn't do but lord you are always the same and you are always willing to say hey get up i'll clean you off i'll help you keep walking lord i pray that i know this morning that this message has been for somebody for several people lord for for those listening by blog talk radio those who will listen to this may be listening now to the podcast or the archive session after lord we pray god that this message will give hope that you love people you love everyone you want everyone to make it to heaven but there is only one way they must confess their sins they must let the blood of jesus wash them and cleanse them they must have faith in the in the death and the sacrifice of jesus christ on that cross and his resurrection and they must want to walk with him and obey him and follow father i pray reveal the gospel reveal that there is only forgiveness there is only cleansing from sin there
is only the hope of eternal life through what jesus did on the cross and and that people must find that and accept that and start walking in that and that if they're believers and they've fallen down or they fallen into some sin or into some habit that's this destructive and sinful and wicked in this world god that you will forgive them if they'll get up and leave it if they'll get up and pursue you if they'll get up and confess their sin and pursue you with all their heart you'll wash it away you'll give them another chance and another chance and another chance you want us to make it lord you want people to make it you're not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance you're you don't want anyone to die and go to hell you don't want anyone to be separated from you you want everyone though to change their mind their their emotions their actions you want everybody to change and to follow after jesus with all their heart to love you and to love your word the truth the truth will set them free god make that real the truth of your word the truth of the blood of jesus and following after him will set us free from our failures and our sins it will set us free from an eternity of damnation or of separation from you forever that's the gospel lord i pray someone this morning a believer or an unsafe person will understand they just need to get in the race and stay in the race and they'll make it how we thank you for that this morning i'm going to ask you this morning if there's anybody that says you know what i've fallen down in this race recently or i've been wanting to quit and leave the race you need prayer this morning i want you to step out and come up here we'll pray with you before we leave anybody needs prayer i just want to give you that opportunity those of you listening by radio be glad to pray with you talk with you pray with you at a later time you can email me and we can we can talk and pray together father in heaven i ask you just
praying lord that people understand this message that it will touch their hearts that they will continue in the race or get in the race pursuing after you jesus father we pray this in jesus name amen amen did you learn something today that speak to anybody about anything just raise your hand let me know if that spoke to you about something you needed amen all right tonight just letting you know we're going to go ahead and log off blog talk we appreciate