Tell your neighbor, “My God knows!” Look to you other neighbor and tell them, “My God knows all about my sins.” Tell the person behind you, “My God knows all about my sins, and He has forgiven me and loves me.” If you don’t hear anything else today, hear that!
A newly promoted colonel had moved into a makeshift office during the Gulf War. He was just getting unpacked when out of the corner of his eye, he noticed a private coming his way with a box. Wanting to seem important, he grabbed the phone. “Yes, General Schwarzkopf, I think that’s an excellent plan.” He continued, “You’ve got my support on it. Thanks for checking in with me. Let’s touch base again soon, Norm. Goodbye.” “And what can I do for you?” he asked the private. “Ahhh, I’m just here to fix the phone,” came the rather sheepish reply.
(Rowell, Edward K., Steffan, Bonne L. Humor for preaching. 17)
Pride causes us to want to look important. But it does much more. Let’s discover how that pride appears in our lives so that we can recognize them and defeat them with Christ’s Truths.
And the Lord said, “Simon, Simon! Indeed, Satan has asked for you, that he may sift you as wheat. 32“But I have prayed for you, that your faith should not fail; and when you have returned to Me, strengthen your brethren.” 33But he said to Him, “Lord, I am ready to go with You, both to prison and to death.” 34Then He said, “I tell you, Peter, the rooster shall not crow this day before you will deny three times that you know Me.”
What did pride do?
1. Pride blinded Peter.
a. Peter could not see the enemy. (Satan) We are
no different than Peter. We can’t see Satan physically either. We may see manifestations of him, but to our eyes the spiritual world is hidden.
b. Peter could not see his ego, his sin. Pride causes
us to focus on self and pulls us away from God. Pride gave him false beliefs, confidence about himself, “I will go with you to death…”. Eventually he became tired and needed physical rest. Again focusing on what he thought was best for self, and rested instead of prayed. How many times have we fallen into these traps? But Jesus stands at the door knocking, ready to forgive, ready to come in and dine with us.
c. Peter could not see God’s endowment, provision.
The answer was prayer. Peter needed to pray.
Prayer causes us to humble ourselves and align our lives up with God’s will. It is no different today. If we would pray more, we would carry the spirit of humility, which allows God to lift us up and out of our predicament. This aligns our lives with His will. His will delivers us from the evil one. Therefore we won’t fall.
2. Pride deafened Peter.
a. Peter did not hear his Savior’s cries. Jesus cried
out to Peter. He was forewarning Peter of what was about to happen. Jesus will do the same for us today! Jesus cried out for him. He was praying to God on behalf of Peter. Again, He will do no different for us today. The question becomes, are we hearing Jesus speak? I believe that God has never had a communication problem. God spoke in the beginning, and all throughout the Old and New Testament. He is still speaking today! However, due to our sinful nature, we have a hearing problem. Pride is the element that causes our spiritual hearing aid batteries to run dry.
b. Peter did not hear his Savior’s caution. (warning) Understand.
‘Hearing you will hear and shall not understand,
And seeing you will see and not perceive; Matthew 13:14.
Pride causes a lack of wisdom and understanding. James tells us that if we lack wisdom all we need to do is ask, and God will pour it out abundantly. Pride blinds us to our needs, so we believe we don’t need anything. Therefore, we don’t ask and we don’t understand!
What does Christ do?
Pride does all of this and more. However, we have a Savior that can overcome anything! Let’s look at what He can do.
1. He makes formal requests (intercede) on
Peter’s behalf.
This is the man who healed the blind, lame, lepers, calmed the storm etc. by speaking words of prayer to God. Prayer/Intercession is a vital weapon. It is not to be taken lightly! Is. 53:12 Therefore I will divide Him a portion with the great, And He shall divide the spoil with the strong, Because He poured out His soul unto death,
And He was numbered with the transgressors, And He bore the sin of many, And made intercession for the transgressors.
Notice what His prayer consisted of. First that Peter’s faith would not fail. That Peter would not stay down, remain in sin, desert forever. Did Peter? We truly don’t understand the significance of our faith. When Jesus prays for our faith, it should be a priority in our life as well. Our faith is what we believe. Christ is praying that our belief system will be strengthened in the Lord, as well as sifted or changed where needed.
Secondly, His prayer was that after Peter returned that Peter would strengthen his brethren. Teach others about the mercies of God, and help others who have fallen. Christ longed for Peter to fulfill his purpose. As much as you yearn to discover and fulfill God’s purpose in and for your life, Christ yearns that much more!
2. He has foreknowledge. Would it be nice to know what your enemy was going to do before they did it? God knows and has the retaliatory answer. Jesus knew that Satan wanted to sift Peter, and He responded! Jesus said to Satan, “Go ahead, I will just use this moment to refine Peter!” If you are going through a sifting time, realize first that God is in control. Satan had to ask to do this. Second that God is using this as a time of removing the dross, or unwanted elements in your life. God hasn’t left you, He is molding you! Jesus knew that Peter would fall so He gave Him words of wisdom that Peter could look to after falling. God has told us of His love and forgiveness before we fall so that after our falling we can be reminded of His love and return to Him.
3. He has forgiveness. Jesus knew that Peter would fall, and yet Jesus is still willing to forgive. He knows that we are going to fail, and yet He still stands at the door waiting for us to open it and let Him come in and sup with us.
You may be familiar with this story. There was a man who had just been promoted to an administrative position. Two weeks had not gone by until he had to make a major decision. As best he could he made the decision. It cost the company $1,000,000.00. He went home that Friday knowing that this was his last day. He mourned all weekend. He looked in the newspaper in the want ads for jobs. He debated about even showing up for work on Monday. When Monday came, he ended up going to work. As soon as he entered his office, there was a note to see the boss. He went in with both guns blazing. He did his best to explain the decision. He ended his argument and waited. The boss sort of smiled. The new administrator could not take it any longer and said, “Well, aren’t you going to fire me?” The surprising answer came, “No, I can’t afford to. I have $1,000,000 invested in you now. Will you make the same mistake again?” “No.” came the reply. The boss said, “I can’t afford to take the chance that the next person hired would make that same mistake.” That, to some degree is how I believe that God looks at us. He doesn’t just throw us away after we make poor decisions. He has invested His Son in us. And He believes that we won’t make the same decision again! Do you?
He reminds Peter of Peter’s call. After we fall, we feel like our work is over. We have eliminated ourselves. That is not the case. Christ not only forgives, but restores us to Himself and to the work. He told Peter to “strengthen the brethren”. Do you believe that Peter had a testimony after this? Do you believe that Peter had passion to express the forgiveness and the power of Christ after this event? Is it, will it be any different for you?
Another observations, Jesus calls him by name twice, Simon, Simon. Indicating the intimacy and urgency. Jesus does no less for us. We botch things up. We create our own disasters, and Christ is right in the middle calling us by our names. Wanting our attention. Knowing the urgency of the times. Mark, Mark….. Yet Christ reaches out with His compassion, love, and calm assurance. He knows what is about to happen. He knows the choices we have made and we will make. He knows that Peter will deny Him, and He knows that we will too. Yet He loves us. He extends Himself to us. He ultimately and willingly paid the price for us by experiencing the pain of the cross. The ultimate sacrifice was made, yet for Christ, not enough. He so candidly shows us His love first by dying for us, then by experiencing our pain with us.
