Peter's Denial

0:00Let us pray, holy God, speak to us, challenge us, challenge us. Are we witnessing? Are we bold enough to witness to others? Or are we denying you? Convict us, Holy Spirit, open us to your Word to us today in Jesus' name. Amen. Who is over this time change? I'm dying up here. You know when you get up and you're fine and

1:02you're going about and all of a sudden you start going, I am bright-eyed and bushy-tailed for you all. Afterwards, I may not be. This scripture challenged me because part of me was I was thinking, what am I going to say about Peter's denial? What can I pull out of this? I think this week handed it to me on a silver platter. I was challenged with my denial of Jesus comes more in the form of lack of witnessing, lack of speaking the gospel to others. I want to go back to, I have slides. I forgot to show them at the 9. Thank you. I will use that every Sunday that I have to preach. But as we go

2:02into, we're going to be looking at Peter's denial and why it's a denial. Fear, weakness, our denial, lack of witness come from fear or weakness. That's the overview. But I want to go back to the beginning how this all starts. John and Peter are coming off knowing what's happening with Jesus. John knows the high priest. He's allowed to go into the high court and Peter stays behind and they're trying to blend in. Peter is trying to blend in with the crowd. He doesn't want to stick out. Why doesn't he want to stick out? He doesn't want to then to realize that he is indeed with Jesus, that he has indeed been traveling with Jesus and is a disciple. But everywhere he goes, people are saying, hey, who's the guy that was with him? One of the things I love about this scripture is detail.

3:03Several sermons in a row I was talking about details such as the scripture saying it was noon or it was midday and why that was put in there. I think another detail of this talks about it being in one of the, I don't know if it's in this one, but in one of the other versions of the scripture it talks about how it was cold. So everybody's warming hands by a fire. And I began to wonder why they put that in there. But details like that, why they're gathered around in one spot, why they're at the fire warming themselves because it is indeed chilly out. Conversation gets going. A woman says to him, hey, aren't you the guy that was with Jesus? And Peter is saying, no, I'm not. I don't know the man. And remember that the prediction

4:04was, Jesus is saying before the rooster crows, you're going to deny me three times. So as that's going along, I am thinking, where's my denial? Where is our denial? How do we relate that to Peter? This week I was thinking about the saying, preaching to the choir that many times we are caught up in preaching to those, witnessing to those that were comfortable with witnessing to. There are friends. They already know Jesus. So we share with one another. We might share with one another. In our Bible studies, we might share with those were comfortable with sharing because they're maybe not going to judge us and maybe we're not going to get rebuffed for that. And in my Zoom, in my incredible Zoom Bible study on Tuesdays, we were sharing that. We realized that a lot of times

5:06were comfortable when we're witnessing to other people. And that includes me, that I'm, that I go where I'm comfortable a lot of times. Even now, I do, I facilitate grief share. And there's a young lady who is a new Christian. And grief share these dear people are going through a lot, as you can imagine, dealing with loss, dealing with getting through the journey of grief and relating it to God and how God is there with us. And one young lady came in on Thursday and she said, I am just filled with the Holy Spirit. I just came from another, whatever she was coming from. And she said, I'm just filled with the Holy Spirit. And every time I miss my husband, I just pray to God and I just feel filled up with God. And I just feel like if I told anybody outside of here that they would think I'm crazy is what she said. So she had a fear

6:15that she would be looked at as crazy by somebody else, not in our group, that the group understands and we do. But she felt like if I went outside and I was talking about how the Holy Spirit is in me and I'm filled and I'm joyful and she had a smile on her face that I hadn't seen in a while, that there was some fear and trepidation with sharing that with others. And I was convicted myself. When I was in a seminary, I was part of a scholarship group, the Campola Scholarship. And I would go to, we were asked to go to these meetings and I was meeting with, I was by far the oldest person there in this group. I was like the grandmother because they're like freshman in college and when I was meeting with them, we were sharing about how we witness. And one young lady was very, she was very confident in herself and she said oh I witness, I witness to this person.

7:20I was like wow that's so fantastic because at 18 I was in the abyss. I was far away. And I was asking her as a way of learning. I said so when you witness to people outside of your family and your friends, do you get pushed back? And I was not trying to trap her, I was truly wondering because I wanted to learn how. And she said you know what, I don't witness to people outside. I realized that I'm witnessing to those I'm comfortable with who already know Jesus. I talk about how Jesus is in my life. So these scenarios altogether got me thinking this is our denial that we're not overtly denying Jesus. But we're denying Jesus when we're not actively out ministering to others and talking about how Jesus has changed our lives.

8:28How we are with the Holy Spirit and that joy and especially with this woman this week, the joy that transformed her when she walked in the room, a smile I hadn't seen on her face in a while. Through all the loss whenever she was saying and it's our second time, the same people their second time going through the grief share. I have never seen joy in her like this and she was always saying I don't know how I'm gonna get through this. And now she has this joy and we're a little timid and we're a little fearful because of what other people might think. And we're a little fearful. I feel that that is our denial of our Jesus. And when my rooster crowed is when I realized I had an opportunity to witness to this person and I didn't.

9:32Because I was too timid and this is why I wanted to share the um can we put that unison prayer back up. This is why I wanted to share the unison prayer and if you would like a copy of this, we normally do this at the nine but I find it so outstanding. We professed our love for you yet in moments of fear we have denied you with our words, our silence and our actions or non actions. We know of sin of commission and omission and this is our sin of omission where we're not sharing because we want to be comfortable. And we're talking about that and here we have followed you at a distance choosing safety over faithfulness, comfort over courage, self preservation, over sacrificial love. Forgive us for the times that we have turned away when we were called to stand with you.

10:33How many times have I lost the chance? How many times have I had it right there to witness to somebody and I was too shy because I was scared that they were going to go, oh you stop with that already which I've had before. I have a dear friend who loves nature, loves traveling but she believes that God is always out to get her for something. She truly believes that I don't believe God loves me and it's painful to hear that and I always say you see where I came from and I tried a minister to her that way. You see where I came from. Why would you ever think that our God who sent his son to the cross to be scourged and bleed and die and be spat in and be slapped like they did in the scripture would think that you're not good enough.

11:36Would think that you can't be forgiven and then when she talks about things she'll talk about nature and I say don't you see God in any of that because she loves nature, she loves traveling everything is which I love nature we all do. And I said to her don't you see God in that and she said yeah I see God in that which was a step a good leap for her. Her husband had a brain aneur, not an aneurism but something a brain pop they call it he almost died when he was in the hospital the doctor said to him are you a believing man because you shouldn't be here. And he said I believe in something and I thought this is going to change their lives this is going to change their lives they're going to be back in church they're going to be they're going to be on their knees and it didn't happen yeah you're you're shaking your head it didn't happen.

12:41And I thought what does it take and I wanted to pound my head what does it take. It takes me continuing to pray for them. It takes me to continue to so to plant those seeds and somebody else remember we talked about this a few weeks ago the the planter and the reaper. I think it's not getting anywhere but at the same time I'm being Peter and I'm not pursuing and saying don't you see your husband is still liby was supposed to die in any other circumstance. And you don't see that our God working through this. But how much is my denial how much are my lack of actions playing a part in that that I'm not praying enough maybe I'm just so come on. That I'm not praying as much as I should be that I'm not constantly in communication with my heavenly father on her behalf on their behalf maybe I'm not praying from enough for myself to stop being so timid.

13:55Restore us by your mercy it says a little further down in the unison prayer strengthen us by your spirit teach us to follow you without fear to speak your name with boldness and to live as witnesses to your grace. So my rooster crowed when all of these came about when I said I have my grief share. The woman reminding me that I'm fearful I have weakness that I'm playing it safe when witnessing. But preaching to the choir we preach to the choir in safety why because the choir is notorious for being has a history any choir has a history of being in church all the time and hearing the word all the time a dedicated bunch.

14:58But the choir has their steadfast because they're always in the church so the history is you are preaching to people who already know you're preaching to people who are already comfortable with that we're not going out beyond the walls because we're scared like the woman from my group who said people will think I'm crazy. I'm asking myself to am I fearful that my friends will think I'm crazy am I am I go by the fire going that wasn't me oh no. And my rooster crowed because of the three things that happened this week because of remembering the young lady from the from the college who said no I've only been preaching I've only been witnessing to those I'm familiar with. Oh Lord pray for me pray for me that I will not be timid I will pray for you also for strength from the Holy Spirit and the forgiveness that God will have mercy on us merciful God as that prayer begins have mercy on us for blowing an opportunity.

16:15That we were handed to witness to someone else may we be strengthened may we be strengthened to reach out because we need Jesus so we have eternity here and now and joy in new bodies when we all get to heaven almighty God. We thank you for your word to us today we thank you that you are with us that you forgive us that you have mercy on us in our weakness that when we are weak and we are denying that you are with us almighty God and we have Peter and we have all of those from the from our our biblical ancestors who were human and failed to that we're not the only ones. And how you brought them through and how you are bringing us through we thank you God be with us in Jesus name Amen.