Restored! Second Chances

0:00you 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 truly truly I say to you that when you were young you used to dress yourself and walk wherever you wanted but when you're old you will stretch out your hands and another will dress you and carry you where you do not want to go this Jesus said to show by what kind of death he was to glorify gone and after

1:29saying this he said to him follow me that's the reading of the word good morning I'm grateful to have all of you here today and to share this service with you as we worship our Lord also grateful to have my son in law and my daughter with us today and grandkids if you're given us three grandkids so that's awesome well to one on the way so you probably can't tell that but thank you for being here today have you ever failed you did something wrong you blew it you made a choice or a mistake and it was the wrong one you hurt somebody you love maybe you didn't mean to maybe it was based upon whatever but in the end you knew you hurt them and it hurt you never wanted a second chance this is Peter's story as it was just read he had blown it he had denied our Lord we read it several weeks ago as we were working through John

2:46he was the one that said I even if they all fall away I will never fall away from you I'll go to prison I'll die for you and Jesus looked at him and said you will deny me before the roast rooster crows three times was was Peter just this prideful guy did he think of himself better than he ought did he think of himself better than the other disciples I'll leave that to you the Holy Spirit in the scriptures but I believe that Peter loves you I believe that Peter love God he loved Jesus as his shepherd as his teacher as his rabbi as his savior so why is it how is it that those of us that love God perhaps can still let him down sometimes we deny him by not living for him the way we should sometimes we deny him because we don't stand up and we're afraid to say the things we should especially amongst people who maybe are trying Jesus as a liar or a lunatic or a fairy tale

3:53and we're afraid of our reputation or speak out so we get quiet or maybe it's those people that we love when we blow it and we wanted to do it differently we know we should have but something within us causes us to act or react and then we need a second chance second chances are a good thing I actually came across something that was pretty cute let me lighten the mood a little bit it was about a almost six year old who was trying to wish his grandfather I can relate it's not my birthday today but a happy birthday and so he says to him he says grandfather are you five years old and his grandfather says yes and he says grandfather are you six years old he says yes and so the little boy turns to his mom and says mommy grandpa ran out of numbers and he has to start over starting over is an advantage of things like a new year just a new calendar but it gives us a new year to look forward to anniversaries we celebrate what we had in the past year we look forward to a new year with our spouse or birthdays even yes we're a year older but we have another year another year

5:08another year another chance another reason to live life and to live it for the Lord so again I'm going to ask you this question have you ever wanted to do a redo have you ever failed have you ever been crushed by either a sin or a mistake or a choice especially in light of the fact that you are a child of God now a little bit of review before we jump into our text that was read this morning Peter he's one of Jesus's closest friends and disciples you know that it was Peter James and John who saw Jesus bring a dead girl back to life gyrosis daughter they were the ones that witnesses Jesus heavenly glory on the mount when he spoke with Moses in Elijah Peter walked on water have you ever done that I haven't I've tried now they have these things that kind of keep you above water looks like you're walking on water and he did that by faith until he took his eyes off of Jesus and that's a different story Peter was the first to declare you are the Christ the son of the living God

6:12and then Peter drew his sword and he was going to defend his Lord and he struck the server of the high priest cutting off his right ear but Peter James and John also competed with other disciples who is the greatest that says the disciples were arguing about that and again Peter said he would never deny Christ but in fact he did publicly at three times aren't you with him no you got the wrong guy didn't I see you don't you know not me in fact in one of the texts he starts using words pretty much cursing denying that's pretty significant don't you think I think so but here's the truth there's probably a little bit of Peter and all of us so the danger is there's those that don't know God through Jesus and they think that they're good enough they're not in a relationship with Jesus and there's those that do know God and think that you know I'm pretty good my righteousness is pretty shiny we think of ourselves maybe better than we should

7:17and then there's those that know that they struggle they struggle with things they struggle with challenges they struggle maybe with identity they struggle with worth they struggle with circumstances situations relationship whatever it is and those struggles are something that they're aware of I'm going to make a bold statement today if you're taking notes in the bulletin if you're a note taker well I wanted to bless you today so you got those things so here's here's what you could start filling out I'm going to make a big bold statement are you ready your failure does not disqualify you from God's love is that amen our resurrection savior is the Lord of your new life and he's the God of second chances our failures do not have the final word he does our denials isn't our destination our failures isn't our future God is and a relationship with Jesus is somebody says report is this if you're filling in Jesus is always willing to meet you or meet with you after your failures he restores us through his love he calls us to serve and he commands us to keep following him

8:35so now I will take you to the text that was read this morning by Pastor Kevin and I want to see just three quick things this morning that I think are profound and I think it's something that we need to meditate upon and realize especially if you feel like you've blown it and here's what it is first restoration always begins when we meet with Jesus after our failure isn't that what the gospel is the good news for the fall of man all have sinned and fell short of the glory of God the wages of sin is death spiritual death separation from God but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord our second chance at relationship with the God who's always loved us is through Jesus but even when we fail it Jesus is always willing to meet you after the failure and he keeps restoring in his love so here's the first thing we see the first thing I want you to see is that in this restoration my title today as restored second chances that's a good title although we could

9:43call it the love motivation second chances the love motivation because God is the God of second chances and here's what we see Jesus begins in this text this morning with a public restoration a public restoration and he's going to restore Peter publicly for ministry I believe based upon the text before I go any further that we see in scripture that it is possible it is probable that Peter has met because we know John said this was the third time that he met with the disciples but scripture tells us Luke 24 34 that he had met with two disciples on the road and he had he had taught with those those two men on the road and then they had broken bread together and then when they recognized Jesus They ran to Jerusalem and it says they ran to where the 11 were and they said, it's true,

10:44he is risen and he appeared to who? Peter. And then we also know, if I turn into my Bible and I will for a second, you can too if you want, but you don't have to. First Corinthians 15 is talking about the facts of Christ's resurrection and when we get to verse 5 it says, and he appeared to seep us which is Peter and then to the 12th. If we take the scripture we know that there was probably intimate moment with Peter and Jesus alone. I don't know if Peter stepped out from one of those meetings with the disciples, had to go to the roof or ran to the restroom. I don't know, but somewhere along the way it says he appeared or he met with Jesus. But now he's meeting with Jesus publicly and here's what Jesus does. The very first thing he does is he addresses his heart. I want you to know this, restoration always begins with a question.

11:44Do you love me? Restoration always begins with a question of love. Do you love me? And this gives Peter an opportunity to reflect, to reflect on his heart. Again, days earlier he said, even if everybody deserts you, I will die with you. And now he's face to face with Jesus after the resurrection. And by the way, the purpose of a resurrected savior is restoration, is it not? That's the purpose of our Lord's resurrection, to restore what we were always meant to have with God and it started that way in the garden. It was man and God and there was nothing that separated no problems. And Jesus doesn't start here by saying, Peter, why did you fail me? Why did you do that? I told you you would do it. He doesn't do any of that. His question begins with love.

12:44And he just says, Peter, now these guys are listening. It's the public restoration and he says, Peter, do you love me? And then he says this, again, it says the time to reflect. But he says, Peter, do you love me? Now there's three things we can look at here today. The word love is used six times. Jesus to Peter, Peter's response three times. And we'll talk about the word in a second briefly. Some preachers want to preach a lot about the differences of the Greek language between Agape and Filet. And they'll spend a lot of time talking about that. But also in the study, we see that in John especially, the words are used synonymously in the gospel of John to talk about a relationship between the Father and the Son. So I don't believe we should spend our time this morning talking about the subtle difference

13:46between the words used in love. The question given to Peter's heart is the question for all of us. When you've blown it, will you remember this today and for always? Would you remember that Jesus wants to meet with you? Would you remember that he knows your heart better than probably you know it? He already knows the answer. He didn't ask the question because he needed Peter to enlighten him. He knew the answer. And he knew that Peter loved him. But Peter needed to reflect upon that question in this restoration process. He needed to reflect upon this question. Proverbs 27, 19 says, as in water which reflects a face, so the heart of man reflects a man. Jesus knew his heart. And beginning the restoration, he starts with a love motivation question.

14:46Do you love me? Now I think when I get to my next point, I will speak a little bit more about the different kinds of words for love. But again, I think sometimes it's fun to have an illustration to make a point. So here's another one. I didn't make this one up, but I kind of liked it. So you're going to get it. Are you ready? It's a lament, a love lament letter. It went like this. You're Jimmy. No words can ever express the great unhappiness that I have felt since breaking our engagement. Please say you'll take me back. No one could ever take your place in my heart, so please forgive me. I love you, I love you, I love you. Yours forever, Mary. P.S. And congratulations on winning the state lottery. The point is it's not just about wanting what Jesus can offer us, and he offers us something that's incredible.

15:47It's something that you can't earn. You can't do it on your own. You need what he offers. It is a love story, but it shouldn't be what we get from him. Out of that love story, it should be the answer of our heart is, I love you because you first love me. I love you because you love me at my worst, Jesus. I love you because you redeemed me, you reconciled me, and you restored me even when I get it wrong. And so it's a good place to start for Peters because Jesus has big things for Peter. His failure doesn't affect his future. It's not the final chapter in his book. And so the question that day is Peter, do you love me? Now, I do want to say this from that we think about, for example, I think about it, and

16:48I use this a lot. So if I've used it here before, I will probably use it again, so I'm not going to ask for forgiveness. But I do look the prodigal son in Luke 15, because we have a picture of a father's heart. And in that picture, the son blows it. He gets his inheritance, he goes and spends it, he goes to a foreign land and spends it on partying. That's what scripture says. And when he's busted, broke, hungry, starving, that's where there's parable. This is a parable. That's where he goes home. And he says to himself, he comes to a sentence, he says, I have sinned against heaven and I have sins against my father. I'm no longer worthy to be called his son. I'm going to go back to him, though, because his hired servants have more food to eat than I have. And so he repents in his heart and he's headed back home. And this is where the story gets good. Because in verse 20, we see the heart of a father. The heart is a word called splagzido mind in the Greek.

17:51It's this compassion that comes deep within the bowels and entrails of a person. It's this groaning that comes out. It says, and so the son is always, I'm sorry, the father is always looking for the son. And when the son comes back, the father goes running to him. And the scripture says he threw his arms around him and he embraced him and he kissed him. Splagzido mind. He got the divine hug of his heavenly father. I tell you, when you get it wrong and you blow it, the first thing we should always do is run to Jesus. Not from him to him. Let him meet with us. Let him speak into our heart. And we do what we do. We serve out of love. Not because we're trying to be loved anymore. God demonstrated his love for you that while you were still a sinner Christ died. Let me go to the next point real quick. Jesus addresses the second thing here as he addresses his call.

18:54So the restoration was addressing his heart and now he's addressing his call. And this is where we'll talk a little bit about those words. He gives Peter an opportunity to refocus. Restorations are those moments where we get to refocus. We get to refocus on what's important. Not believe the lies of the enemy. Not believe that we're done and we can't go on. We get to refocus and we get to do what God's called us to do. If you remember in Matthew 16-18 and you can turn there if you want, but I'm going to read it very quick because of time. This is what the scripture says there. Jesus had said to Peter, I say to you that you are Peter and upon this rock I will build my church and the gate of Hades will not overpower it. Peter wasn't feeling so much like a rock. Was he after he denied Christ? John 13-37 when Peter said, Lord, why can I not follow you right now? I will lay down my life for you.

19:56And then of course in Matthew 26-33 again when he says, even if they all fall away, I will never fall away. And so here we see that Jesus is giving, he's re-addressing this call that he has for Peter and he's allowing Peter to refocus. He's saying essentially this, Peter, I still have a purpose for you. I still love you. I still value you. I still have a purpose for you. So here we go. We look at the text here and in this call he asked the question, do you love me? I'll give you the three words and we'll briefly talk about maybe some of the differences, but again I think the really is the question about love. But he says to him, verse 15 and following, he says Simon, it's very interesting, Simon, he doesn't use the word Peter there. It's kind of like he is taking him back to the beginning when he first called him in John 142 and he basically changed his name at that point to Peter.

21:07But now he's kind of going back there to the beginning and he's kind of like saying, let's try this again and he says, Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these? And what are the these? Are these the fishing boat, the nets that is part of their occupation? That was their job before they were called to be apostles, disciples. So maybe he's saying, do you love me more than your job? Do you love me more than your pay? All these fish that you just brought in that I helped you catch because you caught nothing all night, by the way. Do you love me more than that? Or is he saying, do you love me more than these, the disciples? As you said, you loved me more than them. Do you love me more than these? Or is he saying, do you love me more than these? Like your love for these disciples, these are your brothers. Don't think that that's likely, but it's a possibility. But again, he asked him the question, do you love me more than these?

22:08It study indicates that he is referring back to when he said, even if they all fall away, I will never. Now it's a humbling experience because he's already failed, but he's asking a heart question. And when he uses the word love there, it's agape love and the verb portion he's saying, do you love me? This is kind of like an all-encompassing supreme love. Jesus uses that word. That's how it's translated in the Greek. And Peter's response is, I love you, filet. That's a brotherly friendship love. So I mean, that's still a good love. Don't get me wrong. It's just this deep love, this, this, I love you like a brother. I love you like a friend. He feels that love, but he answers it differently here in the Greek. And so, and then Jesus asked, oh, by the way, after that, that first question, then he says to them, feed. Feed or new Americans says, tend the word there in the Greek, implies both really, but

23:14it's his more feeding, providing spiritual nourishment. Feed my lambs. Could that be young Christians, younger people in the Lord? Possibly. Jesus always, and not always, but Jesus referred to people that he loved his people as my sheep, my sheep. And so he's telling Peter, he's saying, hey, I've called you. I'm calling you. I want you to feed my lamb. So he says to him, second time, Simon's done a John, do you love me? And again, he's using the word agapeo, that kind of love. And Simon says, yes, Lord, you know that I love you like a brother, like a friend. I think we see a humbled love there. And then finally, the third time, or this response then to Jesus, or to Peter there, is he says, shepherd or tend my sheep.

24:17Now that's pastoral care. That's this pastoral general word. It's a wider word for you're going to shepherd my sheep. You're going to provide care for, we know the early church. And then the third time he asked him, it's very interesting. He says to him, Simon's done a John, do you, filet, oh, love me. What is he doing? Perhaps he is showing us that in a lot of religions across the world, it's always about you got to do all these things so you can come up to God. But God came down to us. He sent a savior. And Peter's just using, he's saying, you know, I love you, you know, I love you. And so now on this last one, it's just interesting. And now Peter, our God, Jesus comes down to Peter and uses the same word that Peter is using. He says, do you filet, oh, me, do you love me? And Peter says, yes, Lord.

25:18You know everything. You know I love you. And he says feed my sheep. What an awesome time. The three times Peter was kind of offended there. But the three times that Jesus asked him wasn't to annoy Peter, it was to restore him. And this calling, Jesus wants it to be out of love. If we have ministry without love, we have performance. If we have church without love, we have routine. If we serve without love, we have obligation. But the call and the order of the call matters. Jesus wants us to love him. He wants us to serve him. And as we're going to see in a few minutes, he wants us to follow him. All of us are called to serve. All of us are called to love. We know the great commission and the great commandment. And there's a difference. And if you don't know, it's okay. Or if you can't remember, let me just remind you real quick.

26:20Matthew 23, 37 is what? The great commandment. And what is that? You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind. And the second one is you shall love your neighbor as yourself. That's the great commandment we're all called to love. I want you to see that God took the initiative. We can only love because he first loved us. John, first John chapter four. And in Ephesians 10, or 210, we know that we are His workmanship created in Christ Jesus to do good works. God often chooses unlikely people to accomplish His purposes. And we're some of those people. Now I want to tell you there's more. In 1 Corinthians 12, we see there in that chapter that each one of us has a part. Each one of us is called not only to love people, but we are called to something in the

27:21church. And before I go to that, I space for a second. I didn't give you the great commission, which you know, Matthew 28, 19. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptize in the name of the Father and Son of the Holy Spirit, and teach them to observe all of it. I've commanded you and I will be with you to the end of the earth. As I get to a place where I want to get closer to wrapping this sermon up, I want to tell you this. Many matters here in this church. Everybody has a role. We're all to care for each other. We're all His sheep. Now God calls pastors to churches and we have elders in churches and He gifts us for that. But those aren't the most important positions, are they? Because in 1 Corinthians 12, it says, there is not a lesser every part matters. A hand cannot say to a foot, I don't need you or to an eye, I don't need you.

28:22We need one another. Now I can tell you this because today I want to thank you in advance. We're having a little extra food today or having a potluck to celebrate, I guess, Tammy and I coming. I'm not trying to imply what's not there, but I was told it was kind of for us. I'm glad we've been able to transition here in the last month. I do not know what's been told to you before, so here's a quick summary. Not to draw attention to self because I want to proclaim something. You see, before I do that, I've had Peter moments with the Lord and maybe you have to. I have been in ministry and I have got some things wrong in my heart and in my life years ago. A hurting person can hurt people. Do you think that that impacted me as a person? Yes. Do you think I wish I could have had a redo button? Yes. Especially where I've impacted maybe some of my family because of my hurt, my pain.

29:28I'm not making excuses, I'm taking responsibility, but I'm saying this. I've had this moment where Jesus, years ago, where Jesus, basically, I can live this passage out because when we fail, Jesus is right there to want to meet with us. So years ago, I started a wilderness experience and from that process when I came out, the Lord restored me. Now, here's what I want to tell you. Who is this guy that's coming here to serve? I'm going to say this, I think, one last time. I came to the women's group to kind of give them some information. There's a lot of people missing today, but I want to give it to you, in case you haven't heard it. So here's the last time. I'm honored to be here as one of the pastors to be an associate pastor and to be a ministry partner with Kevin. I want to tell you how I got here. First of all, you're wondering, maybe you're wondering, did he go to seminary? Yes, I went to actually three seminaries and I ended up with a doctorate in ministry

30:30and pastor our leadership. I've passed it for 14 years. Mostly as a senior pastor, but I've done youth pastor. I was a chaplain, I was a chaplain coordinator to police department and I am so grateful to have those experiences. I have been counseling in a Christian ministry for six years, trying to help broken people get set free or find a place of healing in Jesus. And it's a prayer ministry and it's a biblical counseling ministry. And that's been fruitful and I'm enjoying that. I've asked the Lord, Lord, how do I use the shepherding part? I know that what I'm doing and counseling is shepherding, but how do I use the gifts of the calls that you've given me for pastoring? And so at a prayer this summer, I don't know where, came three opportunities. And the only reason I say them is not because, oh, look at me, I have three opportunities, because I want you to really understand something and why I came here. I wasn't looking for a pastor or a job this summer.

31:30I was asking the Lord. And the Lord, I think he's got an awesome sense of humor. He's like, all right, how about this? And it was big church, big money with retirement medical. Oh, that sounds good. I don't have medical. That sounds really great. But I knew right away that's not where I was supposed to be because I would have had to stop doing my other counseling ministry which God hadn't released me. Another opportunity that God gave me all about the same time was to pastor a church. Be the senior pastor and be the guy. Then there done that, wasn't necessarily looking to do that again by myself. And the third opportunity after meeting with some men on a men's retreat and processing in prayer and the Holy Spirit and figuring out that you guys were looking for associate and the Holy Spirit connected the dots and guess what? The third opportunity was this place called Quilsine. And here was a family of people with a guy that I started to get to know a pastor who

32:34I loved his heart and his passion for the Lord. And the Lord led me to want to come alongside to support him and to be a partner in ministry with him. Now he can speak for himself, but I'm here to tell you that our call to serve both individually and corporately is under the Lord and it's to serve the Lord and to love on you well. He is not looking for somebody to come and replace him. He's not running anywhere that we know of. He's here. He has been your pastor for a while and I love that fact that he has a relationship. I'm looking to come and do what the Lord has called me to do. Care about sheep, love on them, build them up, encourage and equip them. Can I tell you something? I don't know that you necessarily need me. Maybe I need you. Maybe I'm at this place in life where this is my last ministry position. I will tell you that.

33:34As man's wisdom, I am not looking to serve as a pastor anywhere else, but I was excited when God completed the circuit and showed us that we had an opportunity to be here with you and join this family. So I'm joining my friend and serving to help be an encouragement to him and to you. And I want to thank you for allowing me the opportunity to come here and to serve and to use my gifts to do what Peter was called to do. Care for my sheep, feed my sheep. I'm a sheep. We're all sheep. We're his sheep. Not special. So Peter gets to refocus and he gets, and Jesus calls him to this call, to feed, to tend, sheep, lambs and to feed his sheep, generally speaking. And we know that the same guy who blew it is the very first guy in acts that we see who's empowered by the Holy Spirit to preach the Word of God where the first sermon that we see

34:37is 3,000 people coming to know the Lord. Wow. I wish I could preach like that. I'm not going to compare myself. Comparison is a bad thing, isn't it? Every part matters in this church and I'm glad that we're together. I'm going to finish with this. The third thing we see here is Jesus gives a command. He provides an opportunity for Peter to respond. He gives him a command or if you'd like to say, re-commitment, you can, but he gives him this opportunity. And it's a harsh one because as we read in scripture, he's saying to Peter this, he says, truly, truly, which is most assuredly, I say to you, when you were younger, you used to gird yourself and walk wherever you wished. In other words, you had less responsibility and you can kind of move about the cabinet and do what you want to do. But when you grow old, you'll stretch out your hands and someone else will gird you and

35:38bring you, that's the future, where you do not wish to go. Now in case we're not clear on it, John makes it really clear. Now this, he said, signifying what kind of death he would glorify God with. And when he had spoken to him, he said, follow me. Now this, follow me in the Greek is Akhilathel, it's a verb, it meanings to follow after, to go after, to join, to accompany. And it's not a suggestion necessarily. It's present tense, it's an imperative, active. What it means is this, it's not a one-time thing. Jesus says, follow me, keep on following me, no matter what, Peter, no matter what comes at you, no matter what you experience, no matter what your circumstances are, even maybe what your feelings are, keep on following me. Amen? Peter understood it. You see the first time Peter says, where are you going?

36:39I will follow you. And Jesus says, essentially I'm paraphrasing, I'm going to a cross. You can't follow me there. Ah, but now this is a big deal. Because even here, Peter is going to have an opportunity to, no doubt it will include suffering, but to be a disciple and to respond, and it's costly to follow Jesus, to take up our cross daily. It is costly, and no doubt it's not always easy. But Peter is going to get a second chance at ministry and leadership, and he's going to get a second chance to actually sacrifice, he's going to give it his life. They would understand that then to be led is the words there is like by rope or chains. So perhaps under arrest, Peter is being led to the cross, and we know from church history under Nero, Peter will be crucified, and he will be crucified upside down. Most likely it was at his request. Discipleship costs us something.

37:41The danger for most of us Christians is not necessarily banding Jesus all together, that's like apostasy. It's more likely that we're going to follow him from a safe distance. We're going to want the benefits, but not the cost of identifying with him. By son-in-law this yesterday actually was really cool. I'm going to thank him publicly, not to embarrass him, but I love how the younger generation I believe not all, but a lot are hungry for the truth that were. And I was thinking in this sermon about shame and guilt, and I was going to talk about that, and I'm going to end with that as I go to conclusion. He was excited to share a short video that he had watched about this very topic, and so he shared it with me, and I thought, wow, it's kind of what I was thinking, and I'm kind of past that now, but the reason I'm bringing up right now as we end our service is this, because he was spot on with what he was passionate about when he heard this teaching.

38:42You see, there's this thing called shame. Shame keeps us from meeting with Jesus, isn't it? Shame is where the enemy wants us to believe a bunch of lies about our identity and who we are, and this teaching costs me to reflect on the word that I was already going to speak about, but in a different way. And so before I conclude, I'm going to take you back. You don't have to turn there, but you can. All the way back to Genesis, because in Genesis chapter 2 we see this. We see that Adam and Eve, it says in chapter 2 verse 25, this is speaking to creation, and the man and his wife were both naked, and they were not ashamed. Now my grandkids went into the back room today. It's kind of nice to have kids back there. One time I was preaching to church, and one of the kids in the church ran down the aisle, buck naked. I'm glad that didn't happen today. And he grew up, he's now married, and he always reminds me of the fact that when I was

39:45pastoring he ran down the aisle's naked. Yes, that's really did happen. The man and his wife were naked, and they were not ashamed. You see that word? And then this guy in his teaching said, there's a period there, and I like that. I like to refer to punctuation. It's important, there's a period. But then in the next chapter we see the fall of man, and they were guilty of seeing against God, and this is where sin entered the world, and everything was kind of broken. Now there can still be consequences for our actions. I'm not saying that today. We don't get to live anyway we want, just because, oh God's a God of second chance, so I can just do what I want. That wouldn't be love. That would be missing the mark. But in this where Adam and Eve fell, if you noticed in verse 8, they hid themselves from the presence of the Lord after that. When they heard him, they hid themselves. And then it says, the Lord calls him and says, why? Where are you? Again, he knew.

40:45And they said, we heard the sound of you in the garden, and we were afraid because we were naked, so I hid myself. That's what Adam said. And then the verse 11, who told you you were naked? You ever think about that? In this short video, it helps you to think about that. Who told you you were naked? You see shame because of sin came in and now they wanted to hide. Guild says this. Guild says, I did something wrong or bad. That's guilt. Shame, and I looked up a definition because I wanted to just kind of do some study on this. Shame is about wrong identity. It's about isolation and insulation, but it's more like this. It's not, I made a mistake. Shame is different. Shame we look at ourselves and we say, I am a mistake. Something's wrong with me. You see the old man dead nature when Adam and Eve fell is that nature is a sin nature

41:51and it's dead. But we are new creations in Christ. We can still sin. The problem is because of sin when we sin and because of shame, we want to hide. Pull away, shut down. Today I wanted to declare to you this. Maybe you are struggling today in some area. In Ephesus, the letters to the church and Ephesus' revelation, they did everything right except this. They had forgot their first love. And they were told to return. Do what they did at first. So my call to action to you today is this. If we fail, let's not run from Jesus. Let's turn to Him. And we got to run towards Him. Your failures don't surprise God and they don't disqualify you from your love. Peter's denial was a temporary detour and not his final place.

42:52What do you need to meet with Jesus about today? What do you carry? Some of us sometimes we feel like God is distant and we are struggling. And that doesn't feel good because we know we are supposed to have a passion to live for the Lord so in our struggles we start to shut down and we become like shame. We think, what's wrong with me? I'm a child of God but I don't feel like I am on fire for God. He knows and he loves you. Start with this question today. The question he asks, do you love him? What is he called you to? You have a gift. You have a passion that he's given to you and you have a place to serve in this church and this community. And that's how we show, that's what we get on board and do God's work. We want to do the kingdom agenda stuff but we do not love, not obligation.

43:55And finally ask yourself this, am I willing to follow him no matter what? No matter where it takes me, even in the suffering. Because that's the ultimate call of discipleship is to take up our cross and follow Him. Would you bow your head to me? And I'm going to call you into our moment of reflection this morning but I'm going to specifically again ask you as you bow your head and close your eyes to reflect on three things. One, how do you answer this question? The question of, do you love me? I'm assuming your eyes are still closed and you're reflecting but I'm going to give you something else to reflect on. Have you ever received his love by way of salvation, by putting your trust in faith totally

44:58in Jesus for the forgiveness of your sins? You've agreed with the Bible that he is God's son, he died for you, he was buried, he rose again and he is the only way and he is the truth in his life. If you've never placed your faith in his hands that way, it's time to turn to him. It's time to run to him and accept that gift. Have you done that? What is he calling you to? What do you need to refocus on because maybe you've heard his voice before and you've sensed he wants you to do something but how's that coming? It's not a guilt question or shame question, it's just reflection, a chance to refocus. What's he called you to?

46:02And finally, what opportunity is he giving you right now to respond? I'm going to pray with you. Heavenly Father, I want to thank you for your love that you loved us first and you made a way for us to come back into a relationship with you after the fall of Adam and Eve. That you, when you clothed them as a foreshadow of the Messiah to come, there was a sacrifice made when you clothed them. They tried to do it their way, their way wasn't good enough. We can't do it our way, we have to do it your way. Jesus, you are the Messiah, you died for the sins of the world and you're the only way, we have to do it your way. We have to come to you, realize that you died so we could live, so we could have a hope

47:06of eternity with you and you brought us into your family that way. If you haven't made that decision today, you could right now do it, you don't need somebody to lead you but you do need to just tell the Lord, I love you and I want to love you with my life. I give you my life, I surrender to you, I want to follow you, I want to become a disciple of follower, just like these disciples and I'll take up my cross and I'll follow you wherever you lead me, my life is yours, take it. If you've done that but you're struggling today with some kind of a struggle, whatever it may be, maybe today, after you answer the question, do you love him? We just let him refocus your heart and your call. Father, thank you for this day, thank you for this text and as we finish this chapter next week, I pray that the totality of the weeks of being in this gospel of John will impact

48:16and change our life in a way that will never be the same. Use this message today, Holy Spirit in it, whatever way you need to, whoever you need it to be for but I for one, Lord know that you have spoken to my heart and I'm thankful for second chances and I'm thankful for opportunities to refocus even if that means doing it again tomorrow and the next day. You're always there to meet with us, we want to give you the praise for that. He's this name and then addictions for him.