Triumphant Over Trials

Welcome to the InTouch Podcast with Charles Stanley for Monday, July 11. When you encounter a crisis, it can either stunt your growth or catapult you into a deeper faith in the Lord. Let's begin a study of the New Testament Book of First Peter to learn to live triumphantly over trials. And so I want us to begin in our passages through these five chapters of First Peter under the theme of living triumphantly through our trials.

In this first message, what I would like to do is sort of give us a little background and deal with the person who wrote it primarily. And it begins with his name, Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ. Now, let me just think about him for a moment as Peter, the leader. His name is mentioned 200 times in the New Testament. There isn't any other man in the New Testament mentioned as many times as his, as Peter. Paul only 162, Peter 200.

All the rest of the apostles only 142 times. All through the Gospels, this man is out front. He is a leader by nature, by character. There's something about him. He's just the born leader. And when Jesus saw him, you recall what he said the first time.

Well, I want us to look at not only as a leader, but I want us to look at his strength for just a moment. You recall, let's go through some passages here. You recall in John chapter one, how Peter was introduced to Jesus. And you recall in the first chapter that John the Baptist was down by the river. And he said, Behold, the Lamb of God, which takes away the sin of the world. And so the two disciples heard him speak and they followed him.

And one of them, of course, was Andrew. So the Bible says in verse 40, one of the two who heard John speak and followed him was Andrew, Simon Peter's brother. And he first found his own brother Simon and said to him, We have found the Messiah, which translated means Christ. He brought him to Jesus.

Listen to this. Can you imagine what Jesus must have thought first time he saw him? The Bible says he brought him to Jesus and Jesus looked at him and said, You are Simon, the son of John. You shall be called Cephas, which translated means Peter, which means what?

Rock. The Bible says that Jesus knew all men for what they were. And I believe when he looked into this eyes of Peter, he saw within him the tremendous potential. And here is Peter now, a fisherman meeting Jesus for the first time. If somebody if Andrew had said Peter on their way home that night, if he had said, Peter, you know what? More than likely, you and I are going to be followers of him and more than likely one of these days, you're going to be a great leader in his cause. Peter would have probably said, Are you kidding me? A leader in his cause.

What are you talking about? My friend, don't ever underestimate what Jesus Christ can do in your life. Jesus looked in the eyes of Peter, changed his name. He said, I'm going to call you Peter the Rock because he saw within him a potential. This man had the stuff on the inside of which Jesus Christ was going to make something fantastically effective for the whole kingdom of God and Christians until Jesus comes back. We'd be talking about him. Well, when you look at him, go on over to Matthew Chapter four a moment and look how he was called.

Look what happens when he was called. Jesus has come now from his baptism and from the wilderness being tempted. And the scripture says in Chapter four, verse 17 of Matthew, from that time, Jesus began to teach and preach and say, repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. And walking by the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon, who was called Peter and Andrew's brother, casting a net into the sea. They were fishermen. And he said to them, follow me and I will make you fishers of men. Now, Peter did not say, well, I'll tell you, hold it.

Wait a minute. If I'm going to follow you, there's some things I've got to take care of. Listen to what he says.

And they immediately left the nets and followed him. Peter had a sense of loyalty within him that is absolutely fantastic. And the more I read the scriptures about how he responded to Jesus, the more that loyalty rises to the surface.

Well, let's move on his life. When you look at his life, let's go on over to Matthew Chapter 14. You recall he'd been following Jesus sometime now and a big storm came up in Matthew 14. And the Bible says they were afraid and the Lord Jesus Christ came walking on the sea in the middle of the night, in the darkness. And remember what happened when the disciples saw him in verse 26, when the disciples saw him walking on the sea, they were frightened, saying it is a ghost and they cried out for fear. But immediately, Jesus spoke to them, saying, take courage in his eye, be not afraid.

Now look what happens. The scripture says. And Peter answered him and said, Lord, if that's really you, you command me to come to you and I'll come. I'll come walking on the water.

How many of you would have said that? You see, Peter had already seen enough. He'd already seen enough that his faith was already to rise. He said, Lord, if that's you, you call me and I'll come walking on the water. Peter, the Bible says, jumped out of the boat on the water to walk to Jesus. Now, sometime what we do is we major on the fact that he sank.

But let me ask you a question. Don't you think we ought to give him a whole lot of credit for just getting out of the boat? He needs a whole lot of credit for just getting out of the boat on the water in the midst of a storm. And listen, he didn't walk along, but I think I'd be with Peter, brother, just to take two or three steps on top of the absolutely fantastic, held up by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Turn over to John Chapter 13. Now they're in the upper room, the 13th chapter of John, and they have prepared for the Passover.

And the scripture says they're all seated there around the table. And Jesus rises and takes a towel and pours water in the basin, begins to wash the disciples feet, to wipe them with his towel, which he was girded. So he came to Simon Peter and he said to him, that is, Simon said to him, Lord, you think you, now this says, Lord, do you wash my feet? Now, the way you and I would probably put that is, Lord, you think you're going to wash my feet?

Jesus answered and said to him, what I do, you do not realize now, but you shall understand hereafter. Peter said to him, never shall you wash my feet. Nobody's going to kill you. You're not washing my feet. Lord, everybody else. Listen, they may all forsake you.

You can count on me. Simon Peter said to him, Lord, not my feet only, but wash me from head to foot. What do you think? He said, Lord, you're not washing my feet because Peter knew that was the work of the lowest slave in the household and his feet were dusty. And listen, he'd already told everybody he was the Messiah. This man is the son of the living God. He is not in the foot washing business. Then when Jesus said to him, if you don't let me wash your feet, you can't have any part in this ministry.

What did he say? Lord, you have it your way. You wash me from head to foot. Now, you remember what happens in the garden. They cross over the valley and they're up in the garden of Gethsemane and he tells them to wait for him. And he says, I want you to watch and pray and they all go to sleep. But when the Romans come and the Sadducees, the Pharisees and all the leaders, the apostles are there and what happens? They get ready to take Jesus. You remember Judas plants a kiss on the Lord Jesus cheek and betrays him. And what happens when they start toward him? The Bible says old Peter pulls a sword.

What does he do? The Bible says he whacked off this guy's ear. Let me ask you, what do you think he was aiming at? Peter was in the battle for Jesus unto the death. If you look at this man's life, he was committed to Christ. He was committed to protecting him. He was committed to following him. He was committed to obeying him.

Listen, he had to be reproved over and over and over again. But every time he was, he just fit into the plan and the mold of what Jesus required of him. He was a man who was rough on the edges spiritually, had a lot of growing to do, but he hung in there. And when the going got rough, he was there fighting and struggling and standing up for the Lord Jesus Christ. You say, but he wasn't all strong.

That's right. He had his weaknesses, not only with his mouth, not only his impulsiveness, but he made some boasts that he couldn't live up to. Haven't we all? So here he is now. He's frustrated. He's confused. He's upset.

Everything he believed all of a sudden is hanging in the balance. And he's there by the fire. And here's some teenage girl says, say, haven't I seen you before? I never saw you. In fact, I believe you were with him.

You look like one of them. You remember what the scripture says? He said, Lord, you can count on me. And Jesus said, no, for the cock crossed. You will you will have denied me.

You're going to deny me. Peter couldn't have possibly believe that, but he did deny him three times. And the Bible says, And Peter went out and wept bitterly. He had his weaknesses.

But his strengths far, far outweighed his weaknesses. You see, the reason I'm saying all of this about Peter before we get to the book, because I want you to see that here's a man who isn't just writing about something he doesn't know anything about. He knows about suffering and trial and heartache and tribulation and all the rest.

He denied the Lord. But Peter was a very teachable man, and that made him a very usable man. You're talking about a man who loved the Lord Jesus Christ. Peter was the man, loyal, faithful, full of strength, full of weakness.

But one of the most inspiring things to me about Peter is this. God doesn't choose men who are just solid rocks with no cracks and no crevices. He chooses people like you and me who have our strengths, who have our weaknesses, who fail, who falter, who sin, who have to be forgiven over and over and over again. But who are willing to learn, willing to repent, willing to yield, willing to surrender, willing to follow, willing to be committed and willing to give it all we've got until Jesus calls us home. That's the man who wrote this first epistle, The Suffering Saints. He'd been there.

He knew what to write under the leadership of the Holy Spirit. Now, there are some of you seated right here tonight who've already decided how much God can do with you. You've already decided how much education you don't have. How many gifts you don't have and how few talents you have. And you've already decided how little God can do with you.

I want to tell you something. God hasn't decided anything of the sort. God doesn't look at how little your talents, how few your gifts. He doesn't major on your weaknesses. You know what Jesus Christ is majoring on as he looks at you tonight?

He's just majoring on your willingness to let him have what you are to do with you what he pleases. And I want to ask you this evening, how usable have you made yourself to the Savior? Jesus Christ, the Messiah, the Son of the living God. How much do you and I love him? How would we have answered that question? Suppose he just said, Charles, do you love me?

I'll have to be honest with you. There was a time in my life even after I was saved and after I'd been a preacher a long time that I had to say, Lord, I'm not really sure that if I understand what true love is that I really and truly love you. I'm not sure I understand how to love you. I think I understand how to follow you, how to obey you, how to trust you. But I'm not sure I fully understand how to love you. Oh, I'd said I did.

Until one day on my knees up in the mountains, fasting and praying about something. And I told the Lord I loved him and my throat was like it had mush in it. It didn't sound right. It didn't come out right.

I knew that something was wrong. I tried to tell him again, Lord, you know I love you. And somehow it just didn't come out right till I finally had to say, God, maybe I don't. But I sure want to.

And I want to tell you something. If I can tell you, it wasn't but about three or four months till God put me in one of those situations, like a vice of something I had absolutely no control over whatsoever. And for the first time in my life, I understood on the inside of me what it meant to really and truly love Jesus Christ with all of my heart. If somebody had told me I didn't know how to love him all those years, I would have denied it. But when he told me I didn't know how.

I had to tell him he was right. It's amazing what we think we know about him until suddenly we learn what it's all about. And I want to ask you tonight, how much of you has been fully surrendered to the Savior? To let him do with you what he will.

Lord Jesus. How precious you are. How patient you are. How forgiving and how loving and how kind. I want to ask you tonight.

To speak to our heart. And, Father, I want to ask you tonight in Jesus name. Would you bring all of us here this evening to the place in our heart with all the sincerity of our heart to be able to say to the Lord Jesus, Lord Jesus, whatever there is of me, I surrender to you.

Teach me what I need to know. Do with me what you will. All there is of me, Lord Jesus, I give to you. Is there anything, my friend, that you're not willing to surrender to the Savior tonight? Has he brought anything to your mind that he wants from you tonight? He wants you to give it to him.

You may have to give up somebody, something, some plan, some desire, some goal. Would you say to him, Lord Jesus, here's all of me. Take me and use me. Lord Jesus, thank you for loving us. And it is my prayer this evening that every single one of us has laid it all down. No more arguments about following you. No more arguments about obeying you that we might be able to say, here am I.

Send me. Do with me as you choose is my prayer in his name. Amen. Thank you for listening to Triumphant Over Trials. If you'd like to know more about Charles Stanley or In Touch Ministries, stop by InTouch.org. This podcast is a presentation of In Touch Ministries, Atlanta, Georgia.