Comeback Faith

Welcome to this edition of PowerPoint with Jack Graham. A new message for you. If you need a second chance or another chance to learn from the past but we don't live in the past. Verse 4 of chapter 21 says, Just like impetuous Simon Peter. Now he's swimming as fast as he can on the Sea of Galilee to get to Jesus. This is after the resurrection, after Peter's colossal collapse.

But now he's on his way to Jesus. He throws himself into the sea and the other disciples came in the boat dragging the net full of fish for they were not far from the land but about 100 yards off. And when they got out on the land they saw a charcoal fire in place.

Note that in your Bibles. You may want to circle a charcoal fire, that's significant, in place with fish laid out on it and bread. And Jesus said to them, bring some of the fish that you have just caught. Simon Peter went aboard and hauled the net ashore. This is a miracle, full of large fish, 153 of them. And although there were so many the net was not torn. The fishermen were always repairing their nets.

But it was not torn. And Jesus said, come and have breakfast. Imagine sitting by the shore, the Sea of Galilee, one of the best places on earth and having breakfast with Jesus. Now none of the disciples dared to ask Him, who are You? They knew it was the Lord. And Jesus came and took the bread and gave it to them and so were the fish. And this was now the third time that Jesus was revealed to the disciples after He was raised from the dead. You know the background to this, don't you? Just in case you don't or if I need to refresh your memory, it was Simon Peter who said, though everyone else deserts you, though everyone else may deny you, not me Lord, I will hang with you to the very end.

I will go to prison and jail, even to death for you. But not long after that while Jesus was under arrest and facing death and trial and execution, Peter who drew close but not close enough to the sight of Christ denied the Lord. He said, I never knew Him. It was a shameful, despicable and public failure. Peter was an apostate. Now that's a bad word. Apostate.

You know what it means? One who denies the faith. One who denies the faith. And not only did Simon Peter deny the faith, but he denied Jesus himself.

His world implodes. If anyone ever needed a second chance, another opportunity, it was Simon Peter because he failed so terribly. And he felt he could never come back. And so Simon Peter goes back to Galilee. Jesus told the disciples after the resurrection to wait until the coming of the Holy Spirit. Simon Peter, they were all still in a fog, not knowing exactly what was going to happen next. Was this real, what we have seen?

Is this true? And they knew it was true and yet it was hard to believe. And Simon Peter is thinking to himself, even if it is true, it's never going to be the same for me. God could never use me again. I am a failure. And why was He such a failure?

What are some of the reasons, the cause of His failure? Because the reasons that Simon Peter failed are the same reasons that we fail and we do fail. Whether it is a sinful choice or bad behavior of some kind, a denial, a refusal to stand up for Christ. We wilt in the face of pressure.

Why would we deny the Lord? Well, one is pride. Presumption. We all have this commonality. We all deal with pride and presumption. And one of Peter's problem was that he overestimated his own ability. He was way over confident.

Though all the rest of these may deny you. Not me. I'm the big fisherman.

I'm the tough guy. He was all about himself. He was way self-sufficient. Peter didn't know himself, of course. The Lord knew him and the Lord predicted that he would fail. Jesus told him at the last supper, before the rooster crows, you will deny me three times. No, no.

Imagine that. He says, no Lord, not me. Yes, you, Simon Peter.

You will deny me three times. So Peter may have been surprised at his weakness, but not Jesus. Now in deference to this good man, Simon Peter, he did love the Lord. He confessed the Lord. He was truly a believer, but he was unprepared, personally unprepared for the challenge that he would face at the cross.

How dark the darkness would be. How terrible the temptations would be. And so his self-confidence set him up for his sin. The scripture tells us in first Corinthians chapter 10 and verse 12, let him who stands take heed lest he fall. Pride comes before what?

A fall. And it is our pride, our arrogance, the thinking that I'm all that that sets us up for huge failure and spiritual falling. The potential for evil is in every one of us. We are capable. You are capable of any spiritual failure.

It's true. We're all vulnerable to temptation. The potential for evil is in all of us coiled like a snake ready to strike. And if we neglect spiritual disciplines, if we live in self-confidence, rather than in faith, then we are in danger of defeat, all of us. Peter boasted that he would never deny Christ. And you would think that courage would be the primary character of Simon Peter.

In many ways it was. But Oswald Chambers, the great devotional writer, said this, an unguarded strength is a double weakness. Let me say that again because I want you to think about it. An unguarded strength is a double weakness. Most of us know to watch our back on our weaknesses. If you understand where you are weak you would be a fool to put yourself in a position where your weakness would do you in. So most often we may focus on our weaknesses. But Chambers is saying, and I believe it's true, not just your weakness but doubly guard you strengths. Because it's our strengths that can turn to self-sufficiency and pride in our lives.

And so guard your strengths as well as your weaknesses. It is in our weakness that we are made strong in the power of Christ. But not only pride and presumption will cause our fall but prayerlessness.

That's what happened to Peter. Prayerlessness. We're told in Mark chapter 14 and verse 37 that Jesus told them to pray and yet in the Garden of Gethsemane where Jesus was pouring out His blood in preparation for the cross, Jesus agonized, the disciples slept just a few feet away.

It was their pride and Peter's pride that produced prayerlessness. Because after all, why pray if you can do it yourself? Jesus told us to pray in the model prayer, lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil. And so prayer is for petition, asking and receiving what we need from God and we should pray always petitioning God for what we need. And yet we are also to pray for protection every day. That when we face fires of temptation and when we face failure, when we come face to face with the enemy, that we would be prepared because we have prayed. I know this, we're no stronger than our prayer lives. It is pride that causes us to neglect the place of prayer.

It is self-sufficiency and self-deception and self-dependence. But it is prayer that produces the power of God in our lives to face any foe that we may face. It is our daily time to connect with God.

He'll give you the ability to live a godly life and fulfill His plans for you in the coming year. And we'd like to help you walk even more closely with the Lord in the year ahead by sending you Pastor Graham's 180-day devotional, Moments in the Word. It's our way to thank you for your gift today to help proclaim the gospel to more people around the world through PowerPoint. So call now to get your copy of Moments in the Word when you give. Call 1-800-795-4627. That's 1-800-795-4627. You can also text the word PowerPoint to 313131.

Text PowerPoint to 313131. And don't forget to visit Jack Graham.org where you can shop our e-store, give a gift online or sign up for Dr. Graham's free daily email devotional. Our website again is Jack Graham.org. Now let's get back to today's message, Come Back Faith. Prayerlessness and then pressure. Pressure. When Jesus was arrested, the disciples ran. But Peter, he followed according to the Scripture, Luke 22 verse 54, he followed at a distance. Now he got close but not close enough. He got close enough to be around the very crowd that was crucifying Christ. He began because he was self-confident to get a little closer to Christ. A little closer to trouble, a little closer to trouble. He didn't go all the way in and get close to Jesus.

He got himself by the fires of the enemy and he's warming his hands in a charcoal fire by the enemies of Christ while Jesus is on trial for his life. That phrase, Luke 22 verse 54, he followed at a distance. Reminds me to say that following Jesus means getting as close to him as we can, not just following at a distance. Too many Christians are part-time believers. Casual observers.

But I want to challenge you. You know, when you come to worship the Lord Jesus Christ, don't show up late and leave early like you're a spectator in a theater. We are here to worship the Lord Jesus from the very beginning. When we're speaking, we are here to worship the Lord Jesus.

When we're singing, we are praying and we are praising God and we're giving and we're serving God with our worship. It's important to show up early and then don't leave early. I mean, we ought to show up early and leave late instead of showing up late and leaving early.

Why? Because we don't want to be just part-time casual observers in the body of Christ. We want to be all in. We don't want to follow at a distance. Too many people say, well, you know, I'm in but I'm not one of those Jesus freaks.

I'm not one of those fanatics. I'm just going to follow Jesus at a distance. And when you do that, you set yourself up for failure. Because you find yourself more in the world than in the Kingdom of God. And that's what happened to Peter. He found himself out here with the enemies of Christ and sure, he fell. The Bible says a companion of fools will be destroyed. And Simon Peter therefore found himself with the wrong people at the wrong place at the wrong time and he went down.

He went down and he went down, he fell hard. The Scripture says when Peter sinned by denying the Lord, he wept bitterly. What did he lose? He lost his testimony? It was an opportunity for him to stand for Christ but he lost that opportunity. In fact when he's denying Christ even in front of a little girl, he begins to profane and to swear and to deliver oaths. Now that doesn't necessarily mean that he was cursing.

What it means was he was saying things like, I swear by God I don't know this man. That's denying Christ and he's broken by his sin. And when we're broken by our sin there's one of two things we can do. We can quit and that's what Simon wanted to do originally. When it says here in John 21 and verse 3, Simon Peter said to them, I'm going fishing.

This wasn't a recreational trip. This wasn't I'm going to get out of town and take a break. I'm going fishing means I'm going back to my old life. It's the only thing I know how to do. I'm obviously not a very good Christian. I'm not a very good disciple of Jesus. So I'm going to go back and do what I know.

I'm going to go back to my old life, to my old ways, to my old habits. But Jesus wouldn't let him quit and he won't let you quit either. That's why on that day when Simon Peter and the others are out fishing all night and they didn't catch a thing, Peter can't even succeed at fishing anymore and that stranger on the shore, that man on the shore called to the disciples and said, hey boys, have you caught anything?

Talk about adding insult to injury. No. Cast your net on the other side of the boat, flash back all the way back to the beginning when Jesus first called Simon Peter and the others and said, come follow me. Cast your net into the deep. They saw that tremendous miracle on the Sea of Galilee and Jesus said, come on Simon Peter, come and follow me. We'll change the world. I'll make you fishers of men.

Flash back. They catch all these fish again. And John, close to the Lord Jesus said, it's the Lord and Simon Peter jumps all in. He wants to get to Jesus as fast as he can. That's what forgiveness will do for you. If you believe you can be forgiven, if you believe your life can breathe again, live again, if you believe there's hope for you, you'll get to Jesus as fast as possible.

That's what Simon Peter did. And when he got to the shore, there's Jesus by a warm fire, a charcoal fire. Nothing is in the Bible by accident and here John especially notes that it was a charcoal fire. The same word that he used in John 18 to describe the charcoal fire where Peter denied the Lord. Now another fire is lit, a fire of forgiveness and restoration and Jesus is cooking breakfast. Can you imagine that? The risen Christ, he's got fish on the grill and there's bread, hot, warm bread.

Is there anything better than that? I mean he's got a little fish sandwich he's making there. I wonder where he got the bread.

I mean we know where he got the fish, plenty of fish around in the Sea of Galilee. The bread, I don't know, did he bring it from Jerusalem? Maybe just maybe he made the bread. I mean made the bread. Remember when Jesus was tempted and the devil said, turn these stones into bread and Jesus said, no I'll not turn those rocks into bread, it's not my time, that's not what I've come to do. He said no to the temptation of Satan. But maybe now he looked around and saw some rocks and said, hey bread.

And in his own time and in his own terms he turned the bread or the stones into bread. Whatever they're there and that's when Simon Peter looks at Jesus once again. And Jesus forgives him.

Now he confronts him with his sin. He asks him three times, Simon, do you love me? Do you love me? Do you really love me?

And of course you know what that's about, it's obvious. Three times Simon Peter had denied Jesus. Now Jesus gives him three opportunities to confess him. And each time Simon Peter said, Lord you know I love you, I love you. And then he said, Lord you know all things.

You know if I love you or not. Now we see the humility and the transparency. He's come face to face with the reality that he can't do this on his own. His failure is too great but Jesus is providing him an opportunity to recover, to rebound, to come back. I'll tell you what you can know about Jesus. Jesus knows the worst about you and me.

He does. Simon Peter says, Lord you know, you know whether I love you or not. Jesus knows the worst about you.

And let me tell you something else he knows, he knows the best about you. Jesus refused to mistake the moment for the man. He knew the power, the potential of Simon Peter. If Simon Peter could just get his life harnessed by the power of God, then he could change the world. And Jesus is shaping his man. He's taking the rock and strengthening him.

Simon Peter's coming back. He's no longer boasting about how much you love, you know don't boast about how much you love Jesus. I mean it's good to say I love Jesus.

Don't boast about that. If you're going to boast about the love of Christ, boast about how much he loves you, not how much you love him. It's the love of Christ that compels us. It's his love for us.

It is his forgiveness and his grace and his mercy when we need it the most. And I'm telling you, if you have failed, and we all have failed, but maybe you're sitting in the middle of a failure right now. Maybe you're at a time in your life where you are down and nearly out. You want to quit.

You want to run away. Maybe you're thinking about going back to your old life. Go back to the old friends. Go back to the old clubs. Go back to the old junk because you've failed so much. You think, I just can't.

Well guess what? You can't do it, but the power of Christ will restore you and redeem you and renew you and it is because of his cross and the resurrection, the power of Jesus Christ that we can be forgiven and renewed and restored. And Jesus gave him a job to do. He said, feed my sheep, serve me. You see, it's the love of Christ that changes everything.

What motivates us to share the love of Jesus with others? Jesus said to Simon Peter, do you love me? He didn't say, do you love to preach? Do you love to lead? Do you love to serve? Do you love to teach? Do you love to sing in the choir?

No, he said, do you love me because if you love Jesus, then everything else flows out of that great love of Christ that is now in our hearts. You're listening to PowerPoint with Jack Graham and today's message, Come Back Faith. Looking ahead to a new year can fill you with expectation, but it can also fill you with desperation. What if things get worse?

What if the world gets crazier? What if you don't have the strength to face what comes your way? It's through spending daily time in God's word that we find the strength, peace and hope we need. And we want to help you do that by sending you Pastor Graham's 180-day devotional, Moments in the Word.

Moments in the Word is our special thanks for your gift this month. So call to request your copy today. Call 1-800-795-4627, that's 1-800-795-4627. You can also text the word PowerPoint to 313131. Text PowerPoint to 313131. And don't forget to visit JackGraham.org where you can shop our e-store, give a gift online or sign up for Dr. Graham's free daily email devotional.

Our website again is JackGraham.org. Pastor, what is your PowerPoint for today? I think one of the major reasons people don't practice a comeback faith is they can't let go of their sin and really take hold of God's grace. When we fail, and yes we all fail, we tend to look at our sin from our own perspective and our own failure.

And sometimes we allow our sin to own us or define us or control us. Here's what Simon Peter did. In a flash, in a moment, he denied the Lord. He did it three times. He denied Christ in a moment of great need.

And it was a massive, epic failure. And Peter wore that failure like a chain. But Jesus always refuses to mistake the moment for the man. He knew the absolute worst about Peter. He saw everything. He knew what Peter had done. But he also knew who Peter could become by God's grace. And that's how Christ sees you.

He sees you not for what you are, but who you are in Him and what you can become because of Him. This is your true identity. You're not defined by your past. You're not defined by your sin.

You're defined by who you are in Christ and becoming the person He made you to be by His grace. So if you're carrying around a mistake like a chain today, if you're wearing your sin around your neck, ask God not only to forgive you, but to deliver you from that sin. And then you can begin to live a comeback faith.

You can come back from whatever failure you have faced in your life and you can trust in Christ and receive a brand new life and a brand new calling in Jesus. And that is today's PowerPoint. Remember, when you give a gift to PowerPoint, we'll send you Dr. Graham's 180-day devotional Moments in the Word as our thanks. Call 1-800-795-4627. That's 1-800-795-4627. You can also text the word PowerPoint to 313131. Text PowerPoint to 313131. And join Dr. Graham next time as he brings a message about what it takes to have a mountain-moving faith. That's next time on PowerPoint with Jack Graham. PowerPoint with Jack Graham is sponsored by PowerPoint Ministries.