Frankie Mazzapica - Jesus Prayed For Peter
Thank you for tuning in today. My name's Frankie Mazzapica. The title of today's message is, "Jesus Prayed for Peter". Jesus Prayed for Peter. Let me lay the foundation for the message using two scriptures today. The first one is in Luke chapter 22, verse 31. It reads like this. "And Jesus said, 'Simon Simon,'" he was talking to Peter. Peter went by two different names in scripture. He says, "Simon Simon, Satan has asked to sift you like wheat. But I have prayed,'" listen to this. Jesus prayed to his Father. Many of you have seen football games where they hold up a poster and it says John 3:16. Says, "For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son".
See, Jesus has a Father, and Jesus prayed to his Father and he says, "Lord, do not let Peter's faith fail". "Simon Simon, Satan has asked to sift you like wheat. But I have prayed that your faith would not fail". There's the other scripture I wanna share with you. It's in Romans chapter 8, verse 34 where it says that Jesus right now, if you ever wanna know where Jesus is right now, he's at the right hand of the Father and he is interceding for you. In other words, he is praying for you. He prayed for Peter and now he's praying for you and he's praying for me.
So I've got three major points. The first one is, why did Jesus pray that his faith would not fail? Then, I wanna talk about, did Peter's faith fail or not? And then thirdly, I wanna talk about how Jesus is praying for you. Are you ready? Say yes. Come on, let me hear you. Are you ready? Say yes. Come on, put your hands together. I believe this Word's gonna encourage you. So when Jesus said, "Peter, Satan is asking to sift you like wheat," I want you to imagine, many of you have seen "National Geographic," where, like, a lion is kind of crouched down and his tail looks like it's made of, like, a coat hanger. It's still, right? He's crouched down, he's ready for attack.
But a lot of times they kind of go through high grass. Their head is down and they're going through high grass. They're hunting. They're going through, if you will, the wheat, the high grass, and they're looking for an opportune path to make an attack. The Bible is saying this. That like a lion, he's going through your life, looking, sifting through the wheat, looking for an opportunity to jump and begin to tear your life apart. There's two specific areas. The first one is he's trying to tempt you. He's trying to put something in front of you. I have a street gang in my neighborhood. They're all raccoons. I live in the country. They can get into any trash can. I can put cords and chains around my trash can.
Those raccoons will lift it and squeeze into it and turn into pancakes and get in there and come out. I'm telling you, they're scary. I can lay a trap every single night and put Reese's Pieces, because I think to myself, if I was a raccoon, that's what I would want. Put Reese's Pieces down, just lay it out. Every morning, I can catch a raccoon. I got so tired of catching raccoons, I was like, "Just have the trash". You know, they will... never mind. I'm done with the raccoons. But the way I would trap them is I just tempt them. I know they like that and I tempt them. Whenever Satan is coming into your life, the first thing he's doing is you have unique temptations. You have unique temptations, and he will place that temptation right in front of you.
"Simon Simon, Satan has asked to sift you like wheat. He's coming in. He knows what will tempt you. Simon Simon, he's looking to sift you like wheat". There's something in you... I have a friend of mine named John, he told me this last night. There's something in you, in your flesh, that looks for something to worry about. It's just looking all the time. It's constantly looking. So when Satan comes into your life, yes, he's sifting you to tempt you, but he's also saying, "Worry about this".
And once that gets taken care of, it's like, "Here we go. Let's worry about this. What? Let's worry about that. Let's worry about this. Let's worry about that". He's constantly coming in, and Jesus does not pray that Satan will stop sifting him. He doesn't pray for that. Doesn't say, "Father, keep the devil away". He doesn't do that. He doesn't say, "Father, keep the worries away, keep the temptation away". He does not pray for that. He says this, "Lord, I know Satan's coming and I'm praying that his faith does not fail". "Faith is being sure of what you hope for and certain of what you cannot see".
It's in the Hebrews chapter 11, verse 1: Certain. In other words, how many of you are certain there's oxygen around you? You walk outside and you feel something, I'm certain that's the wind. I can't see it, I can't see oxygen, can't see the wind, I can't see sound waves, but I'm certain it's there. What the enemy wants to do is he wants to come and cause you to be uncertain that God is there. And one more step further, if he can't convince you that God is not there, if he can't convince you, you are convinced he's there, then he will convince you that he will not get involved. He'll convince you of that.
And Jesus is saying, "I am praying, Peter, that your faith will not fail". I had a friend of mine in high school, he was a few years older than me, his name was Jeff. I wanted to be Jeff. I was open to changing my name to Jeff. I wanted to be him so bad. Jeff was pigeon-toed. His toes actually pointed in and he'd walk like this. I'm not pigeon-toed, I promise. I'm walking like this. My toes are... don't point in, and I'm walking like Jeff. He wore MC Hammer pants. Some of you have no idea what that means. But bottom line, they're made out of, like, polyester or silk or whatever and the crotch hangs down to your knees. You can take a basketball and kick it and if they go like this to go, it'll get caught in the pants. Nod your head at me if you know what I'm talking about.
He wore MC Hammer pants, I wear MC Hammer pants. He danced, I skipped that part. It was like this shuffling sideways and I just couldn't do it. The overalls with one part hanging down. Anybody with me on that? He did it, I didn't even like overalls. I felt like they were too country for me. He wore overalls, I wear overalls. He had hair hanging down. He had straight, beautiful hair, I had curly hair. It didn't go down, it wouldn't grow down. It grew out. I went and got a perm.
See, some of you don't know what hair smells like when a hot iron hits it. Some of you don't know what it smells like. It smells unique, it sounds unique. Tssss, tssss. Just nod at me if you know what it smells like, you know. There's a unique smell, tssss. Boom, I'm half Brazilian, half Italian, okay. If you... never mind, I'm not gonna go into it. But I would permit it... tsss, until it hung down like Jeff's. Pigeon-toed, MC Hammer pants, I wanted to be Jeff. And he went to our youth group and he was in our high school, and I don't know what happened, but like this, it felt like it happened in a day, he had nothing to do with church, nothing to do with God. He took an about face and I rarely saw him at church ever.
But when I looked at him and I saw his countenance, when I listened to how we talked, I knew that every drop of faith that he had had vanished, it's gone, and it broke my heart. I have another friend of mine, he is actually a pastor down south, and he walked into the kitchen to talk to his mom and he said, "Mom, I'm feeling my faith drop". Pastor, "Feeling my faith drop". So he started just talking to his mom in the kitchen, and you know how moms are. Some of you guys are moms. Started tapping his hand. "It's okay, baby. It's okay. Jesus loves you. It's okay," tapping his hand. Well, the father was in the living room.
Now, dads don't pat hands, okay? They don't pat hands. They don't say, "It's okay, baby. It's okay. It's", that's not what dads do. He comes in there and he goes, "Kevin, I'm sick and tired of hearing you whining. You're a pastor, my God". That's what... and so the mom's like, "No, no, no, no. Don't talk to him like that. He's just such a good boy". He's a grown man. He's married. He goes, "Son, when was the last time you shut a door behind you and prayed. You preach about it, but when was the last time you did it"? "Well, Dad, it's been a minute". "When was the last time you opened up the Bible and read at least the chapter"?
"It's been a minute". "When was the last time you played worship music in your car? When was the last time you played worship music in your house"? "Dad, it's been a minute". "When was the last time you went on YouTube to hear another preacher preach"? "It's been a minute". "When was the last time you got a Christian book and read it just to be inspired"? And then his dad, he goes, "Of course your faith is down"! I wanna look at my friend Jeff and go through the same checklist. Of course your faith is down. Can I tell you? You and I have flesh just like everybody else. Simon Simon, Jennifer Jennifer, Jeff Jeff, Frankie Frankie, Satan is looking to sift you like wheat.
What does he want? He wants our faith. We gotta keep our hand on the pulse. We are made of flesh. Our faith will drop. You know that your faith is dropping when your desire for God is starting to vanish. When you no longer have a desire for God, you are in trouble. Now, just so you know, that comes to all of us. Comes to my friend Kevin, it comes to me. The enemy comes up, says, "I know you believe in God, Frankie, but you really believe he's gonna get involved? I mean, come on". The first thing to leave is our desire to pray, our desire to go to church. That's when we know that our faith is sick.
You ever notice that when you get the flu, or anything like that, the first thing that happens is you no longer desire food. You're not hungry anymore. It's just, it looks gross. You don't wanna eat it. This is the first thing to go. Your hunger is the first thing to go. And so when he comes in to sift you like wheat, that's what he's doing. When you feel your desire start to drop, the alarm needs to go off like a fire alarm. Beep, beep, beep beep! When you start getting bored in church, when you catch yourself sleeping in church, you're looking around in church.
Oh my goodness, do you have any idea what's happening? You have any idea? Do you have any idea? You may have been going to church for too long. Have you ever met someone who's been going to church for too long? You've been going to church for too long, you're faking enjoying it. You're not even getting anything out of it. You're just that guy. You're that girl. No, I'm going nuts now. This is when the enemy is starting to steal your faith. But did Peter's faith fail? There's an argument up for that. When Jesus was getting whipped, a crown of thorns is getting put on his head, he's carrying a cross, Peter said, "If that ever happens to you, if you're ever gonna get killed, I'm gonna get killed right next to you".
You know, Jesus, a crown of thorn is getting put on his head, he's getting whipped, and where's Peter? He's about 20 yards away, hiding. He's with the people from that area and then he talks and the people in that area go, "Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. We know your accent. We know you're not from around here. You're a Christian. You're a Jesus follower". Just with an accent. I have about 20 sentences that I know in Spanish, and I love saying those 20 sentences over and over again. And they work the best when I go to Mexican restaurants because I've learned that in a Mexican restaurant you're saying the same thing over and over and over again, right? You're asking for the same food. They're asking if you wanna refill. It's the same conversation over and over again.
So I'm like, "I got this". And I do, I can go to a Mexican restaurant and hold my own. But when someone is from Mexico and they hear me speak Spanish, they know I just learned Spanish. I'm saying the right words, they're getting what I'm saying. I'm saying the same words they're saying. But when I say it, they're like, "You just learned how to say that". It's my accent. It's my pronunciation. They go, "Oh, you're a gringo who just learned Spanish". They catch it like that. Peter spoke, and like that, they said, "Wait a minute. You're not one of us. You're a Christ follower". And he starts cursing up a storm. I don't know what curse words are in Greek, but I know in English they're f-bombs like crazy. So he starts cursing.
Now, get this. As he's cursing, the Bible says that Jesus, carrying a cross, looks up and makes eye contact with him. Could you imagine? Could you imagine? Right in the middle of your lowest, disgraceful moment, Jesus shows up and looks, you're embarrassed to be around yourself, and he makes eye contact with you? Now, Jesus just prayed, "Don't let his faith fail". Now, can we have a family discussion? Did his faith fail or not? Yes, no. Yes and no. No and yes. It failed in that moment. Lost his mind, said something, did something. He felt, oh my gosh, he felt horrible. He felt so bad he took off, weeping and crying. But when you are sorry and you are concerned, you are in the presence of the Lord.
Some people say to me, "Frankie, I am concerned that I've drifted away from the Lord". And I say to them, "If you are concerned, you do not need to be concerned". The people who need to be concerned are the people who are not concerned. If you are concerned, if you are saying, "Lord, don't let me drift. Don't let me. You saw I did something stupid. I have a", I'm not gonna put words in your mouth. I'm gonna put words in, I'm gonna tell you what I say. "God, you know if you turn your back on me for one second, I'm gonna do something so stupid. You gotta pay good attention to me. If you don't want me to walk through that door, you better put 14 angels in front of that door, because I'm gonna figure out how to mess my life up".
I'm just talking about me. I'm just talking, I know no one is, I'm just talking about me. And the Lord steps in and he says this, he goes, "Peter," and he draws him back in. When he rose from the grave, he says, "Go get the disciples and Peter". There was a grandfather that a storm came through and started ripping up his plants in his bushes, so he called up his grandson and he said, "Hey. Hey, boy," that's how grandson, that's how grandpa's, "Hey, boy". And so, "Get over here and help me. We're gonna take out all the flowers and all the plants that have died in the storm".
So the kid comes over with a shovel and... what do you call those big knives? What? Machete. They come over there and he's chopping up a storm. He just wants to get the job done and go play with his friends, right? Just chopping. He walks up to this bush, it looks dead, dead, dead, dead, dead, dead. He walks over there, rears back the machete, he goes to chop it, and the grandfather says, "Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa whoa whoa whoa. Whoa, hold on," reaches into his pocket, you know every grandpa has a pocket knife, every one.
Walks over there and he grabs a branch, it looks dead, dead, past dead, and he takes the pocket knife and he peels the skin off a branch and he says, "Look, there's still green in there. It looks dead, but it's still alive. Let's just let this be and we're gonna feed it. We're gonna pay attention to it". Jesus looks at Peter and he says, "I prayed for your faith. You messed up, but your heart is still for me. You still want to... I still see green. I still see green". The fact of the matter is, is that when the Lord looks at you, you may be looking at yourself wanting to just kick yourself all the time. The Lord looks at you and goes, "No, no, no, no, no, no. I see green. There's life in there, there's desire in there".
You're in the house of God right now. You're here. Why are you here? You say, "I didn't even know I was coming here. My mom dragged me here, and I just woke up and I'm here". No, no, no, no, no, no. The Bible says in John chapter 6, verse 33, "No man comes to the Father unless drawn by the Son". The Lord looks at you and says, "I still see green. I still see love. I still see a passion". He reached out this morning and pulled you to himself. Every single day he's pulling you to himself. You can't stop thinking about him very long. You can get mad at him. "That's it, I'm not worshiping anymore. I'm not going to church anymore".
It's still in the back of your head. He keeps pulling you to himself. Why? Because your faith has not failed. You still have faith. The third point: God intercedes for you. Romans chapter 8, verse 34, Jesus is at the right hand of the Father and he's talking to the Father about you. What is he saying? One of the things he's saying is exactly what he said about Peter. He's saying, "I see that the enemy is trying to sift them like wheat, trying to get them to worry about something".
Have you ever noticed that you're worried about finances, and then somehow that gets taken care of? And now you're worried about family, and then somehow that gets taken care of. And then you start worrying about this, you start worrying about that. It's almost like you're addicted to worry. I'm not preaching at you. It's almost like I get sucked into that too. And Jesus is saying, "Oh, I see the enemy trying to sift them. Lord, don't let her, don't let his faith go away".
The Lord is praying for you all the time. And now what we say back, 1 Thessalonians 5:17, "I also will not stop praying". I wanna challenge you in the same way that my friend's father challenged him. Take your pulse. Do you feel your faith starting to drift? Play worship music in your car. Turn off Garth Brooks or whoever, I don't even know. Who's the new country guy everybody loves? Who? Zach Ryan.
Turn off Zach Ryan and put on some worship music. Go tell Alexa, "Play worship music". How easy can it get? "Siri, play worship music". If you have a Google phone, you have no chance. Those don't work. Might as well go get a tape and just... sorry. Half the room loves me, the other half doesn't. Whatever you gotta do... should I just dismiss you now? Take your pulse, the Lord is praying for you, keep filling your spirit with worship and praise. Will you stand up and put your hands together for the Lord? Come on. Come on, put your hands together for him.