Steven Furtick - Peter and the Packing Peanuts (05/05/2017)
In this sermon from the Chatterbox series, the preacher addresses shame and condemnation as the root of many struggles, using Peter's denial of Jesus in Luke 22 and a personal story of losing his temper over Christmas trash. The key message is that through Christ's advocate (the Holy Spirit) and the blood of the Lamb, believers can triumph over the accuser's lies and declare, "You can't make me ashamed," refusing to let past failures define their identity.
Welcome and Series Overview
Well, I want to welcome all of our locations today joining us for this sermon. And how many of you have been helped by this series on the Chatterbox so far? Good. It's not necessarily that learning about the Chatterbox will help you to fix it right away, but once you find it, then you can start fixing it. You can start fixing the thinking. You can start fixing the patterns. You can start fixing the habits, and that's our goal.
Before I begin with the sermon officially, though, I believe our good friend the Chatterbox has sent us a video message today. I believe he has something that he wants to share with all of us, so if you'll turn your attention to the screens, we'll let him begin our time together.
The Chatterbox Video Message
Anyone ever tell you you're incredibly annoying? Anyone ever tell you you're from Monk's Corner? Because I could literally smell the beef jerky and deer urine when you walked in the room. See, that's exactly what I'm talking about. Let me guess. I should be a little more positive. What's up, bro? You want to go grab some taquitos after racquetball today? No.
Okay. FYI, for your information and what have you, a positive attitude has never solved one problem. But it can make a lot of people hate you. I mean, no one can stand those people with their lemonade for life perspectives. Like that girl you work with, the one that always acts like she ate rainbows for breakfast and rode a unicorn to work. Yeah, she's a lot of fun to hang out with. There's a reason she has a picture of her cat for her home screen.
All right, since you know everything, then what advice would you give to somebody who's struggling with negative thoughts? I would say, learn to laugh at your problems. Because everyone else is laughing at you, I mean. That's a terrible thing to say to someone. Hey, I don't make the rules, I just make the exceptions. Kind of like your haircut.
But let's be honest, everything's so much funnier as long as it's not happening to you. Am I right? Have you ever gone on YouTube, pull out your phone, look up guy on a Segway gets hit by a Falcon? I mean, look it up. It'll be the first thing pops up. I'm really regretting we set up these interviews. Are you kidding me? I'm at the top of a very short list of good things that have ever happened to you.
Anywho. Taquitos! You see what I did there? I brought it back around because that's how I work. I'm good. Feeling good about that. All right. Let's all boo the chatterbox together. Come on, help me. Boo. I hate that guy.
Introducing Shame and Condemnation
Each week we're dealing with a different area where we're attacked by our own thinking. And we've talked about insecurity. We've talked about fear. Next week we're going to deal with discouragement. Today I want to talk about something that is in so many ways the source of all of the other issues. I want to talk about shame and condemnation in our lives.
And in order to get to this topic, I want to tell you a story. I actually want to tell you two stories. The first one I want to tell you will be from the Bible. And then the second one is from my own life. And both of them deal with this idea of falling short and not measuring up. And I won't be long today. The message that I want to bring you is a pretty simple one. I just want to talk about a new way to deal with your shame.
Because everybody in this room today is ashamed of themselves in some way. And yet the message I want to bring you today, if you'd like to write down a title, we'll call it You Can't Make Me Ashamed. You Can't Make Me Ashamed.
Peter's Denial – Following at a Distance
I want to speak first from the life of Peter. And when you think of Peter, you think of great boldness, because he was always willing to speak up first. When no one else would say something, he wasn't scared to sound stupid. And he often did. It sounded stupid. I relate to him in that way. There's a lot of boldness and courage demonstrated, exhibited in the life of Peter.
Yet at the moment where it mattered the most, he did something very shameful that he would have to live with for the rest of his life. And I suppose it's possible to be the kind of person who, on one hand, is very unashamed and yet carries a deep sense of shame that you never show anybody.
Peter is following along with the crowd that is marching Jesus to be crucified in Luke chapter 22. And we get this account of how Peter denied Jesus, how Peter wasn't willing to stand with Jesus. And I just want to read it because there's one particular thing I want to point out to you.
And again, just give you an image today so you can begin to think about the things that make you ashamed in a different way from this day forward. Scripture says in Luke chapter 22, verse 54, that they seized Jesus and led him away and took him into the house of the high priest. Check out this next phrase. Peter followed at a distance.
And I think that says so much about the way that many of us follow Christ in our own lives following at a distance. One preacher called it a guilty distance. And we see here, Peter, he hasn't completely disassociated from Christ yet, but there's beginning to develop a distance between him and the one that he's followed for three years.
The Rooster's Crow and Bitter Weeping
I wonder how many of us are following Christ at a distance in our lives today, here at church, but standing at a guilty distance in our hearts. You know, your body can be in church, but your heart be far from God. Your lips can say the right thing, but your heart be far from God. You can sing the right songs, but your heart be far from God because of a sense of shame.
Here is Peter, who was once so reckless and so bold, now ashamed to stand with the Savior, and he's following at a distance. He wants to see what will happen, but he has a suspicion and it's not going to turn out the way he wanted it to, and so he follows at a distance. The one that he hoped would alleviate all of his trouble has now gotten himself into a lot of trouble, and he's following at a distance.
Verse 55 says, And when some there had kindled a fire in the middle of the courtyard and had sat down together, Peter sat down with them. A servant girl saw him seated there in the firelight, and she looked closely at him and said, This man was with him, but he denied it. Woman, I don't know him, he said.
And a little later, someone else saw him and said, You also are one of them. Man, I'm not, Peter replied. About an hour later, another asserted, Certainly this fellow was with him, for he's a Galilean. Peter replied, Man, I don't know what you're talking about.
Now, Luke gives us the clean version, but one of the other gospel writers tells us that Peter cursed and denied Jesus. So he said something stronger than, Man, I don't know him. What exactly he said, we'll never know. But we know that the pressure of the moment and the shame of identification with Jesus, who is now being taken away to be publicly ashamed, was enough to drive Peter to a distance.
The one that he had followed so closely, the one that had lifted him up while he was sinking in the water, the one that he had sat with and promised he would never deny him. Just hours before, now he's ashamed of him. Peter speaks up, this time not to affirm his faith in Jesus, but to deny his faith in Jesus.
And it says, pay attention, verse 60, part B, just as he was speaking, the rooster crowed. Why is that significant? Well, if you actually look at Jesus' prediction of Peter's denial, Peter's denial, he tells him, before the rooster crows today, you'll deny me three times. So when the rooster crowed, it reminded Peter of what Jesus had said.
He was also reminded, I'm sure in that moment, of how adamantly he had asserted he would never, ever do it, but yet he did. The rooster crowed, and verse 61 says, the Lord turned and looked straight at Peter, and then Peter remembered the word the Lord had spoken to him before the rooster crows today. You will disown me three times.
Listen to this. He went outside and wept bitterly.
Guilt vs. Shame – The Accuser's Work
I'm sorry to start this sermon on such a sad note. This will probably not be the most enjoyable sermon of the series. You should have been here last week. We were shouting and shaking snakes and burning fires and everything. But this week I kind of want to talk to you for a few moments about how the enemy will try to take something that you did and convince you that what you did is who you are.
And I want to speak to anybody who is carrying with them today a sense of shame for things that you did. See, there's a difference between guilt and shame. Guilt is something that you did. Shame is something that you believe you are.
And the reason that Peter wept bitterly when the rooster crowed wasn't simply because he had failed in that moment, but because he was now convinced, I am a failure. And this is what shame will do. You know, I've noticed that the enemy is really adept at not only getting us to do things that we're ashamed of, but then once he gets us to do it, he knows how to get on top of us and hold us down with shame, convincing us that we can never get up again.
In the book of Revelation, the last book of the Bible, Revelation chapter 12, verse 10, John is describing the final fall of Satan. And he says something really interesting. It's only mentioned once in the Bible. He says, then I heard a loud voice in heaven say, now have come the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Messiah for the accuser of our brothers and sisters. Notice that title.
This is the only time that Satan has called this, but he calls him the accuser of our brothers and sisters, the accuser. See, I used to think that Satan's main job was temptation, and I believe he's very good at tempting us to do things that are wrong. But I found out that his real strong point isn't just temptation, but it's accusation.
So in other words, it's not just getting you to do something you shouldn't do, but it's in convincing you that you are something after you do something that Satan really knows how to suffocate the spiritual life right out of you. He said, I looked and I saw the accuser who accuses them before our God day and night, and he has been hurled down.
Verse 11 says, they triumphed over him by the blood of the lamb and by the word of their testimony. I believe that today God wants to teach us how to triumph over our accuser. You can't make me ashamed. Tell somebody next to you, say, you can't make me ashamed. Just tell them, you can't make me ashamed.
The Advocate – The Holy Spirit
See, if you go over to John chapter 14, verse 26, there's this other scripture. Revelation 12, verse 10 talks about the accuser of our souls, the accuser. But if you get to John 14, 26, I wanted to show you this because John talks about the Holy Spirit, and he describes it in a way. He uses a very interesting word, and I think this will be helpful.
He says that this is Jesus now, talking about when he's going away, how he's going to send the Spirit down to help us and to live with us and to abide with us and to strengthen us and to embolden us and to encourage us. And listen to what he calls him. John 14, verse 26, he says, but the advocate... I love that name for the Holy Spirit. The advocate.
So I've got the accuser trying to make me ashamed. But thank God for the advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father has sent in Jesus' name. He said he will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you. I thank God that I have an advocate.
An advocate is a defender. Come on, somebody. Because you know as well as I do that you wouldn't want to be put on trial for all the stuff inside of you that nobody else can see. And so we've got an accuser and we've got an advocate. An accuser and an advocate. The advocate is defending God's children. The accuser is shaming God's servants.
Personal Story – The Christmas Trash Incident
Now I want to tell you my own story, and I will also tell you why this trash can and these boxes are on the stage at this point. So a couple of Christmases ago, let me tell you a little bit about Christmas for our family. Christmas for our family is a little bit different than just your average Christmas because here at the church we do like 17,964 worship experiences over three and a half days.
And by the time you preach that many times and our volunteers that serve that many times and our staff that worked that hard, by the time Christmas Day comes around, we're not usually feeling real jolly or merry. We're happy because God does great things, but even though we've seen thousands of people give their lives to Christ, I can only speak for myself and say, by the time you've spent yourself that way and just emptied yourself spiritually, there's a sense in which you almost feel down, even though spiritually you're up, but just physically and emotionally you're down because there's no way to give that much of yourself and just recover right away.
So Christmas at our house is, again, a little bit different. Holly does a great job of making sure the kids have a great time and I have all these great Christmas memories from my childhood with the way that Christmas was for me, but I'm doing good on Christmas just to get through without freaking out because, again, the pressure of preaching that many times. It's just kind of crazy.
Me and Holly have kind of learned how to get through this thing. She lets me stare at the walls on Christmas Day and she makes sure all the presents are wrapped and the family comes in and all of this, but we usually have a rule that we don't travel until about 48, 72 hours at least after Christmas because that's a recovery period for me to start feeling sane again lest I get around some cousin or distant relative or somebody like that and they say something and then I do something, you know, because things can happen on Christmas.
So you kind of get exposed to people that you don't otherwise voluntarily enter. Anyway, so we usually stay home, but a couple Christmases ago we kind of violated our own rule and we decided to go to see her parents the day after Christmas. We were feeling brave, so we were like, we're just going to go on to… I love Holly's family and they love me and all this, so we think it'll be fine, but we did make one arrangement that she would go ahead of me and she would take Elijah and Abby because they are the two most noticeable of our children.
Graham, our middle child, he's more like a pet. He's like a lap dog or something and you can just kind of hang out with him and rub his head and he's cool. So I said, Holly, you go ahead to your parents' house. You drive ahead. It's only a couple of hours and I'll bring Graham. You go ahead with Elijah and Abby. I'll bring Graham later.
I knew I just needed a little bit more time, so I went upstairs with Graham and we exercised. We did P90X, chest and back, and he did a modified version. Once I was exercising a little while, I started feeling the serotonin flow a little bit and I was getting a little cheerful and I was like, okay, I'm ready to go now. So I knew I was ready to go because I had started singing. I was singing Hark the Herald Angels Sing the Old Christmas Hymn and Graham stopped to ask me who's Harold. So I explained to him about Hark the Herald Angels Sing.
So we threw the bags in the car. I'm going to tell you this story. I put it in the book and several of my friends said, are you sure you want to put that in your book because it makes you sound really bad? I realized that it's okay if a story makes me sound bad if it helps you to feel better about your own struggles. I'm so sick of preachers who never, ever expose any of their own flaws. I don't really want to be that. I appreciate it, but you might not want to clap until you hear what I tell you the rest of this.
The Packing Peanuts Meltdown
We're pulling out of the driveway and I'm feeling pretty good now, but I know I'm still on edge. I noticed something kind of out of the ordinary that there are boxes blowing all across my yard. It's pretty cold, rainy, windy outside, and there are boxes blowing all over the yard as well as soda cans and wrapping paper.
I realized what Holly had done. In an effort to be helpful, in an effort to be proactive, she had taken all of the trash out before she left and put it by the curb because we weren't going to be back in time for the trash collection, and she wanted to make sure we didn't come home to a house full of trash. She had taken it all out, but what she had forgotten to do was check the weather forecast because the weather forecast would have clearly told her that there were high winds coming in and storm weather just about an hour after she left and that it wouldn't be a good idea to stack boxes at the curb when there are strong winds in the forecast an hour from now.
Since she hadn't checked the weather forecast, and I know she meant, well, God bless her, but in an effort to be helpful, she had exposed all of our trash. Now, this is Christmas trash. You know how Christmas trash is. Christmas trash, yeah. Every piece of trash in the history of our household is now being blown across the yard.
All of a sudden, my Christmas spirit left me, and I turned into something else. I said, Graham, get out. We have to get these boxes. Me and Graham would get out the car, and he's helping the best he can. We're trying to get the boxes in the garage. But as soon as we can get one piece of trash in the garage, and I'm thinking some pretty bad things at this point about Holly, and I'm putting the boxes in the garage, but the moment I get one box in the garage, because the wind is still blowing like crazy and it's rainy and it's cold, and the moment we get one box in the garage, here comes two more boxes that have spilled open.
So I had an idea. I thought, I have to do something to put a lid on this. And I saw one really big box, and I thought, oh, here's what I'll do. I'll take that box and I'll turn it over. But what I didn't know is that the box wasn't empty, because I was going to take the empty box and I was going to put that box on top of the other trash. But when I turned the box over that I thought was empty, I discovered it was full of packing peanuts.
Now, have you ever seen the interaction between packing peanuts and strong wind? So now all of a sudden, now all of a sudden, do you feel my pain? All of a sudden, I realized this is way beyond our control, and I heard myself screaming this. I'm ashamed to tell you, but I heard myself screaming at the top of my lungs, how could she be so stupid? And then I heard an echo back from Graham, who was standing next to me. Yeah! How could she be so stupid?
Please don't look at me, Churchy. I'll come right out there and ask your wife some stuff about you. And then I thought, crap, he wasn't supposed to hear that. And I'm standing there, and the packing peanuts are all flying around like some kind of demonic snowstorm, some apocalypse of packing peanut hell falling down on my head.
You know, I wish, I wish, I wish that I would have had the presence of mind in that moment to be like, let me make a beautiful moment out of this, you know? Because it could have been kind of cool, you know? Like a white Christmas of a different kind, you know what I'm saying? Like, well, isn't this wonderful? I wish I would have, you know, pulled out my phone and taken a picture of Graham and hashtagged it, you know, Daddy's little helper. Instagram. Get it? Insta. You like it?
Instead, I find myself all of a sudden, I'm dialing Holly's number, and I'm not even really thinking, but the next thing I know, I hear myself just screaming at my wife on the phone. And the packing peanuts are still blowing everywhere, and the trash is now blowing not only in my yard, but that neighbor's yard and that neighbor's yard. And I'm surrounded by all of this, and I'm screaming in the phone, guess what I'm doing? And then I heard myself saying these words. I wasn't saying them to her. I was screaming them at her, but like, that's any better.
And I'm saying these words a lot stronger than shoot. And I don't do this. This is not a part of our marriage. You understand? This is not something that's a regular pattern in my marriage. But it's just crazy how. I went from two days ago, I'm standing behind this pulpit preaching, telling people about God's love, to standing in the middle of some packing peanuts, yelling at my wife on the phone, only to look down and see that Graham is standing there again, listening to the whole thing.
And that's the moment where the accuser will mount you and pound you to death. Because, see, in that moment, here's the kind of thoughts I'm hearing. And these thoughts are flying around as fast as the packing peanuts, you know, just as the packing peanuts. I just want you to get a picture. As the packing peanuts are blowing all around the yard, here come all these thoughts, all these accusations, and they're flying so fast.
I'm holding the phone, and I'm looking at my yard. And I know you've never had a situation like this before, but just work with me. Pretend like I'm not the only one who gets dysfunctional. I'm looking, and I'm not really mad at Holly. I'm really mad at me that I allowed this to make me so mad. But the madder I am at me, the more I need to act like I'm mad at her, because I can't really admit that it's me that I'm mad at.
So I'm yelling, and I've stopped yelling, and there's Graham, and there's the boxes. How did this happen? Just 30 minutes ago, we were working out with Tony Horton and singing Hark the Herald Angels Sing, and now I'm standing in the middle of Mount Trashmore right in my own front yard. What's wrong with me? Why do I always do this? My dad did this. You're just like your dad. You're no better than him. You're screwing up your kids. You screwed up Christmas. Way to go. You screwed up Christmas. Some kind of preacher is flying. It's flying.
I don't know if you've ever had these thoughts flying. When they start flying, you can start trying to make them stop, but no matter how much you try, there's some over here and some over there, and then those thoughts make thoughts, and those thoughts make thoughts, and now you're mad.
So I did the only reasonable thing I could think of. I took the phone, and I slung it across the yard in one final demonstration of manhood. I didn't even hang it up before I threw it. I just threw it across the yard. Then I went and picked it up. I was mad, but I wasn't that mad to leave my iPhone in the yard. I said, Come on, Graham. We just have to go.
We spent 30 minutes. We got the trash as good as we could get it. I said, They just have to kick me out of the homeowners association. That's the best I could do.
Conviction vs. Accusation – The Three Ps of Shame
I'm telling you this lengthy story on purpose. I got in the car, and I decided I'm going to go ahead and drive on to Holly's parents' house. What I really needed to do was pray. But how many know that the moments where you need to pray the most in your life are usually the moments where you feel worthy to pray the least?
I know I probably need to listen to some worship music to get my mind right, but I didn't feel like worship music. I felt like Metallica or Megadeth. And as I'm driving down the road, listening to this soundtrack of shame, I realize that I have a decision to make in this moment.
Now, I told you a story about my trash. You got your own trash too. Some of you struggle like me with your temper. And it's a very outward thing. Some of you struggle with being manipulative in ways that don't necessarily pitch a fit, but they cause chaos to everybody around you.
I'm going down the road, and all of a sudden, I'm not just convicted about what I've done. I'm starting to believe lies about who I am. Now, conviction is one of God's greatest gifts that he gives his children. Conviction comes from God's Spirit. Conviction is when God will speak to you, and it doesn't always come when you're in church, and it doesn't always come when you're reading the Bible. Sometimes it comes through another person. Sometimes it comes through an impression.
But conviction is that very special touch of God where he puts his finger on an area in your life and says, I want us to change this together. Conviction is that place where God doesn't only show you what needs to change, but he gives you the grace and the power to begin to change. That's conviction.
The accuser shows you the area of your life where you need to change, while simultaneously convincing you that change is absolutely impossible. I'm driving down the road, and I've got a decision to make. Am I going to listen to the accuser or the advocate?
The accuser is telling me, you're a horrible dad. Your kid is going to end up on a therapist's couch. You've just ruined Graham's future. Your wife hates you. She doesn't even want to see you. What kind of man are you? This is the accuser.
The advocate, he's speaking to me about the same issue. What in the world was that? Let's talk about that. Let's look at that. Let's see what caused that. Boy, you really need to apologize to your wife when you see her, but before you do, I want to work with you through this issue. Where did that go wrong? See, that's the advocate defending me, but the accuser comes to destroy me, and they both sound so similar. It's hard to tell the difference.
The Three Ps – Personal, Permanent, Pervasive
I have this friend named Henry Cloud. He's a Christian psychologist. He did a seminar here at the church for business leaders, and he was talking about negative thinking. He said, the way you can know when your thoughts have become destructive and negative and the feedback you're giving yourself has become shame-based… He said, there's three Ps of negative thinking. I want to call them the three Ps of shame for our sermon here today. Put them on the screen, please.
He said that negative thinking… Here's how you can know when the Enemy is affecting your thinking rather than God. He says that negative thinking and shame is always, number one, personal, permanent, number two, and pervasive. Pervasive means it spreads to every area of your life.
He said that negative thinking is always personal, permanent, and pervasive. And I think he's right. I think he's right. Shame doesn't say you made a bad decision. Shame says you're a horrible person. Shame says not only did you lose your temper, but shame says you're completely out of control. Shame takes what you did and tries to tell you that's who you are. It makes it personal.
Oh, I have to tell you one story about Elijah since I told you one about Graham. Last summer, when I was writing Crash the Chatterbox, we were on family vacation, and I noticed Holly had taken out this cornhole board that my mom had let us borrowed. The next thing I noticed from across the yard… I'm sitting over there working on the book. I'm writing about this… I'm taking this thing about the three Ps, and I'm writing about it, and I noticed across the yard that Elijah has decided that, rather than play cornhole, he's going to jump up and down on the cornhole board like it's a trampoline.
Then I noticed the cornhole board broken in half, and then I noticed Holly having a conversation with Elijah, a very intimate conversation about his decision. We've been trying to teach him not to break stuff And not to have such a rambunctious personal disregard for all property and humanity. And so, Elijah has melted down.
And it's one of those parenting moments where, I don't know if you ever do this, I'm trying to decide, do I pretend like I don't see this happening so I don't have to get involved in it? Or should I engage it? And I decided I'm going to go over there and help, because Elijah is just all tore up about it.
When I got over to him, he says this, and I don't know if he was just turning up the drama, because he knew he was in trouble, and he thought if he could turn up the drama, then we would back off a little bit, or what he was doing. He's a pretty smart kid. But I heard him say this, and he said this, these exact words, he said, "'What's wrong with me? I always mess up everything.'"
And so I was like, you know, no, buddy. You don't always mess up everything. But then I walked away, because I had to go write that down, because I had to go put it down, because it fit perfect in my chapter. No, I want you to think about it with me. From the lips of an eight-year-old, he just outlined the three Ps of shame.
Let's take it apart. Let's exegete those two sentences. Number one, what's wrong with me? Personal. It's not about what you did anymore. It's about who you are. What's wrong with me? Not, why did I jump up and down on the cornhole board even though I've been… What's wrong? There is something fundamentally flawed about my character. Not, I need to calm down a little bit. I'm a little too wild. What's wrong?
I thought about titling this sermon, What's Wrong With Me? Because that's what shame does inside your psyche. It doesn't just say you did wrong. It says you are wrong. It doesn't just say you messed up. It says you are messed up. It doesn't just say that you blew at that time. It says that you blew at that time, so there is something wrong with you that cannot be made right. What's wrong with me? It's personal, but then it's also permanent. Watch this. I always…. I'm only eight years old, but I always… You see it? I always mess up. This is permanent, and it's pervasive. I mess up everything.
The Rooster in Your Life – Triumph Over Shame
That's what I'm doing, standing in the yard, driving down the road, thinking about those packing peanuts. It's not just you need to tell your wife you're sorry and work on this issue. Now it's, and you call yourself a man of God. Who do you think you are? It's personal, and it's permanent, just like your dad yelled at your mom. Now you're repeating the same cycle. You suck.
You hear the rooster? Oh, you thought I forgot about Peter? No, no. We started this sermon talking about Peter. The moment he denied Jesus the third time and his failure was complete, the rooster crowed. That's interesting to me that the rooster crowed because you have to realize that now every morning that Peter wakes up for the rest of his life, he's going to have a reminder of this moment, this failure.
Every morning he wakes up to the crow of the rooster, and every time he hears the rooster crowed, he's transported back to this place where he's standing at a distance, denying that he even knows Jesus. I wonder what roosters are crowing in your mind today. I wonder what reminders are shaming you, something you did, a marriage that you ruined, a relationship that you screwed up.
I wonder what images are in your mind of the times. Now, I'm not just talking about the big catastrophic stuff either. I'm talking about what packing peanuts you've been standing in the middle. I wonder what things the enemy is trying to personalize and make permanent and pervasive to convince you by the crow of the rooster.
See, that's how the devil operates. That's what the accuser does. He will crow in your face the moment you come awake in the morning. My rooster is getting kind of weak. I've done it a couple of times now. You have to bear with me, but it's a sound. It's an impression. It's a sensation. It's a feeling that you can't shake.
There's somebody here today who has been walking in the shadows of shame, just driving along to the soundtrack of shame, and I'm driving down the road thinking about what I did. I'm wondering how in the world am I going to face my wife and her family after I just acted like a complete idiot, after I just acted like a complete child. I'm thinking about God. I'm thinking about how, God, I don't deserve your love.
You know what God said to me in that car? He said, You're right. You don't deserve it. You're right. You don't deserve it. You don't deserve it, but that doesn't mean you're not worthy of it. You don't deserve it, but I made you worthy of it. God help us, because in our churches we've tried to change people by making them feel ashamed about what they did. So much of what we've called Christianity is really just shame-based behavior modification. Shame can't change you, not for long. Only grace can do that. Only grace can do that.
The rooster can only remind you of your sin, but you know what the Spirit can do? You know what the Advocate can do? You know what God can do if you'll open your eyes and open your ears? Just like Jesus looked at Peter, just like Jesus restored Peter. I believe that grace wants to look you in the eyes today and say, You're not loved because you deserve it. You're loved because I made you worthy. You don't have to listen to that rooster. Don't let that rooster tell you who you are.
See, the accuser will always remind you of your shame, but Jesus will remind you of your righteousness. See, I came to find out that Jesus loved me just as much the day after Christmas when I was standing in the front yard cussing at packing peanuts. He loved me just as much in that moment as he did when I was standing behind this pulpit preaching two days before. It's the same love. It's the same grace.
See, it's all a matter of the voice you listen to. Some of you have been listening to the rooster, telling you, taking you back to that place where you failed. It's very interesting. I have a great wife, and when I got there that day to her parents' house, she wasn't waiting at the door with a speech for me. She wasn't waiting at the door. I already felt bad enough.
Usually when we try to shame others, we don't realize that shame is not the solution. Shame is the source of why they already acted the way they did. Sometimes we try to make people feel ashamed about stuff that they're already so ashamed of, and we end up driving them deeper into the shame. Thereby, they repeat the action because they believe that they are what they did.
Holly met me at the door. You know what that woman did? She had already fixed me a plate. Some of y'all women are like, oh no. I heard a man say amen, and I saw a woman shake her head. I said, I'm so sorry. She said, I know. I know. I said, I'm going to do better on that. She said, that's not who you are. That statement. That's not who you are. That's what you did. And what you did there doesn't cancel out everything else that you've done right. That's not who you are.
Jesus' Prediction and Promise to Peter
He said, Peter, when the rooster crows, you're going to deny me. I'm going to read you something. I'm closing. This is going to be a liberating moment for somebody, though. There's something the enemy has been telling you to shame you, but there's something God wants to remind you of today that's going to speak louder than your shame.
I want you to receive it now because there's a gift God wants to give you. There are so many of you that cannot look God in the eyes because of what you've done. Shame makes you hide from God. Shame drives you away. Conviction will draw you into the presence of God. God says, I saw what you did. Come to me anyway. I saw what you did. My arms are stretched out to you anyway. I saw what you did. You need me now more than ever. Don't run away from me at the moment when you need me the most. Yeah, you did it. Admit it. Confess it. Own it, but don't stay stuck in it. That's not who you are.
Watch this. Before Peter ever denied Jesus, Jesus predicted the very denial. We see the account in Luke 22, verse 31, where Jesus is breaking bread with his disciples and he's serving them the Passover meal, the Last Supper, we call it. We still take communion today. We're going to take communion actually together as a church in a few moments as I close this sermon, but as Jesus was serving communion to the very ones who he knew would betray him.
He looks at Peter and he says in verse 31, Luke 22, he says, Simon, Simon. See, Simon was Peter's name before Jesus changed him. Simon means shifty, shaky. Peter means rock. And Jesus calls Peter by his given name. He says, Simon, Simon. Satan has asked to sift all of you as wheat, but I have prayed for you. The accuser has asked to take you out, but the advocate has a defense to keep you in.
Simon, Simon. I know how shifty you are. I know how dysfunctional you are. I know how messed up you are. I know the things you think about. I know the perversions. I know the proclivities. I know the stuff that was done to you that you took on yourself that causes you to behave in shameful ways. Simon, Simon. I prayed for you. Here's what I prayed. I prayed that your faith may not fail.
I love the next line. He says, And when you have turned back, strengthen your brothers. Not only does Jesus predict Peter's failure, but he promises that even in his failure, his faith will not fail.
Turning Back – Triumph by the Blood and Testimony
I just want to speak to your heart today in these last two minutes and 45 seconds. Even though you failed, don't let your faith in God fail. Even though you fail. See, you can't have faith in your performance. If you have faith in your performance, there's always going to be stuff, man. It's going to come at you. As soon as I close this sermon, you know what? You're going to walk out the door and hear a-a-a-a-ah-ah.
But from now on when that rooster crows, I want you to learn how to answer him back. Hey, Mr. Rooster! You can crow if you want to, But what you say doesn't define who I am. Jesus said, when you have turned back… He said, I know you're going to turn away. I know you're going to fail me. I know you're going to have dark moments. I know you're going to say some stuff and do some stuff and miss some stuff. I know it, but when you have turned… Not if, but when you have turned back…
Somebody's turning back to God right now, turning back to God, looking at his face, not listening to the soundtrack of shame another day, but when you have turned back… It's time to turn back. It's time to turn back. What are you going to do? Stand here your whole life chasing, packing peanuts? Stand here all your life just believing the lies, letting them fly? When there is an advocate, a defender… Aren't you glad today you have an advocate?
I know you've got an accuser. I do too. I know we've given him a lot to work with, but I'm so glad that the Word of God says that the accuser was cast down, and we triumph over him by the blood of the Lamb and the word of our testimony.
Heavenly Father, I thank you today for this word that you have ministered to your people. I thank you that our failure is not final. Hallelujah. I thank you, Lord, that your grace has the last word in our lives. I thank you that there is an advocate, a strong defender. So, God, we want to take a moment to declare in our souls that what you have done for us is greater than the record of sin and shame that stands against us.
I just thank you right now for hundreds of people under the sound of my voice turning back to Jesus, looking on your face today, getting past the shame, the accusation. We thank you for our advocate today. The Holy Spirit of God.