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Introduction\u201d\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n How many of us have ever failed at something<\/em><\/strong>?\u00a0 Do you remember how it felt?\u00a0 Can you still feel that knot of shame, maybe even guilt and uselessness inside<\/em>?<\/p>\n On New Year’s Day, 1929, Georgia Tech played University of California in the Rose Bowl. In that game a man named Roy Riegels recovered a fumble for California. Somehow, he became confused and started running 65 yards in the wrong direction. One of his teammates, Benny Lom, outdistanced him and downed him just before he scored for the opposing team. When California attempted to punt, Tech blocked the kick and scored a safety which was the ultimate margin of victory.<\/p>\n That strange play came in the first half, and everyone who was watching the game was asking the same question: “What will Coach Nibbs Price do with Roy Riegels in the second half?” The men filed off the field and went into the dressing room. They sat down on the benches and on the floor, all but Riegels. He put his blanket around his shoulders, sat down in a corner, put his face in his hands, and cried like a baby. If you have played football, you know that a coach usually has a great deal to say to his team during half time. That day Coach Price was quiet. No doubt he was trying to decide what to do with Riegels. Then the timekeeper came in and announced that there were three minutes before playing time. Coach Price looked at the team and said simply, “Men the same team that played the first half will start the second.” The players got up and started out, all but Riegels. He did not budge. the coach looked back and called to him again; still he didn’t move. Coach Price went over to where Riegels sat and said, “Roy, didn’t you hear me? The same team that played the first half will start the second.” Then Roy Riegels looked up and his cheeks were wet with a strong man’s tears. “Coach,” he said, “I can’t do it to save my life. I’ve ruined you, I’ve ruined the University of California, I’ve ruined myself. I couldn’t face that crowd in the stadium to save my life.” Then Coach Price reached out and put his hand on Riegel’s shoulder and said to him: “Roy, get up and go on back; the game is only half over.” And Roy Riegels went back, and those Tech men will tell you that they have never seen a man play football as Roy Riegels played that second half.<\/p>\n Haddon W. Robinson, “Christian Medical Society Journal.”<\/p>\n In the Christian life, sometimes it\u201d\u2122s the second half, the game you play after your failure, that is what\u201d\u2122s important!<\/p>\n A Friend for Failures<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n John 21:1-22<\/p>\n Jesus chooses, forgives and uses failures!<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n John 21:1-2\u00a0(NLT)<\/strong><\/p>\n 1<\/sup><\/strong> Later, Jesus appeared again to the disciples beside the Sea of Galilee. This is how it happened. 2<\/sup><\/strong> Several of the disciples were there\u201d\u201dSimon Peter, Thomas (nicknamed the Twin), Nathanael from Cana in Galilee, the sons of Zebedee, and two other disciples.<\/p>\n Jesus and a few of these fellas had been right here on this same beach before!<\/p>\n 18<\/sup><\/strong> One day as Jesus was walking along the shore of the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers\u201d\u201dSimon, also called Peter, and Andrew\u201d\u201dthrowing a net into the water, for they fished for a living. 19<\/sup><\/strong> Jesus called out to them, \u201cCome, follow me, and I will show you how to fish for people!\u201d 20<\/sup><\/strong> And they left their nets at once and followed him.<\/p>\n This is where it all started\u201d\u201dit was the place of Peter\u201d\u2122s original calling.<\/p>\n Jesus chooses failures!<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n John 21:3-9 (NLT)<\/strong><\/p>\n 3<\/sup><\/strong> Simon Peter said, \u201cI\u201d\u2122m going fishing.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u201d\u2122ll come, too,\u201d they all said. So they went out in the boat, but they caught nothing all night.<\/p>\n 4<\/sup><\/strong> At dawn Jesus was standing on the beach, but the disciples couldn\u201d\u2122t see who he was. 5<\/sup><\/strong> He called out, \u201cFellows, have you caught any fish?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cNo,\u201d they replied.<\/p>\n 6<\/sup><\/strong> Then he said, \u201cThrow out your net on the right-hand side of the boat, and you\u201d\u2122ll get some!\u201d So they did, and they couldn\u201d\u2122t haul in the net because there were so many fish in it.<\/p>\n 7<\/sup><\/strong> Then the disciple Jesus loved said to Peter, \u201cIt\u201d\u2122s the Lord!\u201d When Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he put on his tunic (for he had stripped for work), jumped into the water, and headed to shore. 8<\/sup><\/strong> The others stayed with the boat and pulled the loaded net to the shore, for they were only about a hundred yards from shore. 9<\/sup><\/strong> When they got there, they found breakfast waiting for them\u201d\u201dfish cooking over a charcoal fire, and some bread.<\/p>\n This was a d\u00c3\u00a9j\u00c3\u00a0 vu moment for most of these guys!\u00a0 Luke\u201d\u2122s account of Peter\u201d\u2122s calling (along with that of James and John, the sons of Zebedee) includes this same kind of encounter with Jesus\u201d\u201dfishing all night by themselves, then Jesus gives them instructions and suddenly their nets are so full they can hardly drag them to shore!<\/p>\n So don\u201d\u2122t miss this\u201d\u201dthis entire scene of Jesus sending the disciples to Galilee and then appearing to them there\u201d\u201dit was all perfectly orchestrated by Jesus to remind Peter, especially, of where he had started with Jesus!<\/p>\n Our need is the evidence of God’s supply in waiting<\/span><\/em>. When we lack, He has our supply!<\/p>\n Remember Jesus\u201d\u2122 words in John 15:5?<\/p>\n John 15:5\u00a0(NLT)<\/strong><\/p>\n 5<\/sup><\/strong> \u201cYes, I am the vine; you are the branches. Those who remain in me, and I in them, will produce much fruit. For apart from me you can do nothing.<\/p>\n Paul put it this way:<\/p>\n Philippians 4:13\u00a0(NLT)<\/strong><\/p>\n 13<\/sup><\/strong> For I can do everything through Christ, who gives me strength.<\/p>\n John 21:10-17 (NLT)<\/strong><\/p>\n 10<\/sup><\/strong> \u201cBring some of the fish you\u201d\u2122ve just caught,\u201d Jesus said. 11<\/sup><\/strong> So Simon Peter went aboard and dragged the net to the shore. There were 153 large fish, and yet the net hadn\u201d\u2122t torn.<\/p>\n 12<\/sup><\/strong> \u201cNow come and have some breakfast!\u201d Jesus said. None of the disciples dared to ask him, \u201cWho are you?\u201d They knew it was the Lord. 13<\/sup><\/strong> Then Jesus served them the bread and the fish. 14<\/sup><\/strong> This was the third time Jesus had appeared to his disciples since he had been raised from the dead.<\/p>\n 15<\/sup><\/strong> After breakfast Jesus asked Simon Peter, \u201cSimon son of John, do you love me more than these?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cYes, Lord,\u201d Peter replied, \u201cyou know I love you.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThen feed my lambs,\u201d Jesus told him.<\/p>\n 16<\/sup><\/strong> Jesus repeated the question: \u201cSimon son of John, do you love me?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cYes, Lord,\u201d Peter said, \u201cyou know I love you.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThen take care of my sheep,\u201d Jesus said.<\/p>\n 17<\/sup><\/strong> A third time he asked him, \u201cSimon son of John, do you love me?\u201d<\/p>\n Peter was hurt that Jesus asked the question a third time. He said, \u201cLord, you know everything. You know that I love you.\u201d<\/p>\n Jesus said, \u201cThen feed my sheep.<\/p>\n What\u201d\u2122s with all the repetition here?\u00a0 Remember the conversation between Jesus and Peter at the Last Supper?<\/p>\n Luke 22:31-34\u00a0(NLT)<\/strong><\/p>\n 31<\/sup><\/strong> \u201cSimon, Simon, Satan has asked to sift each of you like wheat. 32<\/sup><\/strong> But I have pleaded in prayer for you, Simon, that your faith should not fail. So when you have repented and turned to me again, strengthen your brothers.\u201d<\/p>\n 33<\/sup><\/strong> Peter said, \u201cLord, I am ready to go to prison with you, and even to die with you.\u201d<\/p>\n 34<\/sup><\/strong> But Jesus said, \u201cPeter, let me tell you something. Before the rooster crows tomorrow morning, you will deny three times that you even know me.\u201d<\/p>\n And only hours later, Peter DID deny Jesus, not once, not twice, but three times, just as Jesus had said.<\/p>\n But remember . . .<\/p>\n Jesus chooses and FORGIVES failures!<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n Ronnie McBrayer:<\/strong><\/p>\n Three times he asks Peter that question: Do you love me? But our English Bibles do not do the question justice. The first two times Jesus asks the question he uses the word agapeo<\/em> \u201d\u201c agape \u201d\u201c the deepest word possible for love, if love can even be defined. It is self-sacrificing, voluntary, unconditional love like a mother for a child or a husband for his new bride. \u201cDo you love me like you said you loved me,\u201d Jesus is asking, \u201cenough to die for me?\u201d Peter responds, \u201cYou know I love you.\u201d But he doesn\u201d\u2122t use the same word as Jesus. He uses the word from which we get the name Philadelphia \u201d\u201c the city of the brotherly love. He essentially says in response, \u201cLord, you know I am your friend.\u201d Twice he responds this way.<\/p>\n The third time then, Jesus uses Peter\u201d\u2122s word of choice. \u201cOK, Simon son of John, are you really my friend?\u201d And this cuts Simon Peter to the heart. Why? Jesus is plowing over ground that has been broken by desertion and betrayal. Peter can say to Jesus, \u201cYes, you are my friend.\u201d But he knows he cannot prove anything beyond that. He can\u201d\u2122t say truthfully, \u201cYes, I love you enough to die for you, to do anything you ask, to give myself up for you.\u201d Because when he was faced with the opportunity to do just that, he botched it. But here\u201d\u2122s the beauty of this conversation: Jesus doesn\u201d\u2122t bring all this back up to pour salt on the wounds of failure. He asks Peter this question three times \u201d\u201c once for every denial, once for every failure. He gave Peter the chance to reaffirm his love. These aren\u201d\u2122t words of condemnation or rebuke. These are words of restoration.<\/p>\n Peter had been living with the guilt and shame of his failure to love Jesus!<\/p>\n Lewis Smedes makes the point that there are three great sources of shame in the world. 1) Secular culture<\/span> \u201d\u201c which says you must look like this, dress like this, live in this kind of house, drive this kind of car, make this much money, or you\u201d\u2122ll never measure up<\/span>; 2) Un<\/span>-accepting parents \u201d\u201c the kind you can never please, it\u201d\u2122s never good enough, no matter what you do; and 3) Graceless religion<\/span> \u201d\u201c religion that always communicates to its adherents one simple message: \u201cYou ought to be ashamed of yourself\u201d (for not behaving right, for saying or thinking the wrong thing, or for not doing enough).<\/p>\n Ronnie McBrayer<\/strong>:<\/p>\n And once shame gets rooted in a human heart, constantly strengthened by these outside forces, it consumes an individual.<\/span> It is the nature of others and our own nature to shame, it is the nature of Christ to forgive, to restore, to put your past behind you, even when you can\u201d\u2122t put it behind you or others won\u201d\u2122t let you put it behind you<\/em><\/strong>.<\/p>\n Jesus chooses and FORGIVES failures!<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n Ronnie McBrayer<\/strong>:<\/p>\n He who succeeds is the one who, in the face of failure, accepts the grace to go on. Failure is not to fall on your face. Failure is to remain in shame; it is to fall but refuse to allow Christ to stand you back up.<\/p>\n Jesus chooses and FORGIVES failures!<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n Rev. Adrian Dieleman<\/strong>:<\/p>\n God doesn’t ask what church or kingdom activity we are involved in. God doesn’t want to know if we are a theological conservative or liberal. God doesn’t question the amount we give to church and Kingdom causes. [Though all of these are important spiritual markers, they are not the most important.] Rather, God focuses on our hearts. He asks if all that we do and say and are flows out of our love for Jesus Christ.<\/p>\n What about YOU?\u00a0 Do you love Jesus?\u00a0 Does your life evidence a dependence on Jesus\u201d\u2122 strength to enable you to obey Him?<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n <\/span><\/em><\/p>\n John 21:18ff\u00a0(NLT)<\/strong><\/p>\n 18<\/sup><\/strong> \u201cI tell you the truth, when you were young, you were able to do as you liked; you dressed yourself and went wherever you wanted to go. But when you are old, you will stretch out your hands, and others will dress you and take you where you don\u201d\u2122t want to go.\u201d 19<\/sup><\/strong> Jesus said this to let him know by what kind of death he would glorify God. Then Jesus told him, \u201cFollow me.\u201d<\/p>\n 20<\/sup><\/strong> Peter turned around and saw behind them the disciple Jesus loved\u201d\u201dthe one who had leaned over to Jesus during supper and asked, \u201cLord, who will betray you?\u201d 21<\/sup><\/strong> Peter asked Jesus, \u201cWhat about him, Lord?\u201d<\/p>\n 22<\/sup><\/strong> Jesus replied, \u201cIf I want him to remain alive until I return, what is that to you? As for you, follow me.\u201d<\/p>\n Jesus chooses, forgives and USES failures.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n Ronnie McBrayer:<\/strong><\/p>\n As an old man, he will serve Christ, and in the process die for his faith. He will actually keep the impulsive promise he once made and three times denied \u201d\u201c \u201cIf everyone else abandons you, I will not. I will die for you.\u201d He will be martyred and killed because he is a Christian. Don\u201d\u2122t let this surprise you. The Christian life is not always a calling to pain-free living. Some are called to suffer \u201d\u201c called to bleed \u201d\u201c it is unavoidable. And these things take place, not because they are ungodly and lack faith but because they are godly and do possess genuine faith. As C.S. Lewis was once asked, \u201cWhy do the godly suffer?\u201d His response \u201d\u201c \u201cBecause they are the only ones who can take it.\u201d Peter, one day, would come to that kind of maturity and true agape<\/em> for his Lord.<\/p>\n Some thirty-five years after this conversation, Jesus prophecy became reality. Under the Neronian persecutions, the aged Simon Peter, Bishop of Rome, was condemned to death. Just as his Lord had died, Peter was crucified on a cross. Yet historians say he was crucified upside down at his own request, for he did not consider himself worthy to die as Jesus had died.<\/p>\n The most important are those two words at the end of verse 19: \u201cFOLLOW ME\u201d. These were the same words Peter had heeded three years earlier at the Sea of Galilee when Jesus came walking up the sandy beach line. This is where Simon Peter began. And now, at the same spot, on the same beach, with the same Sea of Galilee as the backdrop, Simon Peter having returned to the same former occupation, is now challenged to renew his commitment, this time, not to an up and coming revolutionary, but to the risen Christ.<\/p>\n What mattered in the beginning was the only thing that mattered now! It is the only thing that ever mattered \u201d\u201c FOLLOW ME \u201d\u201c Jesus says. What if I fail \u201d\u201c Follow me. What if I lose my way \u201d\u201c Follow me. What if the path is not what I expected \u201d\u201c Follow me. What if it hurts \u201d\u201c follow me. What if the result is hardship, even death \u201d\u201c Follow me.<\/p>\n Peter has come full circle. He is back where he began.<\/p>\n Let\u201d\u2122s go back to where it all began, and I\u201d\u2122ll treat you like all the failure and betrayal never happened. And you can come to me with the fire and eagerness of when you first fell in love with me. Follow me.<\/p>\n Conclusion\u201d\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n Jesus chooses, forgives and uses failures!<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n Are you carrying failure that you\u201d\u2122re allowing to spiritually paralyze you this morning?<\/em> Do you think that your failure can\u201d\u2122t be forgiven?\u00a0 Do you think that there\u201d\u2122s no way Jesus could use you anymore because your failure is just too big?<\/p>\n Jon Bloom <\/strong><\/p>\n Peter\u201d\u2122s failure did not define him. It was a horrible, humbling stumble along the path of following Jesus. When Jesus died on the cross he completely paid for the sin of Peter\u201d\u2122s denial. \u201cNot guilty\u201d was the final word for Peter. He knew he did not deserve acquittal. But Jesus had settled Peter\u201d\u2122s account with the Father and gave him guiltlessness as a free gift of love. He was not Peter \u201cThe Denier\u201d but Peter \u201cThe Forgiven.\u201d<\/p>\n The church of Jesus Christ is a fellowship of forgiven failures. And in Peter Jesus shows us how he can transform a failure into a rock of strength for his church. Empowered by the Spirit of his beloved Lord, Peter became a humble, encouraging, suffering, and persevering disciple of Jesus. And he became a bold ambassador of the gospel of forgiveness to the most miserable failures.<\/p>\n Jesus chooses, forgives and uses failures!<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n Celebration of the Lord\u201d\u2122s Supper<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Version:1.0 StartHTML:0000000204 EndHTML:0000041837 StartFragment:0000004260 EndFragment:0000041801 SourceURL:file:\/\/localhost\/Users\/tonyshanaduehring\/Library\/Mail%20Downloads\/4-18-10john211-22.doc CRCF\u201d\u201d4\/18\/10 Introduction\u201d\u201d How many of us have ever failed at something?\u00a0 Do you remember how it felt?\u00a0 Can you still feel that knot of shame, maybe even guilt and uselessness inside? On New Year’s … Continue reading Matthew 4:18-20\u00a0(NLT)<\/h2>\n