Heavenly Father, on this day,

I pray that we’re more mindful of anything that we can call You Father

through the Lord Jesus Christ who spilled His blood, who brought us into Your family or through His spilled blood, through His broken body that we can be called the children of God. So, Father, we just say thank You this morning that You are so to us. We bless Your name. And we ask that Your Word this morning, it would do a mighty work, Lord, that Your Spirit would teach us, that we would see, that we would hear, that we would know, that we would be, Lord, all the more grown up in Christ Jesus. Lord, that our joy, our life would be Him. It would just be Jesus. And we would be all the more equipped to live for You and to make Your Word. Your glory known, Lord. We pray, Lord, our tithe, our offering, all that You’ve given to us, Lord. I pray with cheerfulness, with joy, Lord, with open hands, we would give back to You. And, Lord, trust that You are our provider and You meet all of our needs, Lord, so we can be generous to You as You are so faithful to us, Lord. I pray You would multiply that for our church and for Your kingdom, Lord. And we just bless Your name. And it’s in Christ’s name that we pray. Amen.

Well, good morning. Happy Father’s Day to you, fathers.

You know, Father’s Day can be an exciting time. Perhaps for some of you, it’s maybe a sad day because you remember your father, but it’s an opportunity to remember those who have impacted us, certainly those who have grown us up in the faith. So, happy Father’s Day. I think on Mother’s Day, I preached about Judas betraying Jesus. And today, on Father’s Day, we’re talking about Peter denying Jesus. So, I didn’t do that on purpose. It’s just the way that it fell. So, there’s no correlation there whatsoever. But we’re going to be in Matthew 26. If you could turn to Matthew 26. It’ll be verses 69-75. Matthew 26, verses 69-75.

Matthew writes, Now Peter was sitting outside in the courtyard, and a servant girl came up to him and said, You also were with Jesus the Golan. But he denied it before them all, saying, I do not know what you mean. And when he went out to the entrance, another servant girl saw him, and she said to the bystanders, This man was with Jesus, Jesus of Nazareth. And again, he denied it with an oath. I do not know the man. And after a little while, the bystanders came up and said to Peter, Certainly you too are one of them, for your accent betrays you. Then he began to invoke a curse on himself and to swear, I do not know the man. And immediately the rooster crowed, and Peter remembered the saying of Jesus before the rooster crowed, You will deny me three times. And he went out and wept bitterly. Wept bitterly. I don’t know if you’ve ever ziplined before. I’ve ziplined in Costa Rica and in Guatemala. The Guatemala one was a lot more scary because you’re way high up on a mountain, which you’ll do that with us. But you’re way up there, and at some point, you’ve got to jump. And you know, the only thing keeping you from your death is just this one cable. And it’s like, do you all have a maintenance schedule? Is somebody checking on this stuff? You know, because roller coasters break down too, so I’m just wondering, what’s the maintenance on these cables? And there you go, flying across a tropical jungle, and your whole life just depends on this one string holding you up. And I think, the parallel in the Christian life is that there’s just grace holding us up. There’s not more than one thing that you and I have to hope to keep our life now and in eternity. There’s just one thing. And I think what we see from this passage, as brutal of a passage as it is, is that it’s just grace. It’s just God’s grace that keeps us.

Now remember, remember back in verse 33, what Peter said to Jesus was, Jesus, I’ll never forsake you. I’ll never leave you. And he said, Peter, you’ll deny me, you know, three times for the rooster crows. And he says, if everyone else leaves you, I will never deny you.

And Peter was the guy, and I know we’ve been through Matthew for a long time, so we’ve seen Peter several times throughout. Peter was the guy who got out of the boat, and walked on water. Peter was the first one to make the good confession that Jesus was the Christ. Peter is the one that Jesus said, you are the rock. Peter pulled his sword out to cut off Malchus’ ear in defending Jesus.

But Peter flees and abandons in the garden just like all the other disciples did. And now Peter is outside the courtyard of the high priest’s house. Jesus is on the other side. He’s on the inside with the high priest and the scribes and the elders. And they’re judging him. And Peter is nothing more out there than a frightened sheep. Even worse, Peter’s a traitor. Peter’s a coward. What Peter’s not doing is what he said he would do. He’s not beating on Caiaphas’ door. Hey, whatever you do to Jesus, you’ve got to do to me. Whatever his fate is, it’s my fate. I identify with Jesus. If you’re going to judge Jesus, judge me. That’s not at all. That’s not at all what he does.

What happens is out in the courtyard, a slave girl comes up to him. And this wouldn’t have been someone of consequence in Jesus’ time. She’s a young female bond servant slave. Not some big muscular man. Not a Roman soldier. This little girl comes up and says, you were with Jesus. And what does he say? He says, I don’t know what you mean. In other words, he’s like, I don’t even know how to process this information. Like, what are you even saying to me? Like, I don’t know. What Peter’s doing is he’s playing dumb to protect himself.

And another servant girl comes up. And it’s not even like he did the same thing over. It’s even worse. It’s even worse. She says, hey, you’re one of those guys with Jesus. And he doesn’t just say, hey, no, I already cleared this up. I don’t. Jesus says, let me make an oath to you that I am not so. Now, if you remember all the way back in Jesus’ Beatitudes,

in Matthew 5, remember Jesus said, verse 34, but I say to you, do not take an oath at all, either by heaven, for it is the throne of God, or by earth, for it is His footstool, or by Jerusalem, for it’s the city of the great King. Do not take an oath by your head, for you cannot make one hair white or black, that what you say be simply yes or no, and anything more than this comes from evil. So Jesus said, if you’re one of My people, don’t even make an oath. Just have good character and say yes or no. But here Peter is saying, I bet on My character. I bet on My trustworthiness. I don’t know Jesus. A verbal oath would be the same as a legal binding document you signed your name on today. That’s how big of a deal an oath was. Peter, Peter said, I do not know Jesus. I signed my character to it.

But it gets even worse. Later, bystanders come along and they say, hey man,

this is Jerusalem. We’re down here. You sound like a Galilean from way up there. Your accent betrays you. Jesus isn’t there. You’re standing right here. You look just like that guy that was with Jesus for three years. He’s like, it’s you man.

And Peter says, let me be cursed. And he swears. He swears. I do not know Jesus. And I think this is one of those passages we’ve heard it so many times. You know about it. It loses its force. But I think they’re to sit about how He not once, not twice, but three times more severely every time swears, I don’t know Jesus. You see how bad this is. He has in all things and all ways abandoned, rejected Jesus.

I want to say to you this morning, if not for grace, if not for grace, we would be given to self-preservation over self-denial. If not for grace. Because what you ought to see and really what I ought to see when we read this passage is not some man Peter and his errors and his mistakes. You know what you should see and I should see when we read this? We should see ourselves. We should see a likeness to ourselves. Don’t say, oh, that cowardly man Peter. Read it and weep, friend. Because you have the same propensity to preserve yourself, to protect yourself. This passage makes it glaringly clear. People cannot, will not hurt their own flesh. We just won’t do it. We will not do it. Paul says in Romans 7, For I know that nothing, any good dwells in me that’s in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what’s right, but I don’t have the ability. For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do is what I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want, it’s no longer I who do it, but the sin that dwells in me. Peter has discovered, and I want you to discover it in real time, the utter weakness of your flesh, your inability to not even just suffer with Christ, to even kind of, sort of, barely identify with Him. Peter’s loud and proud words, Peter’s sureness in himself, as many years as he’s been a disciple with Jesus, what does he discover?

It’s not even hot air. He can’t even answer up to a servant girl about who he is. Calvin said, For any man who is not supported by the hand of God will instantly fall by, by a slight gale or the rustling of a falling leaf. Let us therefore remember that our strength is so far from being sufficient to resist powerful attacks that it will give way when there is the mere shadow of a battle. So he cannot say no to his flesh. Not at all. Nor can he say no to worldly influences. The little girl said, Aren’t you so? Nope. Never. Not me. He finds how willing, how willing, how wanting his own flesh is to submit to the spirit of the age. He could do nothing to resist. Fear is the word, isn’t it? Peter chose to fear man, not God. He was worried about the reproves of man, not God. Peter the rock is not even Peter the pebble without his Christ present. He’s nothing without Christ. Peter discovers how weak he is also in the arena with Satan. Look back at Luke. Chapter 22 in Luke’s account. Remember Peter. Peter’s so sure about his commitment to Christ. Yet this is what he says to Peter. Jesus says, Simon, Simon, behold, there’s Matthew’s edu. There’s his Greek. Hey, hey, Satan has demanded to have you that he might sift you like wheat. It’s just not a matter if Satan could sift him. Satan could, and it’s quite clear. It’s quite clear, isn’t it? Satan did it. Satan turned Peter on his head. Jesus made it clear in the Gospel. Satan is that strong man that you and I, we cannot resist. We’re not capable to resist him. He overwhelms us. So nothing, I think, smacks us in the face, in Matthew’s Gospel especially, like this passage, to humble ourselves before God and realize the state of desperation that you and I have to come to God. Constantly remain in if we are to be followers of Jesus Christ. Because you know your best feelings about Jesus. You know your past deeds of service. You know all the victories you’ve seen for Christ. You know your lengthiest, most intense prayers of just being with God even. All your knowledge of God’s Word. All your church attendance. Friend, nothing affords you security save this one thing, and it’s this. The abiding presence and power of Christ.

The great grace of God to do in you and through you what you could not do for yourself. Heaven’s King supplies it to you. What does John 15 and 5 say?

I’m the vine. You’re the branch. Don’t flip that. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears my church. Apart from me, what does Jesus say you can do? Something. You could do a little something. That’s not what Christ says. He says recognize the state of your desperation. Apart from Christ, you can do nothing.

As long as Peter has been under the Master Jesus, he’s not learned this lesson. Christian discipleship is impotent without Christ pervading the heart, mind, and soul as much as you might know about it. You know, I grew up going to small Christian schools. If once a million times, the verse that gets most abused is Philippians 4.13. For I can do all things through Christ which strengthens me. Like, sorry, but that’s not about like your best efforts at playing basketball. That’s not about like you doing good on a test. That’s about you keeping faithful in Christ, living for the kingdom of God when you simply don’t have the power to do it. It’s impossible for you. You need Christ’s strength. That’s what Philippians 4.13 says. about that’s what it’s about what’s it what’s at the heart of peter i want i want to ask you because it’s it’s at your you know the center of your heart the same root and use the same root and him we all have this same bad root and the roots pride you’re seeing in peter that root it’s it’s it’s an inability to believe god’s greater than the greatest enemy you could face it’s an inability to believe god is more satisfying than all the comforts and sins you could find god’s more worthy of worship and devotion than any other person his commendation is an approval is what’s to be desired you and i hear me say this you would be hopelessly tangled up in a web of cowardice and compromise if you He’s not for the power and presence of Christ peter’s alone out in that courtyard and he discovers he is nothing he is nothing without Jesus

now i want you to see it’s nothing short of amazing really that just as Jesus said to peter peter satan has demanded to sift you like wheat jesus says this amazing thing to peter but peter i that’s an important poured an I. It can’t be any O. He says, I have prayed for you. I’ve prayed for you. He says, Satan is going to turn you on your head, Peter, but I’ve prayed for you. The one thing keeping Peter from being totally consumed by Satan is just the intercession of Christ for him. Jesus pleads with the Father to keep Peter, and so Peter’s kept. It wasn’t Peter. It wasn’t his smarts. It wasn’t his strength. It was the unmerited favor of God that preserved Peter while Peter could not preserve himself. So you and I should celebrate in the gospel of Jesus Christ. There’s saving power, yes, but there’s keeping power. There’s keeping power. What’s your hope? What’s my hope? It’s just Jesus. What’s your hope when you fear man? What’s your hope when you choose sin? What’s your hope when you disobey aplenty? It’s the grace of God to keep you from falling away, and that’s it. What a wonderful, marvelous gospel. You know, the gospel didn’t hit a reset button, because if it just hit a reset button, you just re-sin. You just re-mess up. You just re-tear up the whole thing. The grace of the gospel is the abiding presence of the Spirit to keep you and to grow you up more and more and more in Christ that you can withstand the evil day. And that’s what happens with Peter, because we see a very different Peter, not a pride-filled Peter in the beginning of Acts. We see a different-filled Peter. If you look in Acts 4, verse 5,

it says, On the next day, their rulers and elders and scribes gathered together in Jerusalem with Annas the high priest. And who do we have again here? Well, it’s the same guy. We have Caiaphas and John and Alexander and all who are of the high priestly family. And when they had set them in the midst, they inquired, by what power, by what name did you do this? And then Peter filled with the Holy Spirit.

Peter’s full of Christ this time. He’s a very different man because of it.

You know, I think a lot of times we’re like a person in a desert who’s got a very large canteen, and they fill it with peace and rest with that canteen, but their clue is there’s just no water in it. I think you can have the shell of religion. You can know all the stuff. But man, the question is, are you full of the presence of Christ? Are you full of the power of Christ? Are you full of the Spirit of Christ? Because if this passage makes anything plain, it’s that you will bail out. You will keep quiet. You will stay casual with sin. If Christ is not ruling, your heart and mind and life.

What kind of prayers should you pray then if this is true? Desperate prayers. Paul says, be steadfast and watchful in prayer. And he says it a million times. And he asks prayers for himself so that he can live a bold life, which is what you and I should live. And I think we have to be honest. You know, when the rubber meets the road, I think we’re going to discover who really is following Jesus over the course of the next five and ten years in our own time and culture. I know that we talk and pray a lot about, you know, Nigeria and India and some of these places where people are having it hard. But the truth is evil is on the move here. And friends, it’s coming quick. The kind of persecution, the kind of aggravation that’s going to come to the church through just so much that’s happening in culture. So much approving of sin. And you know, I’ve said it, I’ve said it probably to a lot of you, but obviously, Pride Month, that’s not a surprise to anybody. But it’s amazing how much more aggressive it gets every year. I mean, I’m like, my contact company, they’re like, celebrate Pride Month with us. I’m like, you still contact. It’s amazing just how the world is governed by the world and the spirit of the age. It governs people who aren’t governed by the spirit of Christ. Are you going to live bold for Christ? Not if you don’t have the spirit of Christ?

Are we going to proclaim the gospel in whatever culture we find ourselves in? We’re going to keep quiet. I went to a men’s conference this weekend and I was on the other side of the conference where the food trucks were, not where all the conference guys in the place was. And over here by the food trucks, there’s just people having fun downtown. They’re walking around. And I had my Bible on me. You know, not around the good church guys on the conference side. I’m like trying to turn, like, I feel silly. I’m carrying my big black Bible around all these people like they’re not here. They’re going to think I’m weird walking through here holding my Bible. And it’s like, what’s wrong with me? You know, I’m so shaped. I’m so shaped. I’m so worried about what people think of my Christian life. And I just had like, Lord, what’s wrong with me? What’s wrong with me? I need the fullness of you. You and I need one another. You and I need one another because you can’t be the Wild West soldier either. The Wild West Ranger. You can’t go out there on your own. The Bible says pray for one another. Encourage one another. Sharpen one another. Teach one another. So all this does bring us back again to the power of the local church and needing to lean on one another when persecution and when difficulty comes. Are we praying for that for ourselves? Are we praying for that? Are we seeking God’s face desperately to be bold for Him to be full of His Spirit? The second thing I want you to see in this passage is if not for grace, we would be given to worldly regret over godly sorrow. Worldly regret over godly sorrow. If you look in verse 74, at the end, after Peter said for the third time, I do not know the man, it says, and immediately the rooster crowed. And Peter remembered the saying of Jesus.

Before the rooster crows, you will deny me three times and he went out and he wept bitterly. And Luke’s account of this passage says right when he says that, he sees Jesus and Jesus sees him. So he doesn’t just hear that rooster, there’s bloodied and bruised Jesus and they lock eyes.

Now you’ve seen somebody cry. You know, my kids cry, stubbed toe, whatever. People cry when they get sad. People cry when they get their feelings hurt. There’s quite a difference though, isn’t there, between crying and weeping. Weeping bitterly. Weeping bitterly is a deep pain, it’s a deep hurt in your soul. You know, it’s almost if you’re not the one hurt and you’re around someone weeping, it’s almost uncomfortable to be around because they’re just, their soul is so shaken and so moved.

But what else can Peter do in this moment with the realization of what he has just done? He’s full of a painful grief in his soul. But I want to say this to you and catch this because it’s so important. It’s a grace to him that he is. It’s a great grace that he’s experiencing this bitter weeping. Paul in 2 Corinthians chapter 7 verse 10 says for godly grief it produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret whereas worldly grief what does it do? It produces death. It’s not an uncommon thing, it’s not a supernatural thing for someone to experience regret. You don’t have to be a Christian you know, to regret. Regret is just the recognition that you are not what you wanted to be, you are not what somebody else expected you to be. You’ve done some kind of wrong you can’t put right and it gnaws on you. It gnaws on you to the point of paralysis. It gnaws on you, Paul says to the point of death. What it drowns you in is an ocean of despair and this is such an important lesson to learn friends because despair is one of the Christians greatest enemies and Satan will use that tool in your life over and over and over again and this makes us think about Judas for a second.

Judas and Peter are really not all that different. I think Judas’ betrayal was quite a bit more forthright I mean he went and got the authorities but at the end of the day Peter and Judas did the same thing. They betrayed identification with Jesus. We read in Matthew 27 that Judas says I have sinned. He says that to the high priest take your money back, I’ve sinned. Of course the high priest doesn’t care but this is where the life and death difference between godly and worldly regret comes in. Judas so despairs of his sins he commits suicide. He’s so grieved by the weight of the monster sin in his life. He dies. He kills himself. It literally crushes him. This is regret winning which is despair and what is despair? It is the total absence of hope for you. That’s what despair is. It is believing there is absolutely no hope for my case. I’ve got this bad past. I’ve got this bleak future and I’ve got this sorry present right now and nothing can help me undo that. And you know the truth is worldly regret is not a dishonest assessment of your situation or mine. Not at all. Friends when you and I consider our sins they are as bad as worldly regret makes us feel. They are as bad as it seems. But here’s where the great grace of godly regret comes in. Godly regret doesn’t say it’s not that bad. Don’t feel so bad. No it says yeah it’s that bad. You made that much of a mess in your life through the pursuit of sin. So the one who experiences worldly regret, here’s what they’re going to do. They’re going to white knuckle it and they’re going to try better and they’re going to do their best to become a better version of themselves and they’re going to try to forget about cover over their past even though it’s always lurking there. Maybe they’re going to manipulate the standard of God’s excellence and morality so they can think that they’re meeting it. But at the end of the day what is that? That’s just external change. That’s a classic case of putting lipstick on the pig. That’s putting trousers on the monkey. In the end the sinner is the sinner. The past is still bleak and the future is still gloom.

Godly regret, godly grief it shows the sinner their error but it moves them to forsake those sins and even to forsake oneself. The great grace of godly grief is you and I can say yes I have made that much of a mess of my life. I really have. I am that bad of a sinner. My sin nature that great. But I’m going to turn to Jesus and I’m going to see the great weight of my sin and my sin nature. Christ already bore that on the cross and he died and he was raised to new life and now I can turn to Christ and see all those things that would crush me in death. They crushed Jesus in death. And now I’m free. I’m set free because of what Jesus did for me. That’s the grace Peter is experiencing. He’s weeping bitterly and it hurts but it’s going to hurt him toward Jesus to say this is not who Christ has called me to be. I am not this. Christ is greater. Christ is better. John Newton has famously said I am not what I ought to be. I am not what I want to be. I am not what I hope to be in another world but still I am not what I used to be by the grace of God I am what I am.

If you’ve been a Christian for some time you probably know it. Despair. It’s crippling. Despair. It’s discouraging. Despair. It can bring you down on the floor when you’re your sins and your past and your shame are staring you down. Let me say something to you this morning. Don’t lament them.

Don’t lament them. Forsake them. Don’t lament you’ve been a certain way. Forsake you altogether. Forsake and repent and turn towards Jesus because it’s in Jesus you’ve been given a new life. So don’t pray God I’m so sorry that I did that thing. Say to God of course I did that thing. I’m that awful and you already knew that in the first place. I haven’t been living in the power of the Spirit. I’ve been living in the flesh. Jesus forgive me. Thank you that your blood covers all sin. Now I’m going to go on because you have convicted me in such a way I am reminded of who I’ve been made to be in Christ Jesus. That’s all the difference in the world and friend I tell you that will save you when Satan’s got you by the throat.

What you and I have got to do then is what Judas wouldn’t do. It’s the harder thing. We’re awfully tempted to do what Judas did do which is the easy thing. Okay? Judas, what did he do? He opened his chest cavity up and he looked inside. Look what I’ve done. Look what I’ve done. Look how bad I am. Look how dirty my heart is. Look how broken I am. Look how torn up I am. And he just stared at it and he stared at it and he stared at it until the monster was so big. Crushed him.

But by grace Jesus didn’t look in. I’ll only kill you.

Peter by grace he looked up at Jesus. Peter didn’t look in and see what a nasty filthy sinner. He looked up and in time he saw a Savior. And catch this. Jesus said to Peter, Peter you will deny me but I have prayed for you. Thirdly he says, but when you turn.

You see Jesus said before it happened, Peter you’re going to turn. And when you turn, when your faith is strengthened again, strengthen your brothers. Strengthen your brothers.

I want to say to you this morning in all your great sin, keep looking at Jesus because from Him and from Him alone mercy and forgiveness flows. From Him is life eternal. Don’t for a second peer over to Him. Don’t look over at your sin to see how nasty you are. Don’t let it beat you down. See the beauty and the perfections of Christ. Have them for yourself. See the wounds. See the blood flowing from His side. See His powerful cross. See His empty tomb. Walk out of it with Him. That’s the grace of God for you in your life. It’s the grace of God.

The Romans sometimes compelled a captive to be tied, to be tied, to be chained face to face with a dead corpse. Virgil, the Roman poet, said the living and the dead at His command were coupled face to face and hand to hand until choked with stench and loathed in braces tied. The lingering wretches pined away and died. They would tie them to these decaying corpses until the decay and the rot of that corpse overwhelmed their own bodies and killed them. You do the same thing when you despair. You do the same thing when you despair. You do the exact same thing. Friends, the power of Christ has broken those chains from the old man. Don’t let the old man, don’t let sin, don’t let shame, don’t let Satan have a victory where Christ has already won it for you. For you.

Can I say to you this morning, repent. Don’t drown in your shame. Don’t drown in your shame. See His wounds. Don’t inflict them upon yourself. You can’t do anything to help yourself. There’s no… There’s no amount of self-wounding you can do to atone. Christ is atoned. Don’t try to live up to some standard. See Jesus as the perfect standard. And let me say this. I mean them all. I really mean this one. Trust.

Memorize the promises of God. Just speak from my heart. I struggle with this particularly in my life. I really do. I can just stare at myself and I can overanalyze and I just beat myself up. I can do that. And I’ve had to make a spiritual discipline of memorizing the promises of God to set me free. I’ve got to think about Jesus saying, hey, forgive 70 times 7. God’s a God of the 70 times 7. He can’t forgive you enough. Man, God said, hey, tomorrow morning my mercies are going to be new again. He says, as far as the east is from the west. Jesus says, I’m an advocate for you. Jesus says, I’m constantly living to make intercession for you. The psalmist says, God does not deal with us according to our transgressions. God doesn’t repay us according to our iniquities. God is a God of grace unfathomable. And we need a greater faith just to see that grace. And here’s the power of that. Here’s the power of that. You think, well, that’s great. It’s more than great. It’s actually, it’s life-giving because when you experience that kind of grace that forgives you, that’s the only place to find the strength and energy and joy to keep living for the Lord. If you don’t really know that kind of scandalous, amazing grace of God in your life, you’ll constantly be living for God out of shame, out of guilt. You’ll be forcing yourself to do it. The real joy in Christian ministry is when you really experience and taste grace undeserved. And it’s worth fighting for. It’s worth praying for. And it’s worth laboring in the Scriptures just to sit there with Jesus and just be filled up with His presence. I don’t preach this as somebody who’s figured that out. I’m clawing. I’m trying myself every day to just send Christ and be with Christ and be led of the Spirit. It’s so easy to be pulled down by the flesh.

Believe the promises of God for your soul. Turn to Him.

So, if not for grace,

you and I would surely be lost to God. Surely be lost to God. Because you know it and I know it. We love ourselves too much. We love sinning. We love sin too much. We love our flesh too much. We love comfort. We love security. We just want a plan. We follow Jesus. All that goes away, doesn’t it? And He says, no, you’re just going to follow Me.

And you and I would be sunk in the quicksand of worldly sorrow and despair because as soon as we try to live for Jesus, what do we do? Make a mess of it. Friends, it’s only by the grace of God to awaken us to salvation, to sustain us, and to bring us home to Him. It’s just Jesus. It’s just Jesus. If you remember back in Matthew, when Jesus is talking about who will be saved, and His disciples say, this is hard. Like, who can do this? Who can do this? You know? And Jesus says, well, it’s impossible with man. But He says, with God, all things are possible. So, one more time I say to you, don’t look at yourself.

Don’t look at your past. Look at Jesus and just keep staring at His power, at His beauty, at His perfections, at His grace, at His cross, at His empty grave. And that, friends, is the grace that will keep you and bring you home. Amen. Let’s pray together.

Father, Father,

I wish I had better words to just say a thank You, to just describe the Gospel. I wish I had a better language to just proclaim it.

Lord, we pray that as we just read about and just see this Gospel, this powerful, this timeless, this amazing Gospel in the Scriptures, Lord, it wouldn’t be a small thing. It wouldn’t be just part of our religion. We pray the Gospel would be our everything. That Christ, that Christ Himself would be our life. Oh God, that You would lead us, that You would fill us with Your Spirit, that in all things, at all times, it would just be Jesus, Lord. I pray that over us.

Lord, that as we go out today, we would be Spirit-filled, Lord, to proclaim the Gospel. Lord, that we wouldn’t care about man and his disapproval. We wouldn’t care, Lord, what it cost us because we have found our treasure in Jesus. That’s what I’m asking for and that’s what You’ve promised, Lord. So we just ask that You come in power. Just awaken us in grace to the joy, the forgiveness, the life that’s in Jesus. Lord, only You can do that. Only You can take this Word and make it effective in us.

Jesus, we bless Your name.

Oh, we bless Your name. Oh, the times that we’ve run. Oh, the times that we’ve departed. Oh, the times that we’ve just walked idle. Yet You have not abandoned us. And You will not. That’s grace unthinkable. That’s amazing grace. It’s amazing grace. And we just worship You for it, Lord. And we just bless Your name. Amen.