Tears of Failure
From the Series: Tears
Speaker: Mark Batterson
Date: March 28, 2010
Leave a comment | Back to Media Page
Transcript
Welcome to everyone at all four of our locations, thanks for making NCC part of your weekend. Next weekend, we will, for the first time, welcome folks at the Gala Theater in Columbia Heights! We will launch on Easter Sunday morning at 10:30 a.m. and then the following week, April 11th, go to our Sunday night time frame. I’m super excited about it. I want to take this opportunity again to encourage you to invite a friend to come with you next weekend. Easter is a unique opportunity to do that. Last weekend, I was walking out of our Georgetown location, and anytime I meet someone new, I’m always curious and always say, ‘How’d you hear about NCC?’ So I met a girl last week and asked her that question and she said, ‘A friend invited me.’ Here’s the cool thing, her friend lives in Swaziland. I said, ‘Are you serious? Connect the dots for me.’ And this person watches our podcast and new that their friend was moving to Washington D.C. and invited them to NCC. So I'm just thinking, whether you live in Alexandria, Arlington, Georgetown, Capitol Hill, or Columbia Heights or Swaziland, invite someone to church next weekend! 90% of people I meet who are new to NCC have the same story, a friend invited them, so we want to encourage you to do that.
This weekend, we continue our ‘Tears’ series. We are reading through the gospel of Mark. If you have a Bible, turn over to Mark Chapter 14. Let me try to set the scene because this one chapter actually covers several events over several days leading up to the crucifixion. Jesus is in a little town called Bethany, not far from Jerusalem, having dinner with Simon the Leper and it says that they are reclining at the table. The significance of that is this – during regular Jewish meals, they would sit like we sit, but for special meals, they would recline. So this is a special meal, and in the middle of that meal, a women comes in and breaks an alabaster flask of perfume and pours it over Jesus’ head and we keep on reading like nothing just happened. But this is a pie in the face moment, like what is going on? How many of you have ever had someone break an alabaster flask and pour it over your head? Nobody. This doesn’t happen. But it is actually incredibly significant because the symbolism is powerful. The name Messiah means anointed one, so I would suggest that this woman, this was almost her statement of faith, like she believed that this was the Messiah, so she anointed Him. It’s a statement of faith, an act of worship, but not everybody sees it that way. If you are up to date on your reading, you’ve read this story and you noticed that a lot of people complained about it because this flask of perfume was worth about 300 denari, that was about one year’s salary. So we’re talking about an extravagant act of worship that was costly and some people had a problem with that. They were like, why don’t we give the money to the poor? It’s very interesting that if you read the story, it is right after this story that Judas makes the decision to go betray Jesus. Did you pick up on that as you were reading this story? It says, ‘Then Judas went to the chief priest and betrayed Him.’ I think that is significant. What was Judas? The money keeper, wasn’t he? He was the guy watching the bottom line, and I think he took offense at this. What I want to suggest is maybe, just maybe, what he considered offensive, he used to justify the biggest mistake of his life.
If you pause for a moment and look at it at face value, I think a lot of times we allow the mistakes that other people make to justify our own mistakes. Isn’t that the truth? We betray Christ because someone offends us, and we allow that offense to change the trajectory of our life and I think that’s what is happening with Judas here. I think how you handle an offense can make you or break you. What I’m trying to say is this – don’t allow an offense to justify your sins. Proverbs 19:11 says: It is to the glory of a man to overlook an offense. So this is one of those subplots in the story but I think it is significant. Judas goes and betrays Jesus and then he has the nerve to come back and celebrate the Passover with Him. Can you imagine? They are sitting around the Passover table and Jesus says, “Someone here is going to betray me.” I think the significance of that is this – we recite every time we celebrate communion, that on the same night Jesus was betrayed, like it is almost a throwaway line. We don’t really think about it, but on the same night Jesus was betrayed, He took bread and broke it. The significance of that is this – don’t you think it would be easier to offer yourself as a sacrifice if all twelve of those disciples are loyal to you? To me it’s more powerful that He knows that someone at the table is going to betray Him, but He says, ‘I’m going to the cross anyway.’ Isn’t it amazing, Judas takes offense but Jesus overlooks the offense and in fact goes to the cross to pay for his offense! What a different reaction.
After dinner, they sing some hymns together. Usually this consisted of the songs from Psalm 113 through Psalm 118. They would sing those together and then they walked out to the Mount of Olives, about a 15-minute hike. Jesus tells them what is about to happen, and Peter vows his loyalty. In fact he says, ‘If I must die with you, I will not deny you.’ And Jesus said, ‘This very night before the rooster crows twice, you will deny Me three times.’ Then Jesus goes through the Garden of Gethsemane and He is praying and the disciples fall asleep. It’s late, probably the wee hours of the morning, and part of us can relate, we’d be tired too, but here’s what’s interesting to me, it was customary to stay up late on the Passover, like New Year’s Eve. Don’t you feel like a loser if you don’t make it to midnight on New Year’s Eve? It was customary to stay up late. This would have been a normal custom, but on this particular night, the night of Jesus’ greatest need for his disciples to be praying for Him, they fall asleep, not once, not twice, but three times. It’s all in Mark 14
After the third time, a mob armed with clubs and swords, come to arrest Jesus.
For what it’s worth, it was against the law to carry clubs on a holiday, such as the Passover Feast. They are breaking the law to arrest someone who is absolutely innocence. This is a double wrong happening here. So, the mob comes and you’ve got to love Peter here because evidently Peter is packing. He pulls out a sword. Peter gets a bum wrap, let’s give credit where credit is due, he is the only one coming to his defense! So he pulls out a sword and he cuts off the right ear of Malcus, a servant of the high priest. I love this subplot within the story, so here’s another sermon within the sermon. Peter is in a world of trouble here because they are arresting Jesus and Jesus hasn’t even done anything wrong. If you cut off someone’s ear and if that someone happens to be the servant of the high priest, do you not think that you are in a world of trouble? Best case scenario, probably talking about attempted murder, or assault and battery with a deadly weapon, but one way or the other, he is in trouble. Then Jesus intervenes. Do you remember what happens? Jesus takes his ear and miraculously reattaches this amputated ear, which makes it even more amazing that they would then arrest Him after He performs a miracle right in front of their eyes! It’s astounding! But here’s what I want you to see, Jesus does more than heals this man’s ear, Jesus destroys the evidence against Peter. Stop and think about it. Malcus files suit against Peter and takes the witness stand and says, ‘Peter cut off my ear.’ The judge says, ‘Which ear?’ He says, ‘My right ear.’ The judge comes in for a closer look and looks a little confused and the case gets thrown out of court for lack of evidence. Jesus doesn’t just heal that man, He destroyed the evidence against Peter. What I love is that in all of these stories, you see the microcosm of the good news of the gospel. This is not just a story about Peter and Jesus and Malcus, it is a story about Jesus and you and me, and the evidence that was against us and the fact that Jesus Christ went to the cross to destroy the evidence that was against us.
II Corinthians 5:21: He who knew no sin became sin for us so that we might become the righteousness of God. So Jesus is arrested, the disciples scatter, but Peter still has the guts to follow at a distance. They take Jesus to the high priest and Peter is now in the court yard of the high priest, incognito, like he is still scared but he wants to see what happens, and that’s where we pick up the story in Mark 14:66
66While Peter was below in the courtyard, one of the servant girls of the high priest came by.
67When she saw Peter warming himself, she looked closely at him. "You also were with that Nazarene, Jesus," she said.
68But he denied it. "I don't know or understand what you're talking about," he said, and went out into the entryway.
69When the servant girl saw him there, she said again to those standing around, "This fellow is one of them."
70Again he denied it. After a little while, those standing near said to Peter, "Surely you are one of them, for you are a Galilean." [They could tell by his accent. I was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota and Minnesotans have this distinct accent. In fact, whenever I use the word ‘sauna’ people give me a weird look, like what are you talking about? I’m talking about that thing that you go in where steam comes out and it’s really warm. You’re laughing at me but now I’m laughing at you, because we had one in our house, I ought to know how to say it. So I found out a few years ago, after years of people making fun of me for my accent that that is the Scandinavian pronunciation of it, so now who is the joke on? So Peter has this thick Galilean accent.]
71He began to call down curses on himself, and he swore to them, "I don't know this man you're talking about."
72Immediately the rooster crowed the second time. [You would think after the first time that it might have jogged Peter’s memory, but he is so scared and I don’t think he saw any of this coming.] Then Peter remembered the word Jesus had spoken to him: "Before the rooster crows twice you will disown me three times." And he broke down and wept.
We are in a series called ‘Tears’ and we’ve talked about tears of suffering, tears of disappointment, and I think this weekend we talk about tears of failure. These are the moments where you let yourself down, you let your family down, you let God down. These are the moments where, if you aren’t careful, you will be tempted to give up on yourself, to weep these tears of failure and give up, but I’ve got some hope for you this weekend.
Around the turn of the 19th Century, a Russian psychologist by the name of Ivan Pavlov did some groundbreaking experiments that won him a Nobel Prize. Many of you remember this from high school science classes. Dogs naturally salivate for food, but Pavlov wanted to find out if salivation could be caused by another stimulus. Do you remember what he did? He got a little ringing bell and before feeding the dogs, he’d ring the bell and it created this conditioned reflex, if you will, and eventually, without even serving the dogs food, all he had to do was ring the bell and they would salivate. Pavlov referred to this learned relationship as a conditioned reflex. To one degree or another, all of us are Pavlovians, we have been consciously and subconsciously conditioned our entire lives and much of our behavior, whether we know it or not, is dictated by those conditioned reflexes. Every time I fill up my gas tank, before I leave the gas station, I always look in my side view mirror, because a few years ago I didn’t, and I ripped a gas hose right out of the tank. I’m driving out of the gas station wondering what the people are looking at, but then as we drove faster, the sound got louder and sure enough, we are dragging the gas hose out of the side of the car. It looked like a tail behind the vehicle. It was one of the worst moments of my life. Nothing prepares you for that. There was a couple of teenage girls working at the gas station and I felt like a total idiot! I want you to know that since that moment, I have successfully filled up my tank and pulled out without ripping out a gas hose hundreds of times! I kid you not, every single time, I look in that mirror. It is a conditioned reflex because deep down inside it feels like maybe I forgot. See, over our lifetime, we acquire an elaborate repretoi of conditioned reflexes. Some of them are minor idiosyncrasies like a nervous laugh or a half smile, but others become major personality traits, like a critical spirit sometimes because of our own psychological insecurities, and we criticize in others what we don’t like about ourselves. But big or small, conscious or subconscious, harmless or harmful, one thing is certain, we are far more conditioned than we realize. And part of spiritual growth, please hear me, part of spiritual growth is identifying those conditioned reflexes and allowing God to recondition our reflexes with his grace.
Looking at Scripture through the filter of Ivan Pavlov is an interesting exercise and Peter makes an interesting case study. I’ve read this story that we’re talking about a lot of times. It was a few years ago that I read it a little differently. I had this thought as I read this particular passage. I wonder if Peter felt a twinge of guilt every time he heard a rooster crow? Have you ever noticed how different stimuli will trigger different memories? Ever time I smell lilacs, I am immediately transported through time and space to my grandparents’ backyard. I think when I was a little kid, that was where I got my first whiff of lilacs and every time I smell it! Some of you know what I’m talking about. You remember the cologne or perfume from someone that you dated years ago, that might not be good. Every time I hear Roy Orbison’s ‘You Got It’ I’m immediately transported back to Lakeshore Drive, driving northbound from the University of Chicago into the city on a date with Lora and it became our song. Thank you very much. A couple years ago, I was having lunch at Five Guys with a pastor and that song came on the radio and I started having feelings that I shouldn’t have with him! But that’s how powerful it is! These memories and stimuli trigger different reactions and I think what I’m trying to say, I wonder if a rooster’s crow had that same kind of psychological effect on Peter. He let Jesus down when Jesus needed him most. This is his moment of greatest failure, and you know that memories, the way God has designed us, is the stronger an emotion, the stronger a memory. Memory is linked with emotion, and the stronger the memory, the stronger the emotion. He wept bitterly. So this is one of those moments that you are never going to forget. And he wants to forget it because it is one of the greatest failures. So I think this sound triggers something in his auditory cortex that probably produced feelings of tremendous guilt. So every time a rooster crowed, it was depressing, like a reminder. We don’t totally appreciate this because most of us live in the city or a suburb and I think the rooster population in D.C. is zero, so we don’t really appreciate this. But a few years ago, I was on a trip with our church in the Galapagos Islands, and I remember we woke up on the island of Isabella, population 1,500 people and about 7 million roosters! Most of them right outside my window at 4:00 a.m. I think they were crowing early! It really helped me imagine this story. Can you imagine Peter waking up every morning, like, ‘hey, here’s your daily reminder of what a failure you are!’ It would be like setting your alarm clock to the most depressing song you’ve ever heard that brings back terrible memories! This is just the reality that Peter is living in. The Bible says that Satan roams around like a roaring lion. I think he also prances around like a crowing rooster. His tactics have not changed since the Garden of Eden. He wants to remind us of everything we’ve done wrong over and over and over again, so that we get stuck in the past and we don’t have any energy left for kingdom purposes, to be part of the mission that He has put us on. So thereby the enemy neutralizes us. The enemy wants to condition your reflexes with guilt, but Jesus Christ came to recondition our reflexes with his amazing grace.
Now, zoom back out and look at this from a 30,000-foot perspective, I think what you find is that much of the gospel is about reconditioning. Pray for those who persecute you; love your enemies; bless those who curse you; if someone forces you to go with him one mile, go with him two miles; if someone strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also. I haven’t been slapped all that often, maybe never, but I know that when someone offends me, what’s the natural reaction? Slap them back! Because we want to react to whatever it is that’s been done to us. I would suggest that it is much easier to act like a Christian than it is to react like a Christian. We are good at acting, but reacting, you can’t plan, you can’t script it and it reveals really what is in your heart, doesn’t it? So it’s the reactions that reveal something about us.
This week, I was on a speaking trip, six flights in two days, Atlanta, Georgia, Birmingham, Alabama, Branson, Missouri, and by Friday morning, I was exhausted and I don’t know what I was thinking and I said let’s do the 6:30 flight so I can get back here and be back here for a half day. But I was an hour from the airport so I left the hotel at 4:30, and it was fogging, so it was a stressful drive. So I’m tense and tired and I’m not perfect, you know that. So I get on the flight in Springfield, Missouri and I fell asleep. So I didn’t know that we sat on the tarmac for half an hour, I didn’t know that. So when we landed in Memphis for the connecting flight, I was all relaxed, thought I’d grab a cup of coffee and maybe breakfast and I was wondering why everybody was pushing. Then I started getting nervous because a bunch of people were like ‘connecting flight!’ but I’m just sitting there. I had to check baggage because it was a small plane and I’m just waiting it and I thought, maybe I better check, so I take out my boarding pass and I have 12 minutes! Oh man! So I got my luggage and pulled an O.J. Simpson Hertz commercial, I am running through the airport, moves that you would be very impressed with. I’m flying around people and half way across the airport, I’m on one end and have to get to the other side, I hear the final boarding call, so I pick up my pace, then two gates away I hear, ‘Paging passenger Mark Batterson!’ That has never happened to me! I felt kind of important in that moment. So I’m waving my arms and I get onto the plane, and the thing that saved me, I kid you not, was a toilet malfunction! It delayed the flight for 5 minutes, just long enough for me to get on the plane. Everybody was giving me a dirty look, like everybody waited for me. It was like the walk of shame down the middle aisle and I sit down and here’s the thing, did I mention I was tense and tired, well, I didn’t get my coffee! But I gotta go! So I’m waiting for that ding ding so I can get back there. So ding ding I go back to the restroom and there is a flight attendant and she’s giving me the evil eye because he was waiting to get through with the cart and in a very stern tone, he said, “Sir, step aside.” I’m like, “What have I done to you?” And my reaction was not perfect. I wasn’t going to step aside, but I didn’t want to get in trouble. Internally, I’m thinking I’m not going to step aside, I’m just going to go back to my seat but I’m not going to do what you just told me to do. So I walk back to my seat and he said, “Sir, I said step aside!” He thought I was ignoring, but I said, “I’m going back to my seat!” Loud enough that the whole back of the plane heard me, I’m causing a commotion. I start hoping there is no one I know. So I sit down and I’m having imaginary moments of him walking down the aisle and me just kind doing one of these, and I’m sitting there thinking, Mark what is wrong with you? All bent out of shape and pretty angry, but in the grand scheme of things, is this really a big deal? Part of the reason I share this is because we all have those moments. So he came down and took my drink order, it was like the soup Nazi, I was so nervous, wondering if he was even going to take my order. Here’s the funny thing, then I feel like the Lord gave me a second chance, Mark you’ve got to work on your reactions, I’m going to give you a second chance. The lady next to me spilled her entire cup of coffee on my pants! But you know what, before she could say she was sorry, I said, “Don’t worry about it mam.” Then I told her about how a couple of years ago, I was at Tortilla Coast and I ordered a sour cream enchilada and the tables there are really close together because it’s always really packed at lunch time, and I put my fork into the first bite of the enchilada and I set some kind of enchilada record because it squirted three feet and landed on a guy with a business suit right next to me! I offered to pay the dry cleaning, but I remember he had this really nice reaction, and she probably thought I was crazy telling her my life story, thinking I wish I hadn’t spilled on him, but here’s the thing, is it not true that it is our reactions that really reveal what’s inside? What’s going on in here? I think sometimes, we have to take a hard look in the mirror and I felt like I had one of those moments on Friday, being tired, being tense, not having coffee is not an excuse. I felt like, Oh God, would You redeem my reactions?
What I’m saying here is you do not have to slap back, you don’t have to, because the power of the Holy Spirit and the grace of God can change your life. It can totally change the way you treat the people around you. Why? Because you love them the way that Christ loves you, and you keep that in mind and it changes the way you treat the people around you.
All of that to say this, a lot of the gospel is about reconditioning our reflexes and I’m going to ask you to spend a little time in front of the mirror this weekend. Are there some reflexes, some things, that God needs to recondition in your life? Maybe it is a critical spirit; maybe it is a negativity; maybe it is the way you treat some people with not as much grace as you could or should; maybe it is in the family environment, the way you talk to a spouse or your children; maybe it is softening a tone; but whatever it is, we need to allow God, this is where the rubber meets the road. This is where our lives become defined.
So what you have is Peter having this terrible reaction to an offense and betraying Jesus, and I love Jesus’ reaction here, this is so powerful, because I want to show you a picture of how Jesus reacts to our betrayals and our failures and the ways we disappoint Him. It is such a beautiful picture. I’m going to cheat because it’s not in Mark’s gospel and I know that’s what we are reading, but the gospels are kind of four perspectives on these events, and in John’s gospel, it says that Jesus looked at Peter, and you might think it is a throw away line, but I think it speaks volumes and I don’t think it was evil eyes or a look of condemnation. I think Jesus looked at Peter because He knew that Peter had just made the biggest mistake of his life and He knew that Peter would probably give Peter a hard time. In fact, Peter might even give up on Peter, but Jesus wasn’t about to give up on Peter. I think Jesus made eye contact because there is something powerful about it. Parents, have you ever asked your kids, like when you want the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, what do you do? Look me in the eye, because it is so much harder to lie when you’re looking me in the eye. Have you ever gazed silently into the eyes of the person you love? It’s powerful! If you haven’t done it, you need to try it because there is something about that eye contact that is so intimate. Have you ever noticed that it is very difficult to make eye contact with someone that you’re gossiping about? It is not quite right in here. There is something powerful about eye contact. It creates a relational connection unlike anything else. Just so that you get this, turn to the person next to you and make eye contact, this might create an awkward moment, but hey, we are 70% single! If you’ve been rejected by eHarmony, you come here! I’m hanging out with a friend right now who said he got rejected by eHarmony.
What was Jesus doing? ‘Peter, I am looking at you because I am not giving up on you. You look at Me.’ If you turn your back on Jesus and then you turn around, what I want you to understand is that He is going to be right there to embrace you. He is making eye contact with you right now and all you have to do is turn around and the Son of God with his loving, graceful eyes, is looking at you. He is looking for you and He is looking at you. This is such a merciful moment, because if Jesus had said something to Peter, then He would have called Peter out and Peter would have been identified as someone who was with Him. Do you get that? So in a graceful moment, He was like, ‘You’re not going to stick up for me, you’re going to deny Me three times, but I’m not going to get you in trouble here, I’m not going to call you out but I’m going to look in your eyes because I still believe in you. You may have given up on yourself but I am not giving up on you.’
I don’t know where you’re at this weekend. I don’t know what mistakes you’ve made, but we have a core value here at NCC, God loves people when they least expect it and least deserve it. This was one of those moments for Peter. He didn’t expect it, he didn’t deserve it, but Jesus lovingly looked at him in this moment. That’s what Jesus was about. I have some good news, if you are breathing, it means that God has not given up on you. He has not given up on you. His grace, we talked about it last week, the steadfast love of the Lord never ceases. His mercies never come to an end, they are new every morning.
Turn over to John Chapter 21. This is in next week’s reading, so it’s permissible. John 21, I want to end this story. Peter does something interesting. This is weeks after his denial, and I think he is still living in the failure of what he has experienced and he says to the other disciples, and I don’t want to read too much into this but I want to understand the significance of it, Peter says to the other disciples, “I’m going out to fish.” What was Peter before he was a fisher of men? He was a fisher of fish. So part of me thinks that sometimes when you fail spiritually, can I just let you in on one of the enemy tactics? When you fail once, the enemy wants you to throw the whole thing in and say forget it. I’m here to tell you that that is not the voice of God. God wants to forgive you over and over and over again, as long as you continue to turn back to Him. But I think what happens is that we fail once and we’re just like forget it, then we just go back into a lifestyle of sin and give up on it. But for Peter, he goes out to fish and Jesus shows up, and I love this story, John 21:15
15 Jesus said to Simon Peter, "Simon son of John, do you truly love me more than these?" "Yes, Lord," he said, "you know that I love you." Jesus said, "Feed my lambs."
16Again Jesus said, "Simon son of John, do you truly love me?" He answered, "Yes, Lord, you know that I love you." Jesus said, "Take care of my sheep."
17 The third time he said to him, "Simon son of John, do you love me?" Peter was hurt
Sometimes God needs to hurt us to heal us. I was just talking to someone about the 23rd Psalm this week, a pastor friend who was hanging out with shepherds in Bethlehem, he was telling me about a trip over there and he sat down with a shepherd in Bethlehem and was talking about shepherding, and he said, ‘Do you know what we do with stray sheep, a sheep that keeps wandering, a sheep that might get itself killed because it keeps wandering off,’ do you know what they do? They break its legs. Have you ever seen that picture of Jesus with a lamb around his neck? It is wonderful imagery of a lamb that had probably been wandering, whose leg had to be broken to bring back into the fold so that they hurt themselves or kill themselves in the process. That leg heals, right? Sometimes the Lord has to hurt us to heal us. I think that’s what’s happening here. Peter was hurt but isn’t it possible that Jesus knew something about reconditioned reflexes before Ivan Pavlov ever came along? Peter denied Him three times, but three times Jesus recommissioned him, do you love me? Do you love me? Do you love me? He wanted to bring closure to that thing. I’m concerned that many of us live without closure in our spiritual lives. The Holy Spirit is working on something in our lives but we never seal the deal, like God convicts us of something but then we walk out and get into the routine of the week or again, like I was talking about last week, I really think we only have one problem this weekend and if anything, we have not submitted to the Lordship of Jesus Christ. That’s our problem; that’s the thing where we need to grow and we need to change. So what happens here is the Lord three times recommissions Peter, and I’ll close with this. He says in John 21, early in the morning, when do roosters crow? I think this is so beautiful. I think Jesus picks a time and a place to intentionally have this moment, ‘Peter, this is going to hurt but I’m going heal you right here.’ This whole story is so amazing! Could you forgive your friend if they denied you three times? Could you forgive them? But that isn’t just what Jesus does. ‘Peter, here are the keys to the kingdom! I’m concerned as we prepare to celebrate communion that we think just about the forgiveness dimension of what Christ has done for us. It’s a beautiful dimension that He came to put us in right relationship with God, but that’s not all, he didn’t just come to reconcile us to God, He came to recommission us, for us to be part of this thing called the kingdom of God. He does it in those early morning hours. That rooster’s crow, which once produced a conditioned reflex of guilt now produces a conditioned reflex of grace. That is what Jesus Christ has come to do. You do not have to live with the guilt of your sins. All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. You do not have to live with that guilt. Jesus came to set you free. Here’s the amazing thing, the grace of God changes everything. It doesn’t change the fact that we are still sinners, we still have bad reactions and actions; we still make mistakes and we still sin, but we know Jesus is making eye contact with us, and if we will simply turn to Him, his grace turns those feelings of guilt into feelings of gratitude where we can literally confess our sinfulness but be filled with gratitude simply because of what Jesus Christ has done for us.
Father, thank You, thank You. Lord I pray that the truth of your gospel, the stories that we’ve just read and the things we’ve talked about, God I pray that your Holy Spirit would take those things and work them in our hearts and in our minds and in our spirits and change us because we need to be changed. We need your grace in our lives. Lord I pray for the person who walked away from church because of some offense, because of some person, but it wasn’t You, God I pray that You would reveal that reality and that right now, their heart would be softened towards You so that they can receive the grace of God and receive healing. Lord we thank You that You came to destroy the evidence against us. As we celebrate communion this weekend, we are reminded of that and we thank You for it. Lord I pray for those who today need to make that decision to submit their lives to your Lordship. God I pray that they would have the courage to do it, that maybe as we celebrate communion this weekend, maybe they would celebrate for the very first time, and for the very first time, understand the significance of the bread and the cup and how it represents your body and your blood that was shed on a cross for the forgiveness of our sins. Lord I pray that that reality would change everything about us and would recondition all of our reflexes, in Jesus name, Amen.
Ministry Transcription
Margaret Salyers
606-706-5006
margaretsalyers@gmail.com
