Sunday Morning Service 10:30AM-

All right. Good morning. I'm glad you're here. It's good to see everybody. We welcome you and invite you to stand with us. We'll pray and we'll get started.

Oh, Lord, we thank you for the day. Thank you for this beautiful morning, Lord. We ask that you bless this time. Lord, just help us to sit everything else aside, Lord, to focus on you, to lie the praise upon you, Lord, to worship you. And, Lord, may it be a sweet song in your ear. We love you and we praise you in your name. Amen.

You guys can go ahead and have a seat if you like. And, Lord, God, even when we're in the valleys, the lowest valleys, Lord God, the tops, Lord, we'll praise you for purpose.

And, Lord, God, as we sing this next song, Lord, I just pray that if there are any here this morning, Lord, that I've never surrendered their lives to you. I pray that today would be that day. Your word says, behold, I stand at the door and knock. Lord, you're knocking on the door of our hearts this morning. And I pray that we would let you in. Lord, if there's any unsurrendered areas of our lives,

I pray that we would come to that place of surrender this morning, God, and help us to trust in you with each and every area of our lives, Lord. Stand with me for this last one.

There's a thousand tongues to lift.

Glorify you and magnify you. Lord, again, if there's any area of our lives, that don't glorify you, may we come to a place of surrender this morning. And may we come to a place of restoration.

Lord God, I just ask your blessing upon this time. Lord, may your Holy Spirit move mightily in this place. Lord, overflow Pastor Ryan with your Holy Spirit. Give him the words to speak. And, Lord, give us ears to hear, hearts to receive, and a spirit to do it. Father, we love you and we praise you. In Jesus' name, amen. Look to your right, look to your left.

Take some time and greet one another this morning. If you could begin the process of finding your seat,

grab a bulletin. We'll get ready to go over some announcements.

Welcome to Calvary Chapel. I'm glad that you have joined us this morning. A handful of things to take note of in the middle section of your bulletin. First of all, it says there's going to be a ladies' breakfast next Saturday. However, due to all of the events of next weekend, it's happening all in one single weekend. They've decided to postpone that till next month.

So, go enjoy every graduation party known to man next weekend and do that instead. We do have the Agape Fruits Mother's Day cookout next Sunday evening. Agape Fruits is sponsoring that. And then also we have intercessory prayer tonight at 6. And then, ladies, there is a Bible study. A new Bible study that's going to be getting going with the Joyful Life Ladies.

So, all those sign-ups are out there in the lobby. As far as I know, those are all the things that are going on. So, if you would make sure that your mobile device is silenced. And for our responsive reading this morning, we are going to be in Psalm 23. Psalm 23. Looking at the New American Standard for this so that we hopefully all sound the same. If you need a copy of the New American Standard,

there should be one in a row around you. If there's not, make a friend. And as you are turning to Psalm 23. Nobody laughed at that. You can make friends here. It's okay. While you're turning to Psalm 23, if you are able, please stand in the honor of the reading of God's Word.

I will read the odd verses. If you will follow along with Pastor Allen and the even verses. Psalm 23, a Psalm of David. The Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside quiet waters. He restores my soul. He guides me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake. Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,

I fear no evil for you are with me. Your rod and your staff, they comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You have anointed my head with oil. My cup overflows. Surely goodness and loving kindness will follow me all the days of my life. And I will dwell in it. I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. And Father, we praise you for being our good shepherd.

Lord, the God who created us, the God who sustains us, the God who knows us, the God who restores us. And so, Father, as we spend time in your Word this morning, I just ask that you would move in this place by the power of your Holy Spirit. Father, my heart is heavy this morning, and I feel like that somebody's heart in here is heavy as well. And so, Lord, I pray that, uh, I pray that that your Holy Spirit would minister in the way that only you can this morning and just move through this time.

We pray in Jesus name. Amen. You may be seated. And if you would open up. Oh, no, that's not good. I left my notes. Open up in your Bibles to the book of John chapter 21. I have a great wife. She's probably the best ever. She'll do the best I can until then. So, so let me tell you a real quick story. Two times this has happened to me at funerals. One time I was doing a funeral and a daughter came up to share something and she laid all of her stuff right on top of my notes and she picked everything up at the same time and walked off and I was just like and I said,

do the best I could. And then another time I was doing one, it was a grave site. It was really, really, really, really, really cold, like 18 degrees. And, um, and, and I'm doing this in fun fact about an iPad. If it's really, really cold and iPad will not operate word to the wise. And so, and so that's what happened. The entire thing shut down and I couldn't,

uh, I couldn't, I just had to do the best that I could and I didn't have my wife there to bring me notes. There she is. Everybody. Aaron Nichols. Now she's mad at me. John chapter 21. The title of this morning's message is he restores my soul. I debated on what we were going to do next if I was going to jump back into, uh, the, uh, the book of first Timothy.

I really wanted to, and I really hadn't had planned on it, but, but God, throughout the time of me preparing the Easter series, God had, uh, had laid on my heart doing something about restoration, particularly with Peter. And, um, but I was like, oh, that's, that's silly. I shouldn't do that. I should just jump back in. And, and this week the Lord laid it so heavy on my heart that this was what I needed to do.

That that was the only option for me was to, was to jump in and do this, do this message. And so, so I, I'm springboarding off of the idea of what it says. As in Psalm 23, that's where we read Psalm 23 this morning, because I think of the things that God has taught me over the past 20 some years of my life. It, one of the greatest things is that God is the God that restores us that, that he restores our souls.

And, um, and, and I know this because I've watched God do it in the lives of other people, um, in my life. And in my time in ministry, I've watched God, uh, restore people from broken relationships. I've watched God restore people from alcoholism. Um, I've watched God restore people from drug addiction. Um, I even got to hear a fantastic story last weekend about a gentleman who got up in front

of a group of teenage kids, an older guy got up in front of a group of teenage kids and shared his own personal testimony of how, at the age of five years old, he had been sexually assaulted by somebody that he trusted. And, and through, through that taking place in his life, he, he had become a very bitter, angry person and, and he tried to mask it with drugs and alcohol and, and vengeance. And, and fighting. And, and he said, finally, one day God broke his heart and he came to a place of surrender and he surrendered his life to Jesus.

And, and, and instead of needing a substance to try to bring joy, Jesus brought joy. And instead of needing to fight, he didn't need to anymore because he was filled with love because that's, that's the restoring power of the gospel and that's the restoring power of Jesus Christ. And, and while I can tell you about those stories, it's better if I tell you my own because I've seen God's ability to restore in my own life. And, and this, this, this message, again, is one of those.

That's not, not one that I studied out to all of the Greek words, even though I did some of that, this message is one that's written on my heart because it's what God wrote on my heart, uh, through some of the things that I've gone through. And so, so I've watched God restore me from areas of sin that I had fallen into and, and God had to bring me back from those and, and bring restoration in my life. I've watched God restore me from a time of deep depression that I didn't think I was ever going to come out of and, and restore me to the point of having a great deal of joy. And, and what God has done in my life over the last eight years is restore me from a great deal of grief from people that I've lost, uh, people that have meant so much to me.

And, and I've had to say goodbye to sometimes in, in very tragic, uh, um, unplanned, unknown sort of ways. And, and I know that my time of needing restoration is not done yet. I know, I know I'm at least gonna have to go through it one more time, um, as I watch things continue to take place with my dad. But in, but in all of those things and all of the things that I've been through, I've learned one central thing.

And that one central thing that I've learned is that he restores my soul. And so, so where, wherever you sit in life right now, whatever's going on with you, I want you to know that, that if you are one that's in need of restoration, if, if your soul needs restored, God is really good to do that. And so, so what I want to do to this morning to talk about this is I want to look at the story of Peter in John chapter 21. I want to give you just a little bit of background to the story as we get into it.

Um, Peter, this is, this is after the resurrection of Jesus. It's actually almost an addendum, uh, to the book of John, because you would think everything feels like it wrapped up really nicely in John chapter 20 with the resurrection of Jesus Christ. And, and yet John felt a need to share this one last story. I think mainly because Peter was the leader of the early church.

And the last that John had anything to say about him, Peter was grieving the fact that he had denied that he even knew Jesus. And so he included this story to say, Hey, this is kind of how Peter went from that to being the leader of the early church. But, but if you remember, um, on that last night, uh, during the, the, the last supper, Jesus was with his disciples and he told them, Hey, listen, you guys need to know something. All of you are going to be made to scatter because of me tonight.

Uh, it'll fulfill the prophecy that says, if you strike the shepherd, then the sheep will scatter. And so, so Peter, of course, looked at him and, and with the only, the overconfidence that Peter can had said, there's no way I'm ever going to leave you. I'm always going to be with you. I'm always going to die for you. And in the garden, when it came time for battle,

Peter almost showed himself to be true because he tried to cut heads off and missed and got ears. And that's a whole other story in and of itself. And, but when the going got tough, Peter ran just like everybody else did. And everything seemed great for Peter's like, I'm standing pretty strong until he stood by the campfire with a little girl who said, weren't you one of his disciples?

And Peter said, I have no idea what you're talking about. Warm himself a little bit longer by the fire. And somebody else came along and said, no, I was, I was here all week. I saw you with Jesus. You're one of his disciples, aren't you? And Peter said, I have no idea what you're talking about. Until finally, somebody said, bro, you have a Galilean accent. Like you have to be one of his disciples.

And Peter said, golly, gosh, darn. No, he cursed. No, I, I'm not one of his disciples. And in that moment, the rooster crowed, which Jesus said, you deny it. He would deny him three times before the rooster crowed. And in that moment, Jesus came walking out of the place where he was on trial. And in that moment, Peter knew, he had blown it, not just kind of,

but big. And just like Jesus said that he would, Peter was broken at this point in time. And Peter found himself in a place where he said, I don't know if I can still be called one of his disciples. I don't know if I can be a servant of the Lord. And I certainly don't know if I can do anything that he's called for me to do. I am at a place where I feel like my life is pointless.

What am I supposed to do? Have you ever found yourself in a place like that? I did. After Bible college, I had broken off a relationship that I never should have been in and, and entered a deep depression that, that I didn't think I was ever going to get out of. And I'll never forget after I broke up with the girl that I was with at that point in time, one of my really good friends asked me,

she said, so what are you going to do now? And I said, I have no idea. I used to want to go into ministry, but right now I don't even feel fit to clean the toilets. And I found myself in the exact same place that Peter is right now. And so Peter, as he finds himself in this place, says this, John chapter 21, verse one, it says after these things, Jesus manifested himself again to the disciples at the sea of Tiberius.

And he manifested himself in this way, Simon, Peter and Thomas called Didymus and Nathaniel of Canada and Galilee and the sons of Zebedee and two others of his disciples were together. And Simon, Peter said to them, I'm going fishing. And they said, we will also come with you. And they went out and they got into the boat. And that night they caught nothing.

So when Peter found himself in this place of going fishing, I don't know what I'm supposed to be doing in life. I don't think I can do what God had originally wanted me to do because I'd fallen too far past his grace. And I'm in a need of being restored. I'm just as broken as I could possibly be. He sat around with some of his friends and he said, I'm going fishing.

Now, depending on who you read, we'll tell you what your thoughts are on it. But, but some people say, well, when he said he's going fishing, he was like, well, I just want to occupy myself until God gives me instructions. And so I'm going fishing. And then other people are like, no, he was returning to his former lifestyle of being a fisherman, which is what he was before he came to Jesus.

And he was abandoning everything he knew about God. And he was going after being a fisherman. And then some people are like, Peter just didn't know what else to do. And so he went fishing. I like that one. I think that's what was going on with Peter. He was like, I don't know what else to do. So I'm going to do what I know how to do. I'm going to go fishing.

And do you know what I really appreciate about all of the other disciples who are not in the same place, emotionally and spiritually that Peter's in right now? They're like, we're going to go with you. We're just going to go with you. And I love that. And I've always read that a little differently every time. And this time, this is the way that I read that.

The way that I read that is they're like, if that's where you're going, then we're going to be with you because we know that what you need right now is us. We know that that's what you need right now. And listen, if you are friends with somebody that's in a place where they need some restoration in their life, they've either fallen into sin or depression or grief or you name it, whatever it is. And you're like, I have no idea.

What to do for them. I have no idea how to help them. I'm going to tell you what they just did is exactly what you need to do. They just need you there. You don't have to say the right words. You don't have to know the right thing. You don't have to know the right verse. You don't even know how to have to know how to counsel them. They just need you to be there.

I remember when I was in Bible college, one of the first times that I, that I really started to deal with depression and, and I was laying on my bed and I didn't want to be around anybody. I didn't want to go talk to anybody. And as a matter of fact, in Bible college, you don't lock your doors. At least the one that I went to, none of us locked our doors because we all just really trusted each other.

Strangest thing ever, but we did, you know, we ever got anything stolen. And so in this, but this particular day, I locked my door because I didn't want anybody coming in. Only I forgot. I didn't lock my window and all, and we all knew how to break into each other's rooms. So my friend, Chris came and knocked on the door and I yelled at him to go away. And so he slid open the window and my bunk was right by the window is the bottom bunk.

And he, he crawled into bed next to me and he just said, get out of bed. We're going somewhere. And he pushed me out of bed because that's what friends do when friends are going through hard times. That's what they do is they're just there. You don't have to know the right thing. You don't have to say the right thing. You don't have to be the right thing. You,

they just need the gift of presence. And that's what these disciples do for him is they're like, we're going to, and so they all go fishing and they caught nothing. Can you like, Peter's like, I only know how to do one thing really well. Well in life. And that's fish. So let's go fishing. Seven hours later, Peter, I thought you were really good at fishing. We've caught nothing.

Well, maybe I'm not as good as I thought I was. So here they are all together. Notice what happens. Verse four, when the day was now breaking, Jesus stood on the beach, but the disciples didn't realize it was him. And so Jesus said to them, children, you do not have any fish, do you? And they answered him. I just love Jesus. They, and they answered him. No.

And he said to them, cast the net on the right side of the boat and you will find a catch. So they cast. And then they were not able to haul it in because of the great number of fish. Therefore, the disciple whom Jesus loves said to Peter, it's the Lord. When Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he put his outer garment on for he was stripped for work. He threw himself into the sea.

The other disciple came in the little boat for they were not far away from land, about a hundred yards away, dragging a net full of fish. So when they got out on the land, they saw a charcoal fire already laid and fish placed on it and bread. And Jesus said, bring some of the fish, which you have caught. I do love Jesus. He's like, how many fish did you catch?

Right? Jesus knows everything. Remember how many fish did you catch? You're like nothing. He's like, darn straight, cast it on the other side of the boat. Now, listen, when I go fishing, I make everybody else feel better about themselves. Okay. Like, I'm like, how many fish did you catch? You're like, nothing. He's like, I'm like, Hey, listen, I'm here to make you feel good because you're going to catch something and I'm not,

and it's going to be awesome. And you're going to love it. And my favorite thing is when, when the guy catching all of the fish says, have you tried using this lure? And you're like, still nothing, right? But that's kind of what Jesus does. He says, have you tried on the other side of the boat? So they cast the net on the other side of the boat, more fish that they can imagine.

And John picks it up immediately because you know, the first time Jesus met these boys, you remember what happened? They were out all night fishing and they hadn't caught anything. And Jesus said, you should try on the other side. And they caught all these fish. And John being the intuitive, one of the disciples looked at Peter and he said, that's Jesus friends.

If you're the friend of somebody in need of restoration, the second thing you can do is this, help them see Jesus, help them see Jesus. Listen, usually when you're in the hard times of life, when you're, when you're, when you're in the middle of the battle, it's hard. It's hard to see Jesus. Because all you can see is what's right in front of your face. All you can see is what's,

what's right in front of you. And you can't always see that that's Jesus out there. And so you need to be the friend who says that's Jesus. And you need to point them to Jesus and help them to see Jesus. Because that's the best thing that you can do for your friends when they're going through the hardest times of life. And so, and so he leans over and he says,

that's Jesus. And Peter gets really, really excited. He puts on his outer garment. I like the old King James on this that says, because Peter was naked. Listen, he wasn't really naked. Okay. He just had like an undershirt on or something that was fishing with, throws his outer garment on, jumps in the water, swims to the beach, and he sees Jesus. Now, I don't know how you picture this in your own mind,

but I think, you know, I'm going to tell you how I picture it in mine, right? Remember that scene from Forrest Gump when, when he's out on the, when he's out on the boat, right? And he sees Lieutenant Dan on the dock and he yells, Lieutenant Dan, right? And he jumps in the water and he swims to the dock. He gets up on the dock and he just goes, hi, Lieutenant Dan.

This is exactly how I see Peter being at this point in time. He puts the outer garment on. He chucks himself into the water. He swims up and he goes, hi, Jesus, right? And just in an awkward moment, because I think Peter was full of lots of awkward moments. He swims to the, to the, to the shore and he sees Jesus standing there. And Jesus has already made a sweet little fire,

got some fish roasting. He's like, well, I see you have some fish now. Why don't you bring some of yours too? Okay. And in this beautiful scene, we see them have breakfast with Jesus. It says in verse 11, Simon Peter went up, drew the net to land full of large fish, 153. And although there were so many, the net was not torn. It says, and Jesus said to them,

come over here and have breakfast. And none of the disciples ventured to question him. Who, who are you? Knowing it was the Lord. And Jesus came and took the bread and gave it to them. And the fish, their whole process of eating was likewise. This is now the third time that Jesus was manifested to the disciples after he was raised from the dead. I always think it's kind of interesting

because at this point in time, it's probably two to three weeks after Jesus was raised from the dead. Because we know that the first time that they saw him was the day that he was raised from the dead. The second time he appeared to his disciples was eight days later when, when doubting Thomas was there. And then of course we've got this one. So probably about the same distance that we are from,

from our Easter service right now. far they were from from jesus being raised from the dead at this point in time and and jesus served some fish and bread and and no one asked whether or not it was jesus because they knew you know why i think that they knew it doesn't say this in scripture it can't prove it scripturally but it feels like this is probably how they knew is when he handed them the fish and the bread you know what they saw they would have seen the scars and they just sat and had breakfast with jesus now before we get back to the main point of restoration which which we'll get back to i just want to park here for one quick second and talk to you about something

jesus decided that what he wanted to do more than anything else is just have breakfast with his friends because the entire reason god created you was for fellowship he created you for that relationship with him and sometimes i think in all of the busyness of life and in all of the different ideas we have about church and god and everything else we miss the main point and the main point is that we have to have breakfast with him and we have to have breakfast with him god wants fellowship with you he wants to have breakfast with you he wants to have coffee with you he wants to spend time with you because that's the entire reason he died for you of all of the

things jesus could have done with his disciples what he decides he's going to do is have breakfast yeah there's things that can prevent fellowship you can't have sin because sin is going to prevent fellowship you got to have focus because a lack of focus will prevent fellowship but listen that fellowship that's what you were created for and that's what he reminds them of in that moment they're going to need to remember that fellowship is still his greatest desire for them all right so back to the story so they so they eat breakfast with jesus they're all sitting around the fire i always wonder what they talked about around the fire right like like did they did they talk a

little bit about what things must have been like with the crucifixion if it were me i would have been like can you tell me about the whole death thing like that would be kind of fascinating to know about like uh what was it what was it like to have to deal with that what's it like to walk out of a grave i mean i who knows what they talked about but they had to talk about the whole death but they had this entire conversation with jesus well after breakfast was done now comes the important part because now comes a conversation with jesus in verse 15 it says so when they had finished breakfast jesus said to simon peter simon son of jonah do you love me more than these

he said to him yes lord you know that i love you he said to him tend my lambs he said to him again time simon son of john do you love me more than me or do you love me and he said to him yes lord you know that i love you he said shepherd my sheep he said to him the third time simon son of john do you love me and peter was grieved because he said to him the third time do you love me he said to him lord you know all things you know that i love you and jesus said to him tend my sheep very important conversation that Jesus has with Peter at this point in time. So as Jesus sits down across the fire from Peter, or perhaps walking on the beach with Peter, he has this really important conversation. It all starts out with a question. The question

that he asks him is, Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these? I want to know what the more than these are, and there's lots of thoughts on that. I can tell you what mine are. So some people say that do you love me more than these means do you love me more than you love these fishermen friends of yours? Do you love me more than these? I don't think that really fits the

context here. Some people say that what he was saying is do you love me more than these fish, more than this business of fishing? But even that I'm not sure really carries the full context of what Jesus intended with this question. And then comes the thought that I have that other commentators have as well, and that's that Jesus asks, do you love me more than these guys love me?

You know why? I think that that's what Jesus was asking. Because do you remember when Jesus told them that they were all going to run? Peter was basically like, I don't know what all the other yo-yos are going to do, but I'm with you. They may abandon you, I won't. In essence, he said, I love you more than they do. And yet Peter showed that not only did he not love Jesus more than them, he was actually

capable of a greater fall than they were. So Jesus asked them, Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these? And Simon says, yes, Lord, you know that I love you. And he said to him, tend my lambs. Now, this is where the Greek part comes in really important that we have to pay attention to in these questions that Jesus asks. I've shared it with you before, but just in case you've forgotten, there's multiple words in the Greek for love,

and three of them are used consistently throughout scripture. The first word is the word eros, which is more of a self-satisfying physical sort of love. The second one is the word phileo, where we get our word Philadelphia from. It carries with it the idea of a brotherly love or a really fond affection. And then the third word is the strongest word for love in the Greek

language, which is agape. It's a divine sacrificial love. It loves at the cost of one's own good or benefit. That's the idea of agape love. Well, when Jesus talks to Peter, he says, Simon, son of John, do you agape me more than these? Do you have a divine sacrificial love that always puts yourself second and someone else first? Do you have that kind of love for me? And Peter looks

at him and he says, and you know, I think you're a really good friend. I got a really fond affection for you because he had to be honest and say, I want to be able to say I have a divine sacrificial love, but if I'm being honest, I'm just not. There right now, because I'm still pretty weak. And Jesus doesn't look at him and say, how dare you? You should be better than this by now. We've been at this a long time now. Now,

what does Jesus say to him? He says, tend my lambs. You take care of the sheep for me, okay? So Jesus asked him a second time, Simon, son of John, do you love me? He said, yes, Lord, you know that I love you. He said to him, shepherd my sheep. Second time, Jesus asked him, he says, do you have an agape sacrificial love for me? Peter says, man, Lord, you, you know, and I love that. I love that Peter says, you know,

because that's a really good indicator of why Peter is communicating as honestly with Jesus as he is, because he had come to the understanding. He had come to the realization that there's nothing that Jesus doesn't know. You can't hide who you really are from Jesus. And so he says, Lord, you know, you know, that I have a really fond affection for you. I think of you as a brother and a friend. And Jesus says, shepherd my sheep.

And then it comes to the last time. And the last time he says, Simon, son of John, do you love me? And Peter was grieved because he said to him the third time, do you love me? And he said to him, Lord, you know, all things, you know, that I love you. And Jesus said to him, tend my sheep. This last time, Jesus looks at Peter. And when he asked Peter the question, Peter is grieved in his heart. Do you know why Peter

was grieved in his heart? There's two reasons, I think, why. First of all, because the first two times Jesus said, do you have an agape love for me? Do you have a sacrificial divine love for me? And Peter had to be honest and say, I have a fond affection for you. This time, Jesus looks at Peter. And he says, Peter, do you have a fond affection for me? Do you think of me like a brother?

And so Peter was grieved. You know why? Because Jesus lowered the standard and met him where he was. And he was grieved because he knew in his heart, he could not honestly say, yes, Lord, I have the agape love. And now Jesus knows he can't say it. And so Jesus brings it down to where he is. And so he's grieved. But you know why else I think he's grieved? Because how many

times is this now? This is the third time. How many times did Peter deny that he knew Jesus? Three times. And so in the third time, it's almost like you can hear the rooster crowing in the back of his head, right? Because the third time he goes, oh, again, Lord, you know all things. You know that I have a fond affection for you like a brother. You know what I love about

this? Is that Jesus met Peter where he was. Jesus met him right where he was. And I think that's good for us to remember when you're in the battle of restoration, when you're being restored from something really hard in your life, you think somehow you've got to get to where God is. And God's like, don't worry, I'll get where you are. I'll get down to where you are and I'll meet you where you are. And

that's what Jesus does for us. And that's what Jesus did for Peter. And so Peter in that grieved sort of way, because he knew what was really in his heart. And he knew that it was that third time. And in all of the feelings, in all the emotions welled up inside of him. And in a grieved sort of way, he says, you know that I love you. And Jesus said to him, tend my sheep. And in this moving sort of moment,

Jesus brings public restoration to Peter. Jesus brings him to a place where he's no longer the broken man that can't do anything right. Now he's the man that God will use to start the early church. And Jesus indicates what he's going to do in him. Notice what he says in verse 18. Truly, truly, I say to you, when you were younger, you used to gird yourself and walk wherever you

wished. But when you grow old, you will stretch out your hands and someone else will gird you and bring you where you do not wish to go. And this he said, signifying by what kind of death he would glorify God. And when he had spoken this, he said to him, follow me. Jesus said, you're used to doing things the way that you want to do. But no more. Because what's going to happen in the future is someday somebody's going to stretch

out your hands in a way that you don't want. Church tradition teaches us that Peter would go on to be crucified, but he refused to be crucified the way that his Lord was crucified because he didn't think he was worthy of it. And so he requested to be crucified upside down. You see, that's the difference that restoration makes in someone's life, is that they're willing to go from someone who denies that they even know Jesus to somebody who was willing to die.

For Jesus. And I love the last thing Jesus says to him, follow me. That word follow me is to take the same path. He says, you just take the same path with me. In other words, he says this, walk with me. You just keep walking with me. And we have this beautiful story of the restoration of Peter. And I am so glad that this story is in here. I'm so glad that this story is in here

because this gives us an understanding of what it looks like for God to restore us, for God to bring us back to where we are. And I'm so glad that this story is in here because this gives us an understanding of what it looks like for God to restore us, for God to bring us back to a place where we can not only be used again, but where we can walk in freedom again. And so from this story, I want to draw out four lessons, four lessons that I think we need to pay attention to as we look at restoration. These are four things that over the years God has shown me. As a matter

of fact, this is the third time I've taught this message in different churches. And I thought this time I'm going to get something new. This time I'm going to pull something new out of it. And God was like, why would we reinvent the wheel? And I thought, why would we reinvent the wheel? And I thought, why would we reinvent the wheel? And I thought, why would we reinvent the wheel? These

principles stand the test of time. So four lessons for being restored. Number one, restoration requires time with the Lord. Restoration requires time with the Lord. And the time with the Lord that it requires is both private and public. What's not given to us in the John account is given to us in both Luke and first corinthians chapter 15 because in both luke and first corinthians were told that jesus met

with peter on his own on the day that he raised from the dead and so there was there was a moment that he had uh with jesus that was just he and jesus where where i believe jesus said i forgive you but he still didn't feel like he was in that place where he could really be used by god he still couldn't be in that place where he was ready to move forward in his walk with jesus christ and so he had this public time of restoration and so that indicates to me that both of those are really important for us that we need both a a private time with the lord and a public time with the lord listen i'm here to tell you right now the lesson that i learned in this about 24

years ago is what has changed everything about who i am as both a believer in jesus christ and someone who teaches god's word because it's why i emphasize the importance of time alone with the lord and his word and i'm here to tell you right now if you're in a place where you need to be you need restoration in your life you need to stop everything else that you're doing and you need to get into god's word every single day you need to find some place to start reading in the bible i don't care if you start in the psalms i don't care if you start in john might not start in job although that's up to you and jesus or revelation again you and jesus on that one but start somewhere in the bible and i want you to read one chapter every single day i just want

you to read a chapter of the bible and as you read a chapter of the bible i want you to write something down i don't care if you underline a verse or i don't get it or i'm mad at you god still or whatever it is you just need to write something down because there is something physiologically true and psychologically true about us that that when you take time to write things down it processes in your brain in a completely different way and you need that time alone with the lord and here's what you need to know when i say you need time with the lord i don't mean that this can only take five minutes and then you're done well i've got my restoration now it's time to move on no sometimes this takes years listen i don't give quick answers

i don't give easy answers i give real answers and i give eternal answers so it's going to take time for for myself personally when i battled depression it took me two and a half years to to work my way through that because because there was some business i had to unpack in my melon there was there was just some stuff that i was working through and it just took a long time to really give those things to jesus it took a while to to unravel all the things it just takes time and you have to get into god's word every single day listen you feel like it or not there there will be days especially if you're battling depression where where you won't get much out of god's word and that's okay do it anyway get into god's word

anyway i remember it's about a year and a half in before i really felt like i heard the lord minister to my heart and i remember exactly where i was i was sitting on the most comfortable couch i've ever sat on in my entire life that i was not allowed to move into our apartment when my wife and i got married but that's either here or there that's a different conversation for a different day um i was sitting right there and i was like oh my god i'm not allowed to move into on that couch and i was reading in first timothy i was reading some of the stuff that we've covered over the last couple of months about paul's testimony and about the cross of jesus christ and the power of the cross in his life and i remember for the first time feeling like for

the first time in a long time feeling like i heard from god and i was a note-taking machine because i was like oh my gosh that's god speaking to me and i'm underlining and i'm writing stuff down because it's like oh there he is again there he is again and i can see him and i can see him and hear him it took time but i but i finally got there and now that i know that every time something hard comes into my life i dig a little bit deeper into god's word several years ago when my cousin passed away it was like losing a brother to me and i remember waking up the next morning and i was just going lord i don't know what to do with this right now here i am teaching about how

good you are and i'm questioning how good you are here i am teaching that you're the god of all comfort i'm kind of questioning whether or not you're the god of all comfort because i hurt really stinking bad right now and i don't know what to do with it and i'm like oh my god i'm about it and god said read the bible so i got my bible out and i started reading and i read psalm 40 and those words leapt off the page at me it was it was as if it was written just for me in just that moment and in just that time and in that moment it's like god spoke to me and i was like okay there it is that's that's what i need to know same thing happened a few weeks ago with my dad it's like god said you need to go read psalm 100

and i went and read psalm 139 and it was if it was as if it was written just for me because that time with the lord on your own is so precious and it is so necessary in your life but it's not just that private time that you have the lord it's it's gatherings like this where you get together with god's people because when you get together with god's people god does stuff and god's spirit moves amongst his people and sometimes it moves through the people that are next to you and and sometimes it sometimes it moves through the people that are next to you it moves uh in that little area and people are saying man i just feel like i need to pray for you right now and there's encouragement with being around god's people i remember being at

calvary chapel of johnson county when i was battling depression and um i was actually teaching a college bible study at the time and every now and then i was like lord i don't think i should be teaching a bible study right now and he would say go teach the bible study and i tried to quit teaching studies as much as i possibly could i'll never forget having that conversation with michael jardine pastor rick's son and i said it's like every time i tell god i'm done teaching bible he gives me another opportunity to teach the bible and he looked at me and he said it's almost like god has a plan huh and i was like fine then anyway so i'm i'm sitting there in church and

and at the end of church pastor rick said i feel like some some people in here need some spiritual healing in their life so i just want you to stand up we're going to pray for you right now and i stood up and my whole college group they all just cast around me lay their hands on me and they prayed for me and it was the most powerful moment of my life because because here god is ministering through people because that's what public time with the lord looks like it looks like gathering with other believers in jesus christ and when you say i got a need in my life they gather around you and they love on you and you need that in your life friends if you want restored don't run away and go hide somewhere don't just lay in your bed don't

just stay away from people because listen that's what your flesh will tell you to do your flesh will tell you to isolate your flesh will tell you no one understands your flesh will tell you no one will tell you don't be around people don't spend time with god don't listen to your flesh spend time with the lord number two restoration requires honesty with god and yourself restoration requires honesty with god and yourself listen the first thing you have to do is start being honest with yourself that's what peter had to do here is he had to finally say you're right i'm not the man of god i'm not the man of god i'm not the man of god i'm not the man of god

i thought i was you're right i'm not the man that i'm supposed to be and he had to get really honest with himself you know who the first person to believe your lie is you and you got to start stripping those things away and you got to start getting getting real with yourself because when you can start getting honest with yourself then you can start getting honest with god right you know one of the hardest things to do is to is to say your sin out loud not necessarily anybody else but just say it out loud to where you can hear it and you're like oh that sounds super ugly and god's like now we're getting somewhere right like sometimes you just got to be be honest and say it out loud so you can start dealing with

it and i'm here to tell you right now there is so much power in being honest with yourself because you're not hiding at that point in time you you don't have that constant fear on the inside of you all the time and you can just be honest with yourself and then when you can be honest with yourself you can start going to god and you can start saying lord here's my mess and you can start laying all those things out to him and saying this is where i sin this is where i'm depressed this is where i struggled this is where i'm grieving this is where i'm still mad at you this is where i feel like you abandoned me this is where i feel like all of these things took place and you know what he does when we can get honest with ourselves and then we can get

honest with god you know what he does he gets down and meets us where we are because that's what god does that's what he did with peter right he finally was like peter do you love me like a good friend and peter's like yes and jesus is like okay good go shepherd my sheep now that now that i've met you where you are let's go do something because here's the thing about god he meets us where we are he doesn't leave us where we are he meets you where you are but he doesn't leave you there because once he meets you where you are and you're honest with yourself and you're honest with god and he starts to restore you he takes you to places you can't even imagine he takes you to a little town in southern kansas where you get to pastor a wonderful

flock of people and you get to minister to people young and old alike all the time all because you decided it was time to get honest with yourself it was time to get honest with god let him meet you where you are and then he takes you far beyond anything you can imagine because you know peter will go on to preach the very first sermon in the book of acts where 3 000 people will get saved he will go on to write to you and he will say i love you i love you i love you i love you i love you he will go on to help found not only the church in jerusalem but churches all over judea and samaria he will go on to do all those things why because he got honest with himself

because he got honest with god jesus met him where he was but jesus didn't leave him where he was so number two you're gonna have to learn to get really really honest with god number three you're gonna have to learn to believe what god says you're gonna have to learn to believe what god says listen this is hard because we are a feelings-based people and we think faith and feelings are the same thing if i feel it right now i believe it if i don't feel it maybe i don't believe it but faith has zero to do with your feelings it has everything to do with facts it has to do with believing what god actually says and and listen if you want to be restored you have to start believing what god has to say and

and i i had to come to a place where i started finding what i call this is super cheesy verses to hang my hat on right all the cowboys are like now we're talking uh but but you got to find these verses to hang your hat on verses that are like man when when this goes wrong this is what i'm going to this is my this is my go-to right like like when i battle depression i go i go into psalm it's 41 or 42 i can't remember which one i just know what it says and it says why are you downcast oh my soul why so disquieted within me hope and hope and hope and hope and hope and hope in god for i shall yet praise them for the help of my countenance and my god and so when i start

getting kind of anxious or depressed i go back to those verses and i start okay okay why am i downcast well what does god have to say about it i'm gonna choose to believe what god has to say about it when i battle grief psalm 40 is my is my go-to i run to psalm 40 it says uh um i waited patiently for the lord and he inclined unto me and he heard my cry he brought me up out of the mirey pit out of the clay and he set my feet upon a rock and i said i'm going to go to the rock and he put a new song in my mouth praise to my god many will see it and will fear the lord right like when i don't feel very good about me when i'm struggling with sin or or or i'm just

battling with with not feeling like i'm worthy i go back to first john chapter 3 verse 2 which says beloved now we are the children of god and it's not yet been revealed what we shall be but we know that when we see him we will be like him for we shall see him as he truly is i'm a child of god and i can believe that and those are those are some of the ones that i choose to believe whether i feel like it or not one of the greatest lessons that my dad taught me is that is that feelings come at the end of the train they're the caboose of the train not the engine faith is the engine feelings they're back there in the back somewhere and they'll show up when you need them to

but other than that you can't rely on your feelings you have to choose to believe what god says as a matter of fact write this verse down romans chapter 15 verse 13 i'll read it to you you don't need to turn there romans chapter 15 verse 13 this is what it says now may the god of all hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing so that you will abound in hope by the power of the holy spirit the god of all hope he can fill you with joy and peace how does he fill you with joy and peace as you believe him listen god's entire word is full of all these promises you need to start going through locating the promises and deciding to believe them because that's where restoration comes from

i can guarantee can't prove it scripturally but i know people and i can guarantee peter went back to this conversation with jesus more than one time in his mind he went nope jesus told me tend my sheep feed my lambs shepherd my sheep this is what i'm supposed to be doing you know how i know that because that's what i do i go back to the conversations i've had with jesus and i keep believing what he said even when i don't feel like it number one if you want to see restoration in your life it's going to require time with the lord both in private and in public number two it's going to require honesty with god and yourself number three you're going to have to learn to believe what god has to say

and then comes number four number four is it's time for you to start serving jesus listen there are certain aspects of restoration where your service is not going to be the same as going to look different than others for instance if you fell in some deep sin i'm probably not going to have you serve up here on stage because because there is a part of restoration that will have to take place in your life first for that but there is a place for you to serve no matter what's happened in your life no matter what's going on in your life it's time for you to start to serve people as a matter of fact you should just start serving as many different people around you as

you can because as you serve people it takes your eyes off of yourself and what's going on with you and it puts them on god and other people the happiest place that i was when i was battling depression was every time i every time i led that college bible study i would i would show up on a thursday night to my good friend kurt fisher's house and and his wife would make food for all of us college kids and then i would lead i would teach the bible study and i'm here to tell you right now i found so much joy in teaching god's word and i found so much joy in visiting with everybody else and we would sit around and we would talk and we would laugh and we would pray and we would discuss scriptures and it was the

greatest i looked forward to that night and i'm here to tell you right now i found so much joy in that night all week long because it was my favorite night of the week and you know what i was doing that night i was serving that's what it was serving jesus and i'm here to tell you right now if you listen if you're if you're battling something right now and you're in a place of restoration and it's not the kind of restoration that's going to require like some sort of sin that's going to take a long time but but you're battling with some depression or some grief or something like that you know the best thing you could do is in this church to be restored go down that end of the hallway and start teaching those kids

i'm not joking like like sunday school children's church ministry is fun because you get to kids will kids will make you not take life so seriously because they'll laugh at everything that you say listen whether you intended it or not right like i always say sometimes they're laughing with you usually they're laughing at you and it's great because because it makes you take life not so seriously and if you can communicate god's word on a level that a five-year-old can understand you know what that means about you it means you actually get it it means you actually understand it trust me my daughters have been asking me about the trinity since they were three

and i'm like well you know i learned i still don't get it anyway but but once you once you start once you start doing stuff like that it changes your viewpoint on things maybe some of y'all need to start cleaning the church because because that that's the way that you need to serve maybe you need to start taking care of your neighbors and doing things for your neighbors i don't know what it looks like but you need to serve you know why because what did jesus tell peter he needed to do feed my lamb shepherd my sheep what's that serving and jesus said follow me what did jesus do all the time serve and so if you want to see restoration take place in your life it's time to serve the

people around you brothers and sisters i need you to know something i'm well aware of the fact that the need for restoration is great i'm well aware of the fact that god wants to restore the lives of people and and i'm well aware of the fact that as i look in this room i know that there's some people that need some restoration and i know that there's some people that need some restoration in their lives whether it's because you've been hurt by people dealing with mental things dealing with past sins whatever it is you you need restored in your lives and god wants to do that work and you know i i told that story about pastor rick both services and and the lord's kind of nailed

me on it right now and so so here's what i want to do this is going to be a bold one this is going to be a hard one okay because i i want people to gather around you and pray for you if if there's some kind of spiritual healing in your life i just want you to stand up because i want the people around you to lay hands on you i want to pray for you and so if that's you this morning i know it's going to be a bold one it's going to be hard for somebody to want to stand up but if that's you then i want you to praise god i want you to stand up because i because i want to praise the lord i want us to pray for you anyone else i feel like somebody's gripping the seat real tight

because you're trying as hard as you can not to not to stand up right now we just want to we just want to lay okay so those of you that are around okay there it is yep those of you that are around them i just want you to reach your hand down i just want you to lay hands on them and we're just going to pray see this is this is what the body does for each other father we come before you now and lord i know beyond a shadow of a doubt that you are the god who has given you and who restores lord you've taught me over and over again in my life the importance of restoration the power of restoration and the power of your holy spirit to heal and so lord i lift up every

person that's standing and i lift up the people that wouldn't stand lord you know what needs done in their lives lord you know where they are and so lord i just want to pray for that healing to take place father i pray for the power of the holy spirit to be upon them i pray that in your name lord that they would begin to know and believe who they really are in you lord that in your name that they're they would get really honest with who you are that that in your name they would begin to be healing from addictions lord that they would begin to be healing from depression lord that they would begin to be healing of i sense relationships uh need some healing lord um that that they would be healing from some grief lord i feel like somebody's

dealing with some grief and they did not want to stand up because they feel embarrassed about it but lord they need it too and so lord i i pray for all of those things and um father that you would just move lord i also said somebody feels abandoned by you even or they're they're mad and so so lord i just pray that that you would just bring that peace to their lives and so lord in the way that you've ministered so many times to me or by the power of your holy spirit minister to them in jesus name amen you guys can be seated well it's communion sunday and the kids are really going to be confused now if you're in the wrong seat we're going to bring the kids in please keep an eye

out for your tiny person there we go come on then everybody well as i said it's excuse me it's communion sunday and so we take time to celebrate the restoration that god brings to us through the cross of jesus christ and so in these trays of course are the two cups with the two different elements forgive my voice there's the cup with the juice and the cup with the cracker and those two in and of themselves pretty mundane but what they represent has power because what they represent is the body of jesus christ and his blood that was shed for us and so we're told not to partake in an unworthy manner so we like to take a moment to talk about what these really represent

on that last night of the feast jesus took the bread and he broke it so this is my body that's broken for you take and eat so as we partake of the bread we are reminded that by faith we have taken jesus into our lives and that he's become a part of who we are and that body that was broken for us was enough to cover our sins and then he took the cup and said this is the cup of the new covenant and my blood that is shed for you take and drink and so when we partake of the cup and we are reminded that the blood of jesus christ is enough to cover all of our sins that blood that flowed from his side was enough to cover us and so as we do this we are proclaiming the death of

jesus christ to the world and so it's always good to make sure of a couple of things number one if you're here this morning and you're not a born-again believer in jesus christ you just need to understand that that this meal really isn't for you but it can be for you in the moment that you put your faith in jesus as you're living in this world and you're not a born-again believer in jesus lord and savior all it requires is you coming to him confessing your sin and accepting what he's done for you on the cross but if you're here this morning and you're a believer in jesus christ you need to make sure that our hearts are right before the lord so if there's unconfessed sin

that needs dealt with it's time to deal with it if there's a broken relationship that you need to forgive in your heart and deal with later then it's time to forgive that in your heart whatever it is god wants to do that work inside of you and so i'm going to invite the worship team to come up and they're going to share with this one last song and in just a moment the ushers are going to come down and they're going to hand out the elements and as you receive your elements please stand we'll all partake together but during this last song just take time and allow god to search your heart father we come to you now and i praise you for the work of the cross or the cross where all of my sin was put away

the cross where you declared your love so loudly for all to hear or the cross that gives us hope father i thank you for the body of jesus christ that was broken for us lord broken for our iniquities bruised the chastisement of our peace laid upon him and the stripes that healed us father i thank you for the blood of jesus christ that was shed for us or the blood of jesus christ that covers all of our sins and gives us brand new life or truly as your word says the life is in the blood and so father as we pray for the body of jesus christ that was broken for us partake now and as we declare this death of jesus christ may we keep in mind always the great love that you have shown us in jesus name amen let's partake and if you'd bow with me one

last time father as we depart head into the rest of our day the rest of our week lord may we go out in the power of the spirit lord may we go out in the joy of the lord and father may we go out knowing that you are the god who truly brings everything we need into our lives lord it is truly in you that we live move and have our being and father we praise you in jesus name amen be blessed