Peter: The Moral Failure

John 21:15-25 | Mistakes and failures shouldn’t keep us from following Jesus because he restores us when we sin.

Three ways Jesus restores us when we sin.

1. He redeems failure. 
2. He renews commitment. 
3. He redefines success.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:01

Good morning. Our scripture reading this morning is John 21, verses 15 through 25. When they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these? And he said to them, Yes, Lord, you know that I love you. He said to him, Feed my lambs. He said to him a second time, Simon, son of John, do you love me? He said to him, Yes, Lord, you know that I love you. And he said to him, Tend my sheep. He said to him the third time, Simon, son of John, do you love me? Peter was grieved because he had said to him the third time, Do you love me? And he said to him, Lord, you know everything. You know that I love you. Jesus said to him, Feed my sheep. Truly, truly, I say to you, When you were young, you used to dress yourself and walk wherever you wanted, but when you are old, you will stretch out your hands, and another will dress you and carry you where you do not want to go. This he said to show by what kind of death he was to glorify God. And after saying this, he said to him, Follow me. Peter turned and saw the disciple, whom Jesus loved, following them, the one who also had leaned back against him during the supper, and he had said, Lord, who is it that is going to betray you? When Peter saw him, he said to Jesus, Lord, what about this man? Jesus said to him, If it is my will that he remain until I come, what is that to you? You follow me. So the saying spread abroad among the brothers that this disciple was not to die, yet Jesus did not say to him that he was not to die, but if it is my will that he remain until I come, what is that to you? This is the disciple who is bearing witness about these things, and who has written these things, and we know that his testimony is true. Now there are also many other things that Jesus did, were every one of them to be written. I suppose that the world itself could not contain the books that would be written. This is the word of the Lord.

SPEAKER_01 2:19

Amen. Thank you, Priscilla, and good morning, everyone. Happy Memorial Day weekend to you. The sun is out, school is out, summer has started, and soon the pools will be open. So we hope that you're enjoying a wonderful Memorial Day weekend, and we are so glad that you've chosen to join us for worship this morning. I was out last week, so if you're new, my name is Trevor. I'm one of the pastors here, and I'm excited to dive into God's word with you this morning. And uh also on this memorial day, as Ryan mentioned, if you uh or a family member are serving in the military, I just want to say thank you for your service to our country. We realize that that comes at a cost to you and your family. And uh, while this is a day we remember those who have fallen, uh, this is also a day we need to remember that there are hidden costs to being in the military as well. There are families who are separated for long periods of time, people who are giving up months and years of their life to go serve overseas so that we can enjoy freedom. So uh if you're in the military or you have a family member who served in the military, we just want you to know we are grateful for you and we're so thankful that you're here in the room this morning. We are at the tail end of a six-part sermon series called Encountering the Risen Christ, where we're looking at how Jesus revealed himself to six different kinds of people after his resurrection. And today we come to the story of Peter, where Jesus meets Peter in his failure. And so we're gonna talk about how the Lord restores and renews us when we fail as well. My family and I, like many families, have a weekly movie night tradition. At the end of the week, which is Thursday for me, because Sunday is a work day. I come home, we get out the pizza, we throw on a movie, and we enjoy time together as a family. And one of the recent movies that we watched together was uh kind of a random, obscure movie called Because of Win Dixie. Now, this is a movie about a 10-year-old girl named Opal who finds the stray dog at the grocery store and adopts her as her friend. And then throughout the movie, this dog, who she names Win Dixie after the grocery store that she happened to find it at ends up helping her make friends in her small Florida community. And one of the people that Opal and Win Dixie befriend is this sweet old lady named Gloria Dump. She's a lady who is very tenderhearted and very kind, who has a very, very broken past. And in Gloria's front yard stands this massive tree that's covered in liquor bottles hanging from every limb. And uh the each bottle represents a mistake, a sin, or a failure that Gloria has made in her past, most of them associated with her alcoholism and the pain that it caused her and the people that she loved. She calls this tree her mistake tree. And the reason she has this mistake tree is because she hopes that it'll keep the ghosts away. Because she's haunted by all the things she'd done wrong. Now, you probably don't have a mistake tree in your front yard. But if you've sinned in any significant way, you do probably have a mistake tree of some sorts. For some of you, your mistake tree is probably something tangible. It might be a wedding ring that you've kept from a previous divorce. It might be a journal where you've written all of your confessions and your griefs on the pages of time. Or maybe it's a picture that every time you glance at it reminds you of better days. For others, your mistake tree is something a little bit more intangible. It's a conversation you play over and over again in your head. It's a memory that you try desperately to suppress. Or maybe it's a voice of condemnation that plays quietly on repeat in the background of your mind. In either case, you're haunted like Gloria Dump by the things you've done wrong. And no matter how hard you try to keep the ghosts away, you can't seem to break free from your past. Now, if that's you, you're in good company this morning because Peter is a man who had made plenty of mistakes in his life. Peter is one of Jesus' closest uh followers, and he's kind of like the captain of the disciples. When the 12 are together, Peter's the one who's usually speaking. Peter's the one who's usually leading. Peter's the one who's usually going first. He is a high-initiative leader who takes risks and isn't afraid to speak his mind. He's quick to speak, he's eager to follow, and he's excited to be numbered among Jesus' disciples. But at the same time, he's also self-righteous, impulsive, and unstable. And he has a reputation for making really bold claims and really big mistakes. Some of his mistakes include refusing to let Jesus wash his feet at the Last Supper, falling asleep in the Garden of Gethsemane when Jesus asked him to wait and pray the night that he was crucified, and then lashing out in violence during Jesus' arrest. But Peter's biggest mistake was denying Jesus on the night of his crucifixion. That was the last time that Peter saw the Lord before he died. And to his surprise, Jesus is back from the dead, and now he's disoriented and doesn't know what he's supposed to do with that. Jesus has revealed himself to the disciples on three occasions now. And even though Peter's interactions with the risen Christ have been positive, there's still kind of this elephant in the room, which is like, what does Jesus think about my massive moral failure? So with this mistake kind of looming over Peter's head, Jesus pulls him aside for a one-to-one conversation so you can speak privately to him about his failure. Not because Jesus wants to punish him, but because Jesus wants to restore him. Now, if Peter's story resonates with you in any way, my hope is that you would see that God's not done with you yet. God isn't mad at you, he's not disappointed in you, he's not fed up with you for your mistakes, your failures, your sins, and your shortcomings. He sympathizes you. And in the area of your life where you expect Jesus to back away the most, that's actually the place in your story that he wants to lean in, to forgive you, to heal you, and to restore you. So here's our big idea this morning. Mistakes and failures shouldn't keep us from following Jesus because he restores us when we sin. And Jesus' conversation with Peter is the proof of that reality. And there's three ways in which we see Jesus restoring Peter here in this text. We see that Jesus redeems failure, he renews commitment, and he redefines success. So if you have your Bible, go ahead and turn with me to John chapter 21, verse 15, and we'll look at how Jesus redeems failure. It says, When they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these? He said to him, Yes, Lord, you know that I love you. He said to him, Feed my lambs. He said to him a second time, Simon, son of John, do you love me? He said to him, Yes, Lord, you know that I love you. He said to him, Tend my sheep. He said to him the third time, Simon, son of John, do you love me? Peter was grieved because he had said to him the third time, Do you love me? And he said to him, Lord, you know everything. You know that I love you. And Jesus said to him, Feed my lambs. Now, if you're familiar with the gospel narratives, you might recall that when Jesus calls Peter, the first thing that Jesus does is he changes his name. He's he was called Simon, son of John, when Jesus called him, and Jesus changes his name to Peter, a customary way of giving him a new identity to go with his new calling. And now, uh three years later, over the course of time, Peter got a little bit overconfident. He maybe got a little bit prideful or self-reliant, and he's just had the worst mistake of his entire life. He exerted superior over the other disciples by declaring that he was the one who had followed Jesus to the end, and now he's had an epic fail, denying Jesus publicly in Jesus' worst moment. So now Jesus reverts back to calling Peter something he hasn't called him in a long time. He says, Simon, son of John. It's Jesus' subtle way of reminding Peter where he came from, of undercutting the pride that had begun to grow in Peter's heart. Because that's what failure does, isn't it? It kind of right-sizes us. Success has a way of causing us to believe that we're better than we're really are. Failure, on the other hand, exposes what's really in our heart and it shows us that even in our success, we still need Jesus. And when we fail, when we fall short, Jesus isn't afraid to gently remind us, to gently invite us back into a posture of humble dependence. The second thing that you should notice about this text is that uh Jesus asked Peter the same question three times, the exact number of times that Peter denied him. And at first glance, it might kind of look like Jesus is guilt tripping or shaming Peter, but he's actually doing the exact opposite. He's not bringing up Peter's past to condemn him or shame him. He's bringing up Peter's past so that he can heal him. You need to know that. When Jesus draws attention to your past, it's always because there's something in your past that he wants to heal. He shows you the baggage that you're carrying, ultimately so that he can carry it for you. Notice also the subtle difference between the way that Jesus asked the question the first time and the way that Jesus asked the question throughout the rest of the passage. The first time Jesus says, Do you love me more than these? A reference to the other disciples. Now, that's important because earlier in the Gospels, when Jesus predicted his crucifixion, the thing that Peter does is he self-righteously declares that even though everyone else falls away, he's gonna follow Jesus even unto death. And then what happens? Peter falls away exactly like everyone else does. And before his epic failure, Peter built his identity on how well he was doing at following Jesus compared to all of the other disciples. Now that he's failed so miserably, Jesus is inviting him back into a relationship that is secured not by his performance, but by God's grace. You see, you don't earn salvation, you receive it. You're not uh we're not in relationship with Jesus because of our merit or our morality. We're in relationship with Jesus because of his mercy and his mercy alone. That's ultimately the lesson that Jesus is trying to teach Peter here. That our relationship with God is secured by his mercy, not by our merit. And that's one of the lessons that Jesus wants us to learn from this passage as well. The final thing that I want you to see here about this particular passage is uh that phrase, feed my sheep. Three times Peter denied Jesus. Three times Jesus asked Peter if he loves him. Three times Peter assures him that he does, and three times Jesus tells him to care for his sheep. Now, what Jesus is doing here is incredible. Jesus is essentially reenacting the moment of Peter's denial so that he can reaffirm his calling. That number three should immediately draw your attention to the fact that Peter messed up three times. And the fact that Jesus' ultimate response is, hey, feed my sheep. Three times Jesus says that to affirm for Peter that even though he sinned, even though he's failed, even though he's messed up miserably, that doesn't revoke God's calling on his life. Jesus still has plans for Peter. Jesus still has plans and purposes for his life. But what's amazing about this passage, what's important about this statement, is that Jesus doesn't restore Peter ultimately by minimizing or dismissing his failure. He restores Peter by redeeming it. He's not content to merely overlook what Peter has done. He actually wants to restore Peter to a place of prominence and influence in the early church by addressing what Peter has done. It's an art in which what they ultimately do is uh instead of polishing over the cracks in the pottery, they actually use the gold to draw attention to the cracks in the pottery. It's a unique art form because it's an artist taking the broken shards that somebody else would throw away and ultimately redeeming it and turning it into something beautiful. And the idea behind the art of Kinsugi is that an object is actually more beautiful for having once been broken, not less. It's the idea that the object's brokenness actually is its beauty. And that's what Jesus is doing with Peter here, and that's what Jesus wants to do in your life as well. Jesus wants to take all the broken pieces of your life, the mistakes, the sins, the failures, and the shortcomings, and he wants to put them back together and fill him with his grace so that your life displays more of his glory. And it's the cracks that you are so desperate to cover up with mere religious performance that Jesus wants to redeem and put on display for his beauty and worth in the world. Why? Because brokenness and beauty are at the very heart of the gospel. You see, the eternal uncreated Son of God, Jesus, shared God's glory from all of eternity past. He had the same beauty that the Father had in and of himself. And in his earthly ministry, Jesus enters into human history to put the beauty and worth of God on display through his sinless life. But then Jesus does something unexpected. He goes to the cross where he's stripped of his beauty and he's broken for our sin so that we who are broken could be made beautiful through him. The sinless Son of God entered into our rumen, took on our shame, and bore our judgment so that through his death and resurrection we could be redeemed and made new. And now, by God's redeeming grace, our brokenness actually serves to display God's beauty that much more. In fact, because of the gospel, you are now more beautiful for having once been broken. And thanks to Jesus, because of his redeeming grace, your brokenness actually becomes your beauty. Practically, that means that Jesus wants to take the place of your deepest shame and he wants to turn it into your strongest ministry. The parts of your life that you keep neatly tucked away, hidden behind closed doors, so that no one else can see it, are the very parts of your life that God wants to use to bless and serve other people. Just think about the number of people who have turned infidelity into marriage ministry, who've turned addiction into recovery, who have turned maybe financial crisis into a stewardship class that serves and blesses other people. You see, God loves to take broken things in the world and use them to produce beauty by his grace and for his glory. And that failure in your life that you are so desperately hoping no one will see is the very failure that Jesus wants to redeem and use for his purposes in the world. That's the first thing that I want you to see this morning. The second is that Jesus renews commitment. Look with me at verse 18. Jesus says, Truly, truly, I say to you, when you were young, you used to dress yourself and walk wherever you wanted. But when you were old, you will stretch out your hands, and another will dress you and carry you where you do not want to go. This he said to show by what kind of death he was to glorify God. And after saying this, Jesus said to him, Follow me. Now it doesn't say this outright, but John's little parenthetical statement here makes it pretty clear that Jesus is alluding to the fact that Peter is ultimately going to die for following Jesus. Now, church history confirms for us that Peter was actually crucified upside down. He became so committed to following Jesus that he faced opposition and persecution. And unless he recanted his faith, he was going to be crucified. But he actually got to a point where he didn't consider himself to be worthy in the same way to be crucified the same way that Jesus would. So at his own request, he had them crucify him upside down. Now, what's remarkable about that particular statement is that in John chapter 13, during the Last Supper, the night before Jesus was betrayed, Peter swore that he would die for Jesus if he had to. But in the very moment where he had the opportunity to follow Jesus at such a cost, he fails. He does the exact opposite thing. And not only does he deny being a follower of Jesus, he denies even knowing who Jesus is. And when push comes to shove, Peter doesn't actually have what it takes to follow through on his commitment. And so he backpedals and he denies. But here, Jesus does something astonishing again. He uses Peter's failure to renew his commitment. Before his failure, Peter lacked the courage to commit to following Jesus at such a high price. But now that Jesus has restored him, Peter is in fact going to gain the courage he needs to follow Jesus, even if it costs him his own life. Far from disqualifying him from following Jesus, Jesus actually uses his failure to strengthen his commitment to follow after him. Like touching a hot stove, Peter's been burned. And he never wants to go back and make the same mistake again. And so the failure that he is afraid is going to disqualify him actually becomes the catalyst that helps him recommit to Jesus. Now, this is absolutely not a fun way to learn, but I can tell you from experience that it's super effective. When I was in seventh grade, I uh purchased an inappropriate picture from a neighbor kid down the street. Thinking I was cool, I brought it to school to show all of my friends. But when I started showing them this picture, one of them went and got a teacher and got me in trouble. So I got caught right there in front of all of my friends, and to make matters worse, that teacher escorted me out of the cafeteria in front of 250 of my peers, marched me straight to the principal's office where I had to pick up a phone and call my parents and tell them what I had done. It was by far the most embarrassing moment of my entire life. But I'll tell you what, nothing has done more to strengthen my commitment to sexual purity like that moment. That's way better than purity rings or accountability partners or any computer software you could ever buy. And now, 30 years later, that moment still reminds me of the danger of letting my wives wander to places that it should not be. Now, in the moment, I was so humiliated that I didn't even think I could survive. I think I might have even asked my parents that if I could like transfer schools the next day, because I didn't want to have to show my face at school. And I was afraid that that moment was going to define my life forever. And for a while, I carried a lot of guilt and shame. But in time, as Jesus began to redeem that area of my life, as I began to trust him with the guilt and shame of that moment, I actually look back on that 30 years later with gratitude. Because God used that moment of shame and failure to strengthen my commitment to him in a way that few things in my life ever have. And my moment of greatest failure and shame actually became a catalyst for me to follow Jesus and to commit to him in a way that I had not yet done so at that point in my life. You see, sin has a way of convincing us that we'll never be anything more than our worst moment. It takes our mistakes and it turns them into an identity. And before we know it, we begin to label ourselves with things like, I can't be trusted, I'm an adulterer. I can't be free, I'm an addict. I can't be disciplined, I'm a gambler. And before you know it, we just find ourselves stuck doing the same old things day after day after day until shame and guilt wear us down, and we end up doing one of two things. Pretending or withdrawing. We continue attending church, participating in a harbor group, practicing the spiritual disciplines, while all the while we're living a life of quiet desperation. We make it look like we're following, but in reality, we're really just faking. Why? Because history has proven that we don't have what it takes. And so we kind of turtle up. We hide, we play it safe, and we feel sorry for ourselves, settling for the illusion of spiritual vitality when we're really just dying on the vine. Or we do the opposite. We isolate and we distance ourselves from Christian community. We cut everyone off, we shut everything down, and we hide, hoping that nobody's gonna come looking for us when they realize that we're gone. But what if that moment is the very moment that God wants to use as the catalyst for change in your life? What if Jesus wants to turn your worst moment into your defining moment? You see, according to Jesus, sin isn't a reason to pretend or a reason to withdraw. Sin is an opportunity to recommit with greater passion, greater devotion, and greater conviction than we had before. And so what Jesus is doing in this conversation is he's using this failure to invite Peter into deeper commitment. That's why Jesus says, follow me. Because he knows that in the moments when we want to follow him the least, those are the moments when we need to commit to following him the most. So whether you're the kind of person who's prone to pretend or the kind of person who's prone to a draw, the invitation to you is the same. Let Jesus take your failure and turn it into commitment. Let him into that dark, deep, scary place of your life so he can renew you and you can continue following after him. The final thing that I want you to see is that Jesus redefines success. Look with me at verse 20. Peter turned and saw the disciple whom Jesus loved following them, the one who had also leaned back against him during the supper and said, Lord, who is it that is going to betray you? When Peter saw him, he said to Jesus, Lord, what about this man? Jesus said to him, If it is my will that he remains until I come, what is that to you? You follow me. For some people, following Jesus seems to lead down the path of prosperity, opportunity, platform, and influence. For other people, however, following Jesus seems to lead down the path of opposition, adversity, suffering, and for some, maybe even death. And one person gets a long, happy life, or they get to retire old and enjoy their grandkids. Another person faces hardship and adversity their entire life and they pass away young. The challenge about that is Jesus calls each and every one of us to follow him, but we don't really get to decide what that path looks like or where that path leads. And when we realize that our calling is different from someone else's, when we realize that our calling is going to be more challenging than the Christ follower next to us, we naturally begin to compare ourselves to other people. We compare our success in terms of how we're doing relative to the person next to us. You see, society has taught us to measure success, to define ourselves based on things like appearance and income, relationship status and possessions. It's not enough for us to have a career, we have to have a better career than our neighbor. It's not enough for us to go on vacation, we have to go on a better vacation than our friends. It's not enough for us to be fit, we have to be more fit than the gal on the bike next to us in the workout class. And so when it comes to following Jesus, it's natural for us to do the same thing. We keep score, we size each other up, and we try to find ways to get ahead. And when you look at this conversation that Jesus is having with Peter, you kind of get the sense that he's doing the same thing here. Jesus has called Peter to follow him all the way to the cross. That means that God's plan for Peter is for Peter to die for following Jesus. That's a hard calling. Peter doesn't really like what he's hearing, so instead of just accepting it, he turns and he looks at John and he says, What about that guy? His natural instinct is to take the calling that God has placed on his life and compare it relative to the calling that God has placed on John's life. But Jesus completely changes the scorecard on him. Instead of feeding into Peter's approach to success, Jesus redefines it. You see, Peter wants to define success using the metric of comparison. Jesus wants to define success using the metric of obedience. The one says, what about him? The other says, doesn't matter. Follow me. Now in his book Good to Great, Jim Collins describes what he calls level five leaders. And he says that level five leaders are a people who, when things are going well, they look out the window and they give everyone else the credit. And when things are going bad, they look in the mirror and they take all the blame. And Collins says that bad leaders do the exact opposite. Bad leaders, when things are going well, they look in the mirror and they take all the credit. When things are going bad, they look out the window and they give everyone else the blame. And so you kind of have the same experience happening here with Peter and John. Jesus is having a conversation with Peter about the calling that he has for Peter. And Peter doesn't really like the calling that Jesus has given to him. So he looks out the window at John. He's trying to maybe negotiate with Jesus to get a better calling, or maybe he's trying to make himself feel better if John has the same calling, but he's comparing himself, trying to figure out where my calling measure up to the guy next to me. And what Jesus graciously does is he invites Peter to instead look in the mirror. Not to compare himself to other people, but to see the calling that God has placed on his life, to accept it, to take responsibility for it, and to follow through on it. Now for Peter, the window is quite literal. He literally turns around and sees John standing there and he compares himself in real time. But in our day, the window is usually more digital. It's called social media and it is the ultimate comparison trap. See, in seasons when we're feeling good about ourselves, we can't wait to jump on social media and tell the world how good we're doing. We take pictures with our feet up on a chair and our nice little coffee mug and our Bible open and our Bible verse on top, and we let the world know how blessed we are and how God's favor is just raining down upon us. But then in seasons where like life is hard and we don't really like our lot in life, we start to feel bad about ourselves and we do the exact same thing. We go to social media. But this time we don't go to social media to kind of boast and brag about how we're doing. We go to social media to kind of see like, how's everybody else doing in life right now? Anybody else feeling the way I'm feeling? And instead, what we end up doing is we doom scroll late into the night, we covet everyone else's like Photoshop curated image of themselves, and then we go to bed feeling really bad about ourselves, wishing that we had a different life. Because we're disheartened by habitual sin. We're frustrated with our circumstances, or we don't really like who we are, and we're hoping that if we can look out the window at someone else's life, that somehow that's gonna make it all better. But the problem with that is comparison is a game that you lose every single time. When you're doing relatively well in life, comparison goes to your head. It boosts your ego, it strengthens your pride, it causes you to look down on other people with self-righteous arrogance. And when you're not doing well in life, comparison goes to your heart. It causes you to lose self-confidence, it causes you to feel guilt and shame. It causes you to look at yourself with a sense of self-hatred and self-pity. And then when you see other people, instead of being happy for them, you just feel jealous of them. Because comparison is a trap. And it turns discipleship into a roller coaster between pride and despair. When you soar when you're doing well and you crash when you are not. And that's why Jesus invites us to look in the mirror. Because he knows that comparison is the thief of joy and obedience is the path to peace. You see, at the end of the day, God's plans for someone else are really not your concern. Your job is not to audit someone else's life or someone else's calling. Your job is to be faithful in the calling that Jesus has given to you, regardless of whether or not that looks similar to someone else's. And because success in the kingdom of God is not about being impressive, it's about being faithful. And the reason that obedience leads to peace is because you can be faithful to Jesus no matter what your circumstances are. You can be faithful to Jesus no matter what else somebody has going on in their life. And your peace then is simply a matter of being obedient to the call that Jesus has given to you. So the question ultimately becomes where are you comparing when you need to be obeying? Maybe it's in your leadership, where you know that God has called you into leadership, but you keep backing away because you're not as gifted as someone else. Maybe it's in your marriage where you complain constantly about your spouse because they don't look as good as somebody else's spouse looks. Maybe it's in your finances. You know that God has called you to financial generosity, but you don't have the bank account that somebody else in your harbor group has. And so you quietly excuse yourself from being obedient with what the Lord has given you. But the reality is that none of that matters because success in the kingdom of God is not about how you stack up to other people, it's about being obedient to Jesus. So it might be time to focus less on comparing and to focus more on obeying. Now I'm mindful that for some of you this is theoretical. Maybe you appreciate the perspective, maybe there have been some insights that kind of resonate with you, maybe you kind of like Peter's story and you see it as a novel idea, but in your own life, you don't really have any grievous sense. You haven't really failed in any significant way. And if you look back on your track record, you're actually doing pretty well in life. And if that's you, I want you to see Peter's story as a warning. There's a temptation when our life is going well to lose sight of Jesus, to become overconfident and self-reliant. And it's important for us to remember that the thing that caused Peter to fail was ultimately pride and overconfidence. So let that be a warning that we need Jesus just as much when we're having success as we do that when we're failing. But there's also another danger that I'm mindful of this morning as well. Some people, they never experience any kind of dramatic failure because they never step out in faith at all. Fear of failure or fear of embarrassment or fear of hurting someone or fear of looking dumb keep us from taking steps of deeper obedience to Jesus. But just like you can't let failure keep you from following Jesus, you shouldn't let the fear of failure keep you from following Jesus either. See, Peter stumbled because he trusted himself too much. But some of us are stuck because he trust ourselves too little. Now the answer to both of those ditches is the same. It's not arrogant self-reliance, and it's not fearful self-protection. It's humble dependence on Jesus. See, following Jesus takes risks. It takes vulnerability, it takes courage. And if you follow him, you will stumble and fall short. That's just part of what it means to have a human nature. But the good news is that that couldn't shouldn't keep you from trying. Because your failures, your shortcomings, the risk that you might look dumb or you might mess up is not any bigger than the grace of God in your life. The restoring grace of Jesus is bigger than any failure or mistake you could ever make. But I'm also mindful this morning that for some of you, this isn't theoretical. This is personal. You've been hanging failures on a mistake tree for years, replaying them over and over in your mind, allowing them to define you and being haunted by them no matter what you do. But Jesus died and rose again to redeem and restore you, not in a cheap, superficial way that overlooks what you've done, but in a costly personal way that pays for what you've done on the cross. Peter denied Jesus. And yet Jesus restores him and calls him and uses him all the same. And that means that failure might be a part of your story, but it doesn't have to be your identity. Your worst moments don't get the final word in your life. Jesus does. And if you belong to Christ, your identity isn't built on your performance, it's built on his grace. And so you're not your worst moment, and you are not beyond redemption. You belong to Jesus, and that is your hope and your security in the midst of failure. So quit hiding. Quit pretending. Quit withdrawing. Bring the broken pieces of your life to Jesus and let Him make you whole. Our sins and shortcomings should not keep us from following Jesus because He restores us when we sin. That's the good news of John 21 this morning. Let's pray. Lord, we thank you for Peter's story. It is uncomfortable and messy because it confronts all the places in our own life where we try to cover up our sins and shortcomings with a thin veneer of moral performance. Lord, I thank you for the grace of this story. We get to see Jesus dealing with failure head on, forgiving it, redeeming it, and restoring it. Lord, I pray for my brothers and sisters who have walked through failure of their own, who carry with them deep shame and regret over what they've done in life. Lord, I pray that through this text, you would assure them that they are not what they've done, that their failure is not their identity, that in Jesus Christ they're adopted, forgiven, redeemed, and made new. I pray today, Jesus, that today would be the day that you set them free, that today would be the day where you redeem their failure, where you renew their commitment and you re-redefine what it means for them to follow you. Lord, I pray for my friends who maybe haven't made mistakes, don't have many failures in their life, haven't sinned in any significant way. Lord, would they be warned by Peter's failures? Sometimes our greatest mistakes come when we're having the most success. Would you use Peter's story to humble them and to keep them in a place of dependence, reminding them that everything is a gift of God and it's only by your grace. Lord, I thank you ultimately for the good news of this passage that our failures do not need to keep us from following Jesus because he restores us when we sin. I pray that that would be true for us today. That you would restore us and make us new again. In Jesus' name. Amen.