Be Careful About What You Promise God

Be Careful About What You Promise God

Subtitle: Count up the cost

Sermon Scripture: Matthew 26:31-35, 69 – 75 (KJV)

Matthew 26:31-35 31 Then saith Jesus unto them, All ye shall be offended because of me this night: for it is written, I will smite the shepherd, and the sheep of the flock shall be scattered abroad. 32 But after I am risen again, I will go before you into Galilee. 33 Peter answered and said unto him, Thou all men shall be offended because of thee, yet will I never be offended. 34 Jesus said unto him, Verily I say unto thee, That this night, before the cock crow, thou shalt deny me thrice. 35 Peter said unto him, Though I should die with thee, yet will I not deny thee. Likewise said all of the disciples.

Matthew 26:69-75 69 Now Peter sat without in the palace: and a damsel came unto him, saying, Thou also was with Jesus of Galilee. 70 But he denied before them all, saying, I know not what thou sayest. 71 And when he was gone out into the porch, another maid saw him, and said unto them that were there, This fellow was also with Jesus of Nazereth. 72 And again he denied with an oath, I do not know the man. 73 And after a while came unto him they that stood by, and said to Peter, Surely thou also art one of them; for thy speech bewrayeth thee.

Once we really get the concept of who God is and we really began to believe the fact that he can do all things then we really get a sense of comfort that we can’t get anywhere else. We really begin to realize that we have a comforter who will never leave us or forsake us. This can also lead us into a realm of too much comfort. What I mean by too much comfort is that we can begin to think that since I have a comforter who will never leave me or forsake me then I can basically do whatever I want and I can fully expect to get away with it as long as I am willing to pray.

Especially when God has been good to us. We begin to think that now because we are really close to God that he will practically allow us to get away with anything and still allow us into heaven. Satan has successfully tricked us into believing this beloved. When we dance with the devil we need to always remember one thing. Satan will not change.

He always make it seem like we can do evil things and be sneaky enough to get away with it but in the end (when he closes the trap on your neck) he will be standing there saying, "Now you knew that I was the devil. What made you think that I would change myself for you?" Satan is a liar and a master of one thing: deceit. He only needs for you to give him an inch and he will steal the mile.

In this passage of scripture Peter is talking face to face with God and he is making a promise to him that in his opinion he will be able to keep. Since the bible does not say exactly, there is no one in the world who will ever know what Peter was thinking when he made this covenant with God. However the bible does provide a great deal of situations between Peter and Jesus so that we can make a persuasive conclusion about what was going through the man of God’s head during this conversation.

Peter really thinks that he will be able to stand behind his word and he has impressed himself by how good he sounded when he confessed this to Christ. Jesus, on the other hand, knows that Peter has no possible chance in keeping this confession and tells him this through a prediction. He comes right out and tells Peter that he is sure that he will not be able to stand by this confession.

Why did Peter think that Jesus did not know what he was talking about. Why did Peter think that there would be any reason for Jesus to lie or not be 100% sure of what he was saying. Why did Peter think that there was one part of his heart that Jesus did not know? Whatever made Peter not think about these things before he spoke to Jesus was wrong. Peter was guilty of doing the same thing that many of us are guilty of before we talk. He was guilty of not considering all things before he opened his big mouth.

We have to always be sure that we are careful about the promises that we make to God. He knows our hearts better than we do. He knows when we are putting ourselves in a position that we don’t want to be in and He always tries to stop us before we go too far. However many times because of our free will (that he has given us) to choose and extreme comfort that God himself has blessed us with we feel that there is a chance that we will be able to keep a word even when God has not given it to us to speak. Many of us are exactly like Peter and we are trying to stand by a word that God has not even given us and has warned us that we will not be able to see the word through.