Alright, let’s give it up one more time for the band. That was incredible. So does this really count as church? Yes. Why did we do that song, because the question is not will we face mountains the question is how are we going to face them and that song accurately captures how so many of us are trying to do that. Though I keep searching for an answer. I never seem to find what I’m looking for. So, here I go again on my own, running down the only road I’ve ever known. Like a drifter I was born to walk alone. It’s not really working out so well for a lot of us and I think we should talk about that. But before we do that, good morning, happy Easter to you and welcome to this place that we call DCC. We are so pumped, jazzed, and excited that you are here. So whether your mom made you, your girlfriend threatened you, a friend tricked you, you thought this was Rocky Mountain Cavalry, or you were on your way to the Walmart Market and we waved you into the parking lot, we are glad that you are here. You have walked into a place full of people who have all made mistakes, hurt people, been hurt by people, have things in their lives that they wish they could delete, erase, change or do-over, people who have things in their lives that they hope to, want to, and need to overcome, a place full of people just like you. So thanks for taking a chance on us and welcome to you if you are new and to all of our online friends out there right now too.
ILLUST> A few weeks back on a Friday night I came home and our two daughters that still live at home both had plans so Stacy and I talked about going out for a date night dinner but decided instead that we were too tired to mess with going out so we settled in for a night at home alone. Now that sounds really romantic, a little smooth jazz music, a little wine, some great conversation, gazing into each other’s eyes, being totally and completely present and available. Nah, we watched the movie the Patriot. If you haven’t seen it, it’s the story of Benjamin Martin, a colonial farmer during the Revolutionary War whose two sons are murdered by the same evil British officer. So he leads a group of rag tag militia against the British forces and ultimately squares off face to face with the man who killed both of his sons. Just as you think he is going to be killed in the fight, he drives a knife through the British Officer’s throat. At that moment, my girl says YES and nearly jumped off the couch. I just looked at her and smiled.
So what is that? That’s hard core, that’s not right, that’s just wrong, that’s unchristian, that’s not what pastor’s wives are supposed to do. ANK…wrong answer. What is that? Answer, that’s my girl and in some ways that is every single one of us sitting here in this room today too. See, we may not love the violence of the Patriot but we all love the story of the underdog that overcomes. We all love a good against all odds, rags to riches, Cinderella type story. Why is that? Answer, because they resonate with our own stories and stir hope that maybe that story can be my story too. So I may not know you but here is what I know about you. There are challenges, problems, issues, mountains, things in your life and story that you hope to, want to, and need to overcome. Me too.
So we have been talking about overcoming for a few weeks now and we are going to do that for a few more weeks after today, but for today I want us to pause and talk a guy who was there heading into the very first Easter who like all of us had some stuff in his life that he needed to overcome. Easter provides us with a reason to celebrate that Jesus is alive and we are doing that. Easter also provides us with an answer to 3 important questions that I believe in one way or another all of us walked in here wrestling with today. I think it would be really helpful for us to spend our last few minutes together talking about that. Here we go. We are going to spend most of our time today in Luke 22 but we are going to start today with a pre-Easter moment between Jesus and his disciples his closest friends and followers in Matthew 26 beginning at verse 31…
31 Then Jesus told them, “This very night you will all fall away on account of me, for it is written: “‘I will strike the shepherd, and the sheep of the flock will be scattered.’ 32 But after I have risen, I will go ahead of you into Galilee.” 33 Peter replied, “Even if all fall away on account of you, I never will.” 34 “Truly I tell you,” Jesus answered, “this very night, before the rooster crows, you will disown me three times.” 35 But Peter declared, “Even if I have to die with you, I will never disown you.” And all the other disciples said the same.
So Jesus says here is what is about to happen, Peter says not me, Jesus says yes you and Peter has the last word, I will die before I ever do that. Then Jesus and his disciples go to the Garden of Gethsemane to pray. Judas betrays Jesus and leads the guards to him to have him arrested. Let’s pick the story up there in Luke chapter 22 verse 54…
54 Then seizing him, they led him away and took him into the house of the high priest. Peter followed at a distance. 55 And when some there had kindled a fire in the middle of the courtyard and had sat down together, Peter sat down with them. 56 A servant girl saw him seated there in the firelight. She looked closely at him and said, “This man was with him.” 57 But he denied it. “Woman, I don’t know him,” he said. 57 But he denied it. “Woman, I don’t know him,” he said.
Peter has done some impulsive and stupid things in the few years that he has walked with Jesus. He has made lots of mistakes but none bigger than this one. Think about what he’s just done. He’s broken a promise to God himself. Let’s just let that sink in for a second. Come on, if God is real, it’s kind of a big deal. So let’s dial this moment in to your life and mine. So first question…
CAN I OVERCOME THE PROMISES I’VE BROKEN? Maybe you are the exception to this, but I have never met anyone who claims that they have never broken a promise. I don’t know about you and I am not proud of it but I have broken quite a few promises in my life, some that have produced some devastating consequences in my life and story. Peter breaks a promise here to God himself. I have broken plenty of those too.
ILLUST> One that I remember most vividly was about twenty years ago when the law firm that I was working for at the time wanted me to take the Indiana Bar Exam. I remember thinking there is no way. When I passed the Kentucky Bar Examination my first time taking it I felt like a blind squirrel who stumbled across a nut. I never wanted to ever think about taking another Bar Exam again. I didn’t have a choice. So night before I was sitting in my room at the downtown Hyatt attached to the convention center where the exam would be given. I was really nervous. I didn’t feel ready. Even though I honestly hadn’t given God much thought over the past few years of my life you know what I did? You bet I did, I prayed. God I know we haven’t been talking much, but if you allow me to pass this bar exam I promise you that is going to change I am going to live differently. Got the results a few months later, passed, got sworn in, and never once even thought about that promise I made to the God on the eve of the exam. Has anyone else here ever done that? Your girlfriend calls you and says “I’m late”…and she is not talking about for lunch. What is your response to that…doesn’t matter if you haven’t talked to God in a long time…OH GOD…oh no…help me. Please…I never will I promise…it all comes flying out. Or you look in the rearview mirror and here come the cops…Oh God please make them go away…is it in the glove compartment, under the seat, or in the trunk can’t remember where I put it…Jesus help me. Or you go to the Doctor…get a call….there is something on your xray…you fall to your knees. Or your best friend calls you to tell you that he just saw your wife having lunch alone with a very muscular good looking guy that he had never seen before…just the two of them. We have all been there…even if we aren’t even sure if God is real…God help me…I promise. And then your girlfriend calls you back …false alarm…I have the flu…yea…so glad you are sick. The police officer pulls you over and walks up and says…just wanted to tell you that you have a tail light out…take care of that….have a nice day. Yeaaaa…The doctor calls back with the results, it was nothing. You come home from work and your wife tells you that you will never guess who she had lunch with today…she ran into her gay cousin Steve….Yeaaa…I love Steve. Once the mountain is gone so often our promises to God are too.
Peter looks Jesus in the eye and says Jesus even if everyone else runs away, I won’t, in fact I will die before I ever disown you. Within an hour of two of making this promise to Jesus himself here he is already having broken it. Will Peter ever be able to overcome this moment, this promise to Jesus that he has now broken? Let’s keep reading and see. It gets worse…
58 A little later someone else saw him and said, “You also are one of them.” “Man, I am not!” Peter replied. 59 About an hour later another asserted, “Certainly this fellow was with him, for he is a Galilean.” 60 Peter replied, “Man, I don’t know what you’re talking about!” Just as he was speaking, the rooster crowed. 61 The Lord turned and looked straight at Peter. Then Peter remembered the word the Lord had spoken to him: “Before the rooster crows today, you will disown me three times.” 62 And he went outside and wept bitterly.
So Peter denies Jesus not once, not twice, but three times but check this out, he doesn’t even realize the significance of what he has done until he looks over, and looks directly into the eyes of Jesus who is looking right at him. Then he remembers what Jesus says, realizes what he has done, and goes away and weeps bitterly. All of a sudden there is more to this than can I overcome the promises I have broken. This moment raises a second question, a pretty familiar question in our lives and stories too. Question number 2…
CAN I OVERCOME THE THINGS I HAVE DONE? This one is a big deal isn’t it? Some of us were afraid to walk into this place called church today because of all the things we have done in our lives and stories. We were afraid the roof would collapse. It hasn’t. We put in extra steel just for you. I’m teasing. This moment in the story is Peter’s worst moment in his entire life. I can’t ever read this story without thinking of mine.
ILLUST> Last Sunday night Stacy my wife rolled over, kissed me goodnight and said happy anniversary. I immediately got sick at my stomach. Oh no. Then I realized no, it’s not August so I am good. What she was talking about was the 36 year anniversary of our first date our junior year of high school. I know I don’t even look 36. I will tell you my secrets later. Anyway, so I was smitten with Stacy the first time I laid eyes on her the first day of 7th grade, chased her for 4 years until she finally said yes, 3 years later she agreed to marry me. So in August of 1984 I stood up in the church before God and a bunch of witnesses and made a promise to be faithful to this girl of my dreams for the rest of my life. Twelve years ago there I sat having just resigned from the church I was leading at the time because I had broken that promise and done the thing I had sworn I would never do. I had been unfaithful to me wife. As I sat there under the weight of the promise I had broken and what I had done I couldn’t help but think there is absolutely no way that I will ever overcome this. Have you ever done something in your life that took you there? Me too.
Peter has to be feeling pretty helpless here. He is not able to get to Jesus, to have a conversation with Jesus, to try and make things right with Jesus. He can only standby and watch as Jesus is brutally beaten, dies on a cross, and is put into the grave. The story is over or so it seems. So Jesus is in the grave and some ladies go to the tomb to try and anoint the body of Jesus only to find an angel there and the stone rolled away. Let’s pick it up in Mark chapter 16 verse 6…
6 “Don’t be alarmed,” he said. “You are looking for Jesus the Nazarene, who was crucified. He has risen! He is not here. See the place where they laid him. 7 But go, tell his disciples and Peter, ‘He is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him, just as he told you.’”
I
know this is hard to believe, but I got in trouble a lot when I was a kid growing up. This moment takes me back to that. The point is this. I had two totally and completely different responses when my sister would tell me “dad wants to see you”. When I knew that I had done something bad it was a whole lot harder to go see him. My conclusion in those moments, this is probably not going to go well for me. You ever been there? Me too. I think that Peter has to be feeling some of that here. Which leads to the last question, it’s this…
CAN I OVERCOME THE CONCLUSIONS THAT I’VE REACHED? We have all reached lots of conclusions about lots of things. I want to talk about two the conclusions that we have reached about ourselves and the conclusions we have reached about Jesus.
ILLUST> Just a few days after I blew up our lives and resigned from the church twelve years ago I cleaned out my office, drove home and tried my best to get it into the attic before the girls came home. As I was carrying one of the boxes in from the driveway I looked down to see my third daughter Spence who was about 6 at the time skipping up the driveway. She was totally unaware that I had blown up her life. She said hi dad, whatcha doing? Oh, just moving a few things. Isn’t that the stuff from your office? Smart kid. I was like yeah it is. I said daddy is taking a little break. She said you mean you are not going to be a pastor anymore, busted into tears, and ran into the house. My heart ripped in two. I remember thinking I will never overcome this. Fast forward through a hard twelve years. Last month I sat at her basketball banquet, her last, it’s her senior year and I listened to her read this in front of everyone there. “Dad, your ability to lead, communicate, and the way you chase after others hearts has helped me to become a strong and fearless leader who cares about every person no matter what their story is. Saying thanks and I love you would not do justice for all that you have done for me. You have prepared me to be a part of something so much bigger than myself and taught me that I can be a world changer in even the smallest ways. Because of you I am full of life and excitement about what is to come. Despite the obstacles that may try to stop me I know that I can get through anything and always have you fighting beside me. From my first game when I was 4 years old to my last this year you have been there to cheer me on and to push me to be better. I know you are behind me and believe in me more than I believe in myself. I love you. Spence.
It’s hard to explain all that those few minutes of listening to that did for my heart. I sat and cried. I needed help overcoming more than what I had done. I needed help overcoming the conclusions that I had reached about myself as a result of what I had done. Peter needs help with that. My guess is that we could all use some help there too. We are going to dive hard into that next week so come back. For today, how would you finish this statement? I am just _____________. I don’t know your conclusion or how you would fill in that blank. Let me fill it in for every single one of us today, it’s just like the song says “I’m just another heart in need of rescue, waiting on love’s sweet charity”. We don’t have to wait any longer. That is the hope of Easter.
Do we need to rethink the conclusions we’ve reached about Jesus? I have sat in the seat that Peter is sitting in heading into the very first Easter. I need to overcome the promises I have broken, things I have done, and conclusions I have reached. The only explanation for my story is this. I was another heart in need of rescue and a risen Jesus rescued me. See, we don’t believe that Jesus is alive because the Bible says so. We believe it because people saw Jesus alive, they saw him crucified, they saw him alive again, and then they wrote about it. The cowards who ran when he was arrested, denied knowing him to a middle school girl, who thought that he was going to stay dead and that the story was over were ultimately willing to die themselves rather than deny what they had seen, Jesus had risen. If Jesus can do that, if he can overcome death what is there that he cannot overcome in our lives and stories? Let’s finish with this, Romans 8…
34 Who then is the one who condemns? No one. Christ Jesus who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us… 38 For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 39 neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
As you sit here today, Jesus couldn’t love you more, nothing can or will ever separate any of us from his love. Our rescue cost him everything. The power that we need to overcome is right in front of us and it costs us nothing.
So, let’s take a little time and space to think about that. In just a second I am going to pray and the band is coming out and we are going to do one last song. As the first few verses of the song are being sung we are going to pass some trays up and down the aisles with a little cracker and a little cup of juice representing the body and blood of Jesus. If you are a believer in Jesus, he’s your savior, you believe that he died for you, maybe even for the first time today…take it and hold it. I am going to come back up in a few minutes and we will take it together. There’s absolutely no shame in that we are glad that you are here. The song says “though I keep searching for an answer. I never seem to find what I’m looking for”. Why can’t today be the day that that changes. So here I go again on my own, running down the only road I’ve ever known. Like a drifter I was born to walk alone. No you weren’t. The path you have walked in the past doesn’t have to be the one you walk in the future. There’s a different path. You like Peter are just another heart in need of rescue and that is exactly what Jesus came to do for you. Let me pray for us.
