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.
I am sure that when Peter gave the word that he would never deny Christ, he really felt good about it. In fact, Peter felt so good about his word that he was even willing to put his own life on the line in order to back up what he was saying. Peter was probably truly disappointed because even after he said that he was willing to put his life on the line, Jesus still did not take back his word or change his mind about what was actually going to happen.
Many of us struggle with this as well. We feel like if we offer God enough then He will change His mind. Truth is truth, God will not change His word for us His word must go forth and do what He set it out to do.
Peter felt that this was his opportunity to make the ultimate impression on God. He knew that this was not just a normal promise but if he could stand this test then his faith would be unmatchable by mortal man. Peter wanted desperately for Jesus to approve of his statement he was even willing to put his own life up for a bond (or so he thought).
Let’s look at some of the reasons that we come up with some of the conclusions that we have:
Perhaps Peter thought that all it would take to keep this promise was the same level of faith that he needed when he walked on water. During Peter’s walk with Jesus he had seen how Jesus could save him from danger by immediately pulling him out of the water. Peter knew that Jesus wanted him to have courage and he thought that surely this promise would make him sound courageous to the ears of Jesus.
We are just like Peter sometimes. We don’t think
twice about getting into situations that we know that
Jesus can pull us out of immediately. We have come
to understand that God wants us to move forward in
courage and we would rather use our courage that the
wisdom of God to move forward. We can even
sometimes be so bold as to think that we have more
courage than God himself. We can get the situation
confused to the point that we think that God needs us
to protect him. Sure God needs us to have courage
enough to stand on his word but God does not need us
to protect him.
We need to be careful not to allow Satan to trick us
because we could think that we are standing firm for
God but in reality we are only allowing Satan to trick
us. We need to make sure that we are corresponding
to God when we make our covenants. In Matthew
14:27-31 there was one thing that was sure and that
was the fact that Peter was talking to God. We need
to make sure that we are talking to God.
2. We have to be careful about promises we make to God because we can get so caught up in the awesome powers of God that we can began to misuse or abuse them. Maybe when Peter made his promise he felt that Jesus would back him up anyway. Maybe he felt that because he had seen Jesus slip away from amongst his adversaries in the midst of them attempting to stone him to death then maybe Jesus would do the same thing in this case.
Peter could have thought that even if the odds were stacked against Jesus ever surviving he would make some grand move and escape. When Peter saw that Jesus was accepting the fact that they were arresting him Peter must have been astonished. Peter surely remembered the last time that he had stepped out on faith and thought that Jesus would repeat his miracle work in this situation. (John 8:59)
Anytime we make a move to do anything we should always consider the worse consequences from our actions before we move forward. Peter certainly considered the fact that if he attacked and physically assaulted the guards coming to arrest Christ then he would certainly and instantly be killed. (John 8:10) Peter felt that since he made the promise to God that he would never forsake him or leave him he was obligated to die for the cause. At least this way he would have died a hero. Peter felt that dying to back his word would have certainly impressed Christ enough to let his love show. We have to be careful that we don’t already have Christ figured out in our mind and think that that He will be forced to react from our actions. The bible says and I believe that His ways are not our ways and His thoughts are not our thoughts. His ways are higher that our ways and His thoughts are higher than our thoughts (Isaiah 55:8-9). Perhaps Peter thought that maybe the situation could never get any worse than anything that he had already seen before. He may have thought that even if he was to die that it would be a quick and painless death. He tried to agitate the soldiers by cutting off one of their ears. This would surely call for his immediate death. (John 18:10) Peter would have much rather been killed in action (KIA) than a prisoner of war (POW)
4. Perhaps Peter thought that if he didn’t keep his word that no one would ever know. He thought that he had accurately counted up the cost. We have to always be sure that we accurately count up the whole cost. We should never step into a thing and try to back up once we see the cost. For example; in a relationship we have to be willing and ready to accept the good and the bad. We should never get in and then act like we did not have any idea on what we were getting into. (Luke 14:28-35). Peter must have really felt bad when Jesus looked straight at him. (Luke 22:61).
CONCLUSION
Even though we often hate to admit it. There are times that we as Christians make promises to God that we are not sure that we can keep. Sometimes God sends us a warning to change our mind but we can be so stubborn that we would rather try to bend the truth than change our word. We have somehow come to a point that we feel so comfortable that God will deliver us that we can say or do anything and His grace will cover us. Beloved although God will always have the ability it may not always be His will to deliver us out of every mess that we find ourselves in. There will be times that we will have to face the fire for saying things that don’t line up with his word.
As Christians we know how to bend the truth. Some may be sitting on a gift from God when he has clearly called you to move forward. God sees you. Some of us know that we need to break our pride and weep bitterly for all the things we have done against God yet we sit there with slight grins on our faces as if no one really knows.
