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Welcome to the Potter's House Salmon Arm Podcast. We are a Bible-Believing Church located in

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beautiful British Columbia, Canada. We are proudly part of the Christian Fellowship Ministries

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with 3,000 churches around the world. We are a church focused on world evangelism, discipleship

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and church planting. Here we will share recent sermons from P.H.S.A. Church and other sermons

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from throughout our fellowship. I am Pastor David Bickford and I will be your host for this

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podcast. I thank you for listening today and we hope these messages are a blessing to you and

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bring you closer to God. Hello and welcome back to the Potter's House Salmon Arm Podcast. I am

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the pastor here in Salmon Arm. My name is David Bickford. Today I have something new and it is

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Mitchell Mondays. This is going to be a collection of sermons from our founding pastor, the late

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Wayman Mitchell and our current head pastor, his son, Greg Mitchell based out of Prescott, Arizona.

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These are powerful messages from our fellowship leaders and I hope that these messages add to

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your week. God bless....legal problems and he was able to shape these men into a powerful force for

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God. It is a very exciting story to read. Many of them are listed as mighty men, outstanding feats

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of victory. And the reason that he was able to do this was he had a heart of a shepherd.

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He had a heart of a shepherd and he is known as the shepherd of Israel.

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And he was able to challenge those men that they could become greater than themselves. Now in the

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text we are going to read, I am going to read a few verses out of Luke 22 and then I am going to

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skip quickly over to John 21 and read three verses out of there. There is a story of a man named

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Peter and it is a very instructive story. It is a man who is a failure. He fails terribly.

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And as he fails terribly we are going to read the restoration of that man and get tremendous

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insight in some spiritual dynamics that are a great encouragement to all of us to help us to be able

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to salvage people because that is really what church is all about. Can you say amen? This is

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not a place where people are on display. This place is a hospital emergency room, a spiritual

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hospital emergency room. This is about in Fendershop. Holy Spirit dragging wrecks off of

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the highway of life in. And this is what the gospel of Jesus Christ promises to do and we are

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going to have a character study this morning on salvaging people because really the issue in life

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is not what happens in life, it is how you process life. You have heard me say that many, many times.

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And it is how you handle the failures that are in your life. Is there anybody in this building that

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from some point or another you will have a failure in your life? But it is how you handle that.

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And how you begin to approach that and how you as a person whom God has restored, how you handle

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people so that they can be restored. Luke 22 verse 31, famous story of Peter. You will

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immediately identify this story. The Lord said, Simon, Simon, indeed Satan has asked for you

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that he may sift your wheat, but I prayed for you that your face should not fail.

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And when you are converted or when you have returned to me, strengthen your brethren. Those

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words are key to understanding the text that we are going to have. But he said to him,

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Lord, I am ready to go with you both to prison and to death. Then Jesus said, I tell you, Peter,

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the rooster shall not crow this day before you will deny me three times that you know me.

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You know the story. He does deny the Lord. But over in John chapter 21, we find a sequel to this.

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It is going to be greatly encouragement. So when they had eaten breakfast, Jesus said to Simon,

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Peter, Simon, son of Jonah, do you love me more than these? And he said, I love you more than these.

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Do you love me more than these? And he said to him, Yes, Lord, you know that I love you.

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And he said to him, feed my lambs. And he said to him again a second time, Simon, son of Jonah,

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do you love me? He said to him, Yes, Lord, you know that I love you. He said to him, tend my sheep.

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He said to him the third time, Simon, son of Jonah, do you love me? And Peter was grieved

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because he said to him the third time, do you love me? And he said to him, Lord, you know

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all things. You know that I love you. And Jesus said to him, feed my sheep. Most assuredly,

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I say to you, when you were younger, you girded yourself and walked where you wished. But when

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you're old, you'll stretch out your hands and another will gird you and carry you where you

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do not wish. Salvaging people is what we want to consider for a few minutes from this passage of

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scripture. And I want to focus with you, first of all, on the danger of overconfidence. It's a

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very common problem, especially as Christianity becomes kind of familiar to people as they've

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lived for God for a little while and they've seen God work, they've seen prayer answered. And

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you're not very careful. You can become prideful because you have a knowledge of God and you have

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a relationship with God. You can become harsh. You can become legalistic for other people. And

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possibly sometimes this is because it's a consequence of privilege. Peter, James, and

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John, as you remember, they had the inside track. Several things that Jesus did where he took only

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Peter, James, and John with him. And we'd have to speculate, which is quite possible, but

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that this had produced some pride in Peter because they're insiders and they have to understand that

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Satan will exploit every single dimension of life that he can. In the book of Proverbs, chapter 16,

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verse 18 says pride goes before destruction and a haughty spirit before a fall. Now here in this

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text, something is very, very clear. And that is this overconfidence that Peter had. Jesus has been

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saying to them, they're moving towards a time when he's going to be taken, he's going to be killed,

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and they don't fully grasp all this is all about. But Peter in the text says, I'm never going to

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deny you. Lord, I don't care if everybody denies you. I'll be the last man standing. And I want

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you to know that I'm never going to, I'll go to prison, I'll go to death with you. And before 24

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hours has passed, Peter in the crush and oppressive event has denied the Lord Jesus Christ three times.

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And the scripture speaks very clearly and brings this out. Luke 22, verse 33. But he said to him,

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Lord, I'm ready to go with you both to prison and to death. Now this is spiritual pride.

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In the book of first Corinthians chapter 10, verses 12 and 13, the Bible admonishes us and says,

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therefore, let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall. No temptation has taken you,

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but except such as is common to man. But God is faithful who will not allow you to be tempted

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above what you're able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape that you may be

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able to bear. So here we have this scenario. Now this is set in the context of the disciples.

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They've been having an argument on the way. They've been arguing with one another who's

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going to be the greatest. One said, I'm going to have a greater ministry than the whole bunch.

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And so this is quite common. In Mark nine, 33 and 34, we bring this out, said that then he came to

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Capernaum and when he was in the house, he asked him, what was it that you disputed among yourselves

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on the road? But they kept silent from the road. They disputed among themselves who would be the

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greatest. And undoubtedly Peter had entered that arena because he's one of them. And so they're

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comparing themselves among themselves, which the Bible says is not wise. This is a common problem,

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is overconfidence or pride. The Bible tells us about a Pharisee and a publican who go in to pray.

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And the publican is not even considered to be worth any kind of spiritual weight at all. But the

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Pharisee, these are people who prided themselves on their spirituality. And as he's there, he's

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praying and as he's praying, he said, Lord, I thank you that I'm not like other men. I fast twice in

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the week. I give tithes of all that I present. I'm not like this man over here. And Jesus makes an

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interesting comment. He says the Pharisee prayed with himself and that is real insight because

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God wasn't hearing his prayer. And Jesus says this man went down receiving nothing from God

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and the publican, meanwhile, no feeling of entitlement at all, won't even lift his eyes

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up to God, beats on his chest and says, God, be merciful to me a sinner. And Jesus said that man

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went down righteous, justified with God, but the Pharisee went up receiving nothing. And so here we

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have this business of overconfidence. The mistake that we make in life is that with our own ability

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we can do a work for God. This happens is quite common, a little bit of experience, a little bit

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of success. We witness and if we're not very careful, we get begin to think that with some

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slick story that we're going to tell, some argument that we're going to give, we're going to

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convince people that they're lost. Young men preach in the in the 180 and they've got some

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80 and they've got some smooth store that they've got that they think absolutely going to grab

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everybody's attention. And if you're not very careful, you begin to feel that you're slick

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maneuvering your good business of speaking and ingenious illustrations is going to win the day.

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But unless God builds a house, they labor in vain that build it. Can you say amen? Overconfidence is

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a common problem. We have in this story in the Bible of a man named Ahimaaz. He's in the battle

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where Absalom had rebelled and Absalom was defeated and they need to carry news to David,

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how the battle went. And they have a delegated man to do it. But Ahimaaz wanted to be the one

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that brought the news and he takes off and outruns the man that's delegated. But alas,

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when he comes to David, he doesn't have the message that David's looking for. And when David

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asked him a question, he doesn't have the answer. And he says, stand aside. And his pride caused him

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to move in his own strength and his own wisdom. And rather than win the day, he's embarrassed

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because overconfidence in the Christian life is very, very dangerous. And we see Peter,

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a terrible failure. So let's think for a moment about the power of grace as we read these two

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texts together are so notable. And there's a notable truth here. And that is that the devil

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will beat you to death over your sin and your failure. Can you say amen? He'll never acknowledge

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any of your forgiveness. He'll never acknowledge any of your repenting and getting right with God.

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But he will beat you to death with your sin, with your failure. Here's Peter. This is a horrible

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failure. Peter's a human being and the devil is the accuser of the brethren. You can be sure

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that he is present in every circumstance of life. And though he does not exercise his option at the

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moment, he'll simply put it on a shelf for a strategic moment and wait because he is the accuser

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of the brethren. And he takes good note of every single failure of life. In the book of James,

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chapter one says, blessed is the man that endures temptation. For when he's been approved,

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he'll receive the crown of life, which the Lord has promised to those who love him.

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And let no one say when he's tempted, I'm tempted by God. Excuse me. For God cannot be tempted

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by evil, nor does he himself tempt anyone. But each one is tempted when he's drawn away by his

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own desires and entice. Then when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin. And sin,

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when it is full grown, brings forth death. Do not be deceived, my beloved brethren.

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So here we have this business of life. All of us live in an arena where we are constantly seeing

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human flaw, human frailty. We have to deal with this within our own heart, within our own family,

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within our own associates. And you've probably heard me, I often am ministering to pastors

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and in some kinds of sessions. And I constantly am using the phrase that you can either in handling

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problem be a butcher or surgeon. Both of them cut meat. One leaves a living human being,

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the other has a display case. I tell them that because in dealing with human frailties and human

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personality, it is vastly different on how you approach and how you come out. And we're going to

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see this in the text before us. And you need to understand as a believer, not everyone who fails

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has to die. Mark that down somewhere. I'm constantly astonished at my son Greg. He is

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God's grace to him in his life. And he's able to deal with a problem and not wind up with a corpse.

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I mean, it's marvelous. I see a lot of things that you folk don't see, but I marvel at this boy,

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is that God has given him, he's able to deal with the problem and the person's alive when he gets

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through with it. That is indeed a skill and a glorious grace of God. And here we have a

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glorious dimension because it's grace. This is a profound illustration that we have.

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Here's a man that's failed. We read his words, I don't care if they all, I'll go to death,

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I'll go to prison. Less than 24 hours later, a little girl said, hey, you're a gal. No, no,

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not me. And so they keep accusing him. And he finally curses, you know, and that shows that

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he's not a believer of Jesus when he curses. And he's a Christian. He's a Christian. He's a

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Christian. He curses. And at least that's my opinion. So. And so here he is. He fails miserably.

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But it's interesting that the messenger says to the disciples, you go tell my disciples and Peter

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that I'm going to meet them. Who I told you at Galilee, Mark 16 and verse seven. Now, this deep

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insight here, because it's very important that you understand that in the scripture, you go tell the

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disciples and Peter, because the dynamics that are involved, Peter would have felt it's all over.

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He would have felt here he has, he's had this opportunity to bear testimony. He's bragged

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that he's got the stuff and he remissably fails. And as he's going out, he glances at the Lord Jesus

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and the Lord Jesus looks at him and Peter sees that here is the one that he told everybody can

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depart. They'll all not. And he feels it's all over. But it's very interesting in the grace of God

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that those words are written. You go tell my disciples and Peter, Mark 16 and verse seven,

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because he would have felt that there's no hope. He's over the edge. It's too late for me. But as

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we look this texture moment, Jesus draws out from Peter, a realization of his love for him.

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Peter's love for Jesus. He spots like spotlights. Here they are now. They're on the shore of Galilee.

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They've been fishing. Jesus comes and and he says, come and dine. There's bread and fish on the

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fire. Peter jumps into the into the sea first and gets there first. And so Jesus now is going to

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restore a precious soul. How do you restore a precious soul? There's the air they're gathered.

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The eleven disciples are there, ten and and and Peter, and they're there. Peter says,

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Peter and they're there. Jesus looks at Peter and says to says to Peter, Peter, do you love me?

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Now, think about that for a moment. I don't know how many of you have been around anybody

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or you've had anybody fail you or anybody that you've had to deal with in a restoration. And

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and think of the dynamics there now. So you've got them face to face. Now,

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why did you do that? Well, you know, it says you knew that you told me that you were going to

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die for me and you'd even go to the prayer. So what happened? I don't know. You know how

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miserable failure are. You know, you know what everybody is thinking about that, don't you?

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Yeah, yeah, yeah. You know all the dynamics or let's line up. Let's have a belt line.

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You know, let's line up and everybody take the belt out and beat them as they go by.

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Or let's let's let's stand them up and say, let's say 400 times, I'm sorry that I denied you. I'm

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sorry that I denied you. I'm sorry. Are you still with me? So how does he deal with this now?

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Peter, do you love me? Yes, you know that I love you. Then feed my sheep. Peter, do you love me?

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Yes, Lord, you know that I love you. Then feed my lambs. Peter, do you love me? Yes, you know that

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I love you. Then feed my sheep. He's agitated now, but catch the dynamics of this now rather

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than spotlighting his failure. Peter knows his failure. All the disciples know his failure.

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The Lord Jesus knows his failure, but rather than focus on that, he wants to draw out from Peter

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his love for him. And as he does that, love is able to conquer failure. Now think about this for

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a moment as we move through this and look at the text and look at the Bible. It's a very

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important text. It's a very important text. The Bible says that Jesus is the one who led the

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children of Israel out of Egypt. Moses is the one who points out his rod. The river turns red,

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frogs are everywhere, lice. Finally, the angel kills all the firstborn of Egypt,

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over the Red Sea. Pharaoh and his armies follow after. The sea swallows them up.

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Now here's Moses, and Moses wants now a revelation of God. And he says to the Lord,

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Lord, I want you to show me your glory. I want to see, I want to get a little insight. Listen to

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Exodus 34 verse 6, and what does God say? And the Lord passed before him and proclaimed the Lord,

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the Lord God, merciful and gracious, long-suffering and abounding in goodness and in truth.

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Now Moses has just seen God pour judgment upon Egypt. He's just seen him in his wrath,

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judged that, and now he's wanting some insight. And as he gets this, the Lord speaks to him and

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says, yes, I do judge sin. Yes, I am able. I have power. Yes, but what I want you to see about me,

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Moses, is I'm merciful and gracious and long-suffering and abounding in goodness

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and in truth. In other words, I want you to see a revelation of my grace. This is what was at work

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by the Sea of Galilee in these three drawing out. How many times did Peter deny the Lord? Three

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times. How many times did he ask him, do you love me? Three times. And when finished, then he says

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to him, I called you to be a shepherd to the people of God, and I want you to do that,

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and he restores him. And Paul at one time in extreme difficulties, 2 Corinthians 12, verse 9,

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my grace is all you need. My power works best in weakness. So what we have here this morning is

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grace triumphing over human weakness. We have grace triumphing over human failure. It does not

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mean there's not a price to pay for sin, consequences in the failures of life. We're

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not ignoring any of that. We're talking about salvaging people. Can you say amen? See, what

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God's about is salvaging people. And what a church ought to be is salvaging people. This does not

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mean that you do not have to judge sin. Doesn't mean that you don't have to deal with people and

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some of their nasty personalities. But it means that God triumphs over human failure to accomplish

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a purpose that is greater than the immediate. Listen to this revelation in John chapter 1,

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verse 14 and 16 and 17. And the word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld its glory.

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The glory is of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth, verse 16, and of his

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fullness we have all received and grace for grace. For the law was given through Moses, but grace and

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truth came through Jesus Christ. One of the most enduring hymns ever written is a hymn that we sing

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quite frequently, Amazing Grace. It was written by John Newton. John Newton is a very interesting

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study. He at one time in his life, according to his own confession, he said, I went to Africa

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to sin to my heart's content. He became a slave trader. He began to transport people into the new

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world to sell them into slavery. He took advantage of the women slaves that he has as they were

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transporting them. He was a twisted man. He at one time became a slave to an African queen. And

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his story is one of the twistings of human personality, the wickedness that human personality

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can be. But one time in a storm, when he felt he was going to die, he opened his heart to God,

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prayed, and God gave him a glorious transformation. And he wrote a song called Amazing Grace. I want

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to take time to read you the verses of that song. We don't sing this much anymore. We sing the, you

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know, the, we get all the, but this one has profound meaning. Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound

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that saved a wretch like me. I once was lost, but now I'm found, was blind, but now I see. Twas

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grace that taught my heart to fear, and grace my fears relieved. How precious did that grace appear,

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how precious did that grace appear, the hour I first believed. Through many dangers, toils,

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and snares, I've already come. Tis grace has brought me safe thus far, and grace will lead me home.

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When we've been there 10,000 years, bright shining as the sun, we've no less days to sing

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God's praise than when we first begun. Now those words were penned by a man who knew grace not just

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as a doctrine, but he knew the failure, he knew the pain and the bondages of sin, and having been

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delivered out of that, he put to music the beautiful stanzas of that song that is one of

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the most enduring and popular hymns that were ever written because it came out of a heart

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that was changed by grace. So we're talking about salvaging people this morning, so I want to talk

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to you about the key to effectiveness. When we read that text back in Luke 22, Jesus said to Peter,

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Satan has desired to have you, to sift you sweet, but I prayed for you that your faith does not fail.

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Now there's a two-edged sword that comes with that. One of these is Peter's faith,

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but then he goes on to say when you are converted, you strengthen your brethren,

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and so the other edge of that is don't lose faith or have faith in people. So let's think about that

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for a moment because we must not lose our faith in God's ability to redeem people.

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Here's a failure. His name is Peter. He's properly restored to effectiveness, and we must never lose

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faith and hope that God can restore a human being. There are three eternal verities spoken of in the

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Bible, faith, hope, and love, and the Bible says these three things are eternal, gifts of healing,

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gifts of knowledge, spiritual graces. These are all wonderful. They all function, but these three

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things are eternal. They don't pass in the process of time. These are eternal verities,

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and one of these is faith, another is hope, and another is love, and all of these working together

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works a powerful dimension in the restoring of people, and what we have here is a shepherd's heart.

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Look at Peter for a moment. Three times, feed my sheep. One time, feed my lambs. Now, look at this

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for a moment, now Peter can deal with others out of a converted heart. Or in other words, out of

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his own experiences now, he's experienced the grace of God. He's looked failure full in the face

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and brought to realization of his own weaknesses, his own ability to sin, his own ability to fail

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God, and being restored out of that now, he can begin to deal with others, and the scripture says

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out of his own experience, he is able to help and strengthen his brethren. You must this morning,

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as you're sitting here, believe that God can restore or God can save imperfect people. Two

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edged sword, one, Peter don't lose your faith in me, but don't lose your faith that God can restore

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people because that's the other end of it. When you're finished, when you're converted, then you

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strengthen your brethren. It's this man, as I conclude, who stands on the day of Pentecost,

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isn't it interesting? It's Peter who stands. This is the man, this is the man who failed. This is the

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man who has the reputation, the only one of the eleven that has this horrible failure. He's the

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only one that stands and out of a genuine love for people and concern for them, he preaches and

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three thousand people step forward and acknowledge Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. A short time later,

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the scripture records that five thousand more respond. Or in other words, what I'm saying is

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his effectiveness is out of a restored heart and James four verse six says, but he gives more grace.

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Therefore, he says, God resists the proud, but he gives grace to the humble. This is what touches

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the deepest need in a human heart, as someone who can understand, someone who can have faith in what

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God can do for a human being. Listen to Psalm forty two, seven and eight. Deep calls unto deep

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at the noise of your waterfalls. All your waves and billows have gone over me. The Lord will

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command his loving kindness in the daytime and in the night his song shall be with me. A prayer to

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the God of my life. A prayer to the God of my life. Ringing in my ears, I probably isn't under

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a day or a week goes by that I don't hear the words of a man that called me on the phone,

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a man who's left his ministry, left his calling, left his place with God and in the anguish of his

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soul, pastor, I just want to do something for God. What anguish? Who knows the depths of despair? Who

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knows the pain of a human personality that has that longing, having left the thing that God has

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given to them and now in deep remorse, wanting it back. Here's the fulfillment. Let's look at Peter

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for a moment of Matthew sixteen. Matthew sixteen, it says, Jesus comes to Peter, asks, who are you

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say that I am? He says, you're the Christ, the Son, the living God. And then he makes a statement

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that you're Peter, you're a little rock, but he says that you are going to become a rock.

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Now that's not as the Catholic Church says, I'm going to build a church on that,

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but it's what Jesus Christ was able to accomplish in him and he's able to accomplish upon that

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when he said you are a rock, he said to him, this is your destiny. This is a man that God was able

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to salvage through his grace and through his love. The Bible says we're sin abounds.

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Grace also does much more abound. Romans five, verse one, therefore, having been justified by

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faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we've access by

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faith into this grace in which we stand and rejoice in hope of the glory of God.

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There's a quote that I want to conclude with you. This is a man and this man's name is Thomas

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Chalmers. He's a preacher in England. Listen to this quote. I cannot be record, he says,

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the effect of an actual though undesigned experiment, which I prosecuted for upwards of 12

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years among you. For the first eight years of that time, I could expatiate only on the meanness of

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dishonesty, on the villainy of falsehood, on the despicable arts of calumny, in a word upon all those

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deformities of character which awaken the natural indignation of the human heart against the pests

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and disturbers of human society. But the interesting fact is that during the whole of that period,

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I never once heard of any reformation being wrought amongst my people. All the vehemence

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with which I urge the virtues and the proprieties of social life had not the weight of a feather

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on the moral habits of my parishioners. It was not until the free offer of forgiveness

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to the blood of Christ was urged upon the acceptance of my hearers that I ever heard

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of any of those subordinate reformations which I made the ultimate object of my earlier

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ministrations. Now, what a tremendous testimony and statement, because this bears testimony to our

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text that we have. Here's a man, this man is not much different than you and I, his name is Peter,

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filled with self-confidence, confident that he could outperform, he could outlast, he could out

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serve all others, not aware of his own weakness, not aware of his own heart, miserably failed,

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and having no entitlement to anything from God, worst sin he could ever do publicly.

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In this last hour of Jesus' trial, denies him, but there in a process of time, the Lord Jesus Christ

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meets him on the shore of Galilee and in a simple exhibition of tenderness and love, wanting to draw

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out of him something that really was there, which could overcome his frailty, overcome his weakness,

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overcome his weakness, overcome his failure, and bring forgiveness to him, says to him, Peter, do you love me?