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Would you open your Bible with me please to the Gospel of John, the 21st chapter, as we

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open our ears to hear what the Lord would say to us today?

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Of all the freedoms that we should use and should extend to others, I say of all of those

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freedoms, perhaps one of the most important is the freedom to fail.

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We must not expect the perfection of others and from others, which we ourselves cannot

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attain.

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For that matter, we should not expect perfection in ourselves that comes only from God.

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We must guard against and deny the tendency that seems to be in most of us to reject those

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who have experienced some kind of failure.

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Neither should we be surprised when someone fails.

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The Lord Jesus isn't.

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He was not surprised when his servant Peter failed.

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In fact, he had predicted that Peter would fail.

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Peter said, Lord, all of these may fail you, but not me.

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Then Jesus gave his prophecy that in fact before morning would come, three times, Peter

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would deny him.

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Peter's denial did not cast Jesus by surprise.

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And frankly, when you and I fail Jesus, he's not caught off guard either.

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You see, he knows us.

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He knows our weaknesses.

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He knows our hearts.

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He knows our futures with all of their ups and their downs.

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And the fact is, amazingly, that he loves us anyway without any strings attached to

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that love.

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We see in our text today the Savior seeking out a servant who has failed.

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He had done this once before on the first day of his resurrection when he sought out

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Peter to restore him on that occasion to fellowship with himself.

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It was a private meeting.

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But now publicly he comes to Peter to restore him not to fellowship, but to usefulness.

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The Lord does the same for us.

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Sometimes restoration to service or to usefulness is not always immediate.

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It wasn't for Peter.

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There was a period of time here, whether days or weeks, when he had not been restored to

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usefulness.

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The fact is that the same thing happens to us.

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Our failure may be great enough in some way or another that we need time to heal, or we

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need time to be proven, or time to rebuild.

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Restoration to service is not always to the same place of service that we had before either.

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For sometimes failure exposes that we were in the wrong place to begin with.

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But the fact is that when we have failed, our Savior comes to restore us to fellowship

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and to usefulness.

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You see, our Lord knows the potential that is within each of his servants, as well as

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the purpose that he has for each one who has been redeemed by his precious blood.

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He desires that that God-purposed potential be fully realized.

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The servant of Jesus Christ can experience the excitement, the challenge, and the fulfillment

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of a life fully reaching its God-designed potential.

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That is possible for every person who has seated here this morning, however greatly

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we may feel that we have failed.

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In his conversation with Peter, Jesus points to three priorities for restored servants.

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And I would like to say quite honestly this morning that every person listening to me

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who is a Christian is either a restored servant or one who is in need of restoring.

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All of us at some time fail.

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The failure may be small and unnoticed by others.

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It may be a private commitment that we have made to the Lord that we have not kept.

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Or on the other hand, that failure may be very public and even scandalous.

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But our Savior desires to restore us from our failures wherever we may be this morning.

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And when he has restored us, he wants us to place into our lives three priorities that

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are essential if our lives are going to go on and accomplish what God wants them to.

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Notice with me beginning in verse 15, it says,

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So when they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter,

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I want you to understand the dynamics of this situation.

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Several of the disciples have gone back to Galilee and have spent the night fishing,

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a rather fruitless effort, until someone on the shore, perhaps it was misty there in the

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early morning hours, and they didn't recognize who it was.

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But the man said, put your net in over here.

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And they did.

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And the net was filled immediately with fish.

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It was John who first recognized that this was the Lord.

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And he said so to Peter.

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Many are not wanting to wait until the boat got to shore, girded themselves, and got out

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into the water and got to shore first.

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But it was not long before the others joined them, dragging the net full of fish behind

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them.

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And they noticed a fire that Jesus had built, and on the fire fish and bread for their breakfast.

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Jesus had come and dined with me.

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And Jesus spent time fellowshipping with those men around the fire beside the Sea of Galilee.

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And then, when the meal was done, in front of everybody there, Jesus turned to Simon

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Peter and he asked him a question.

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He said, Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these?

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Now I want you to understand what's in Peter's mind at this point.

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Still nagging at Peter is his failure.

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Still echoing in his mind are those words spoken now some weeks ago when on that night

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of the Lord's trial he had failed Jesus.

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And when Jesus had predicted that failure, Peter had said, though all of these may forsake

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you, I won't.

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And now there are some familiar words as Jesus asks him, Simon, do you love me more than

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these?

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And asking the question, Jesus used the verb in the Greek agapao, agape love is in mind

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here.

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Simon, do you love me with the kind of love that comes only from God?

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The kind of love that is willing to sacrifice everything for me?

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The kind of love that will seek my good and my glory in everything you do?

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The kind of love that will put me first?

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Do you love me with that kind of love?

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And he said to him, yes Lord, you know that I love you.

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And in his response, Peter selects a different verb.

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It is the verb phileo.

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It's the kind of a word that describes friendship, love.

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It's a meaningful word.

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It is not a cheap word.

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It is a word used in this Gospel, chapter 5 and verse 20, of God the Father's love

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for his son.

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And it's a word used in chapter 16 and verse 27, of God the Father's love for you and

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me who are followers of the Lord Jesus.

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This is not a cheap word, but it's a lesser word.

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In essence he says, Lord, yes, I have a deep affection for you.

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Well Jesus' response was, tend my lambs.

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And then Jesus again phrased the question to Simon, son of John, do you love me with

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the deepest kind of commitment and purpose?

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And Peter said, yes Lord, you know that I have deep affection for you.

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Both of them again using the same verbs they had the first time.

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So Jesus said, shepherd my sheep.

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And he said to him a third time, son of John, Simon, do you love me?

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This time Jesus changed his word and he used the same word that Peter had used.

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He said, Simon, son of John, do you really have deep affection for me?

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Just as Peter had denied our Lord three times, so now he has given the opportunity three

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times to profess his deep affection for Jesus.

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Jesus in asking the questions he had was trying to lead Peter on to a deeper expression of

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love but Peter held back.

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And this time he was grieved because of the same question.

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And he said, Lord, you know all things.

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You know I love you.

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And he used that same word, I have a deep affection for you.

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And Jesus said to him, tend my sheep.

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I believe the first priority of a restored servant is the priority of humility.

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Now here's why I say that.

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I believe that Jesus was measuring Peter's heart and confronting Peter's boast before

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he said, Lord, everyone else may fail you but I never.

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Now Jesus comes to him with a probing question, do you love me with that kind of commitment?

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In those intervening days, Peter has learned a lesson in humility.

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Peter has learned that he should not express commitment and devotion to Jesus Christ that

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did not truly represent his heart.

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And so when our Lord tests him with the strongest possible word, Peter refuses to use that word,

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backs away from it, and uses a word that more accurately describes where he is.

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Lord, you know that I have a deep affection for you.

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I believe what Jesus was doing here was showing Peter the importance of humility, of not speaking

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and acting beyond where he was in his commitment to Christ.

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It is the humble servant.

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Filled perhaps through the experience of his own deep personal failure who can in the end

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serve Jesus Christ most effectively.

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Because genuine love and devotion flows from that kind of a heart.

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And that's the kind of heart that Jesus seeks in his servants.

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I believe a major lesson here is this, that no servant can serve Christ with effectiveness

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who boasts in his own commitment, who is filled with confidence in his own dependability,

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and who makes claims beyond the truth of his own heart condition.

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It is the servant who has learned more accurately the true commitment in his heart by his failure.

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And who then acknowledging that, who can go on to serve Jesus Christ effectively.

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I want to encourage you today to see your failures as one of God's greatest tools in

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your life.

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We all enjoy successes, but understand that your failures are God's tools.

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He allows you to be broken by the experience of your failures so that you might be usable

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to him.

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The first priority for a restored servant is humility.

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For out of that humility will flow genuine devotion to the Lord Jesus.

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There's a second priority that we have to look at and that is the priority that is found

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in Jesus' response to Peter.

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Peter said, Lord, you know I have deep affection for you and three times essentially Jesus

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says, feed my sheep.

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Time enough had been wasted by Peter.

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His restoration signaled a new beginning for him.

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For Peter, duty meant feeding the sheep the flock of God.

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That was his responsibility.

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That was his calling.

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That was his gift.

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Days had been spent as Peter thought through these things.

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Now the time of restoration to usefulness has come and priority number two is duty.

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Duty.

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Peter, it's time for you to get back online now.

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Feed my sheep.

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Don't stay around the Sea of Galilee and fish.

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That was okay for the time.

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Now duty.

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This is what I've called you to do.

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Attend my flock.

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All of Christ's servants, all of us who are saved by God's grace have assignments that

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we have been given from him.

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He has gifted us and called us to participate for the advancement of his kingdom.

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No spiritual gift that any servant has ever received was given just for himself.

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Those gifts given to us are meant to be employed for the sake of others.

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Gifts are not ends in themselves.

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They are means to the end.

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That we might be a blessing.

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Some people when they have failed and are restored continue to wallow in their failure.

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For they are still so overcome by the guilt and the feelings of failure that they think

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they can no longer be used.

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And sadly sometimes there are other Christians who try to tell them the same thing.

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I believe that the second priority when one is restored to fellowship is duty.

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Getting back on the line, getting back to that place where God wants us to serve him.

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As I said before it may be a different kind of service.

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It's possible that our failure has been so tragic that we are disqualified for some kinds

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of service.

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But I want you to know that if you have been restored, God wants to use you.

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And he wants you to get back on duty to that place where your gifts can be used within

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his will.

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That may be within the walls of the church.

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But it may well be without the walls of the church too.

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It may be in some program that has been established.

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Or it may be outside of any organized program.

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In fact I am convinced that most ministry must be done outside the formal structure

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of the church.

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We tend to think that our ministry is done here on Sunday or on Wednesday night or it's

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within the confines of the building.

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Not so.

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There is ministry there.

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But much ministry is beyond that as God uses us to touch the lives of people.

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Get back on duty after you have been restored from failure.

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We are saved to serve.

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We are saved that we might invest ourselves and others in helping them to come to know

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Christ as Savior and to become mature and useful servants of God themselves.

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And so I plead with you if you have failed Christ not to wallow in your regret or in

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your remorse.

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If you have repented of your failure and you have been restored, then determine what place

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of duty Christ has assigned you now and get on with it.

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Understand that that is a priority for you in your restoration.

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But we come now to a third priority.

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I'm not saying which of these is most important necessarily.

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They all kind of come together in the same conversation between Jesus and Peter.

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Verse 18, truly, truly I say to you when you were younger you used to gird yourself and

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walk wherever you wished, but when you grow old you will stretch out your hands and someone

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else will gird you and bring you where you do not wish to go.

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And John puts the footnote in here in verse 19 that that signified the death by which

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he would die, crucifixion.

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And Peter understood that.

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By the way, tradition says that Peter was crucified some 30 years after this.

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He didn't want to be crucified like his Lord, feeling unworthy of that.

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He asked that he be crucified upside down and was.

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Immediately after Jesus predicted the death he would die, I want you to notice the two

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words in verse 19 that end the verse, follow me.

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Priority number three for the restored servant is obedience.

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In Peter's case it was to follow Jesus to the cross eventually and literally.

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Obedience might be defined as compliance to directions or commands given to us by some

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God ordained authority in our lives.

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When we met for our spring conference a year ago, Vernon Brewer defined obedience this

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way doing exactly what God says immediately and with the right heart attitude.

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Doing exactly what God says immediately and with the right heart attitude.

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Obedience implies in the first place my recognition of the right of another to order me.

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And it implies secondly the submission of my will to that superior.

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I yield to that superior my rights to conduct and control my own life.

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I recognize his right and I deny my rights and I give them to him.

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And I think obedience implies thirdly release.

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Release on my part of all the potential conflicts that my obedience might create.

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Some of us when God tells us what to do we look at it and we say, Lord if I do that

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then this and this and this may happen.

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My obedience to the Lord involves my release to him of all those potential conflicts.

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I don't have to be afraid.

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He's out there in front of me.

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After all he didn't say, now you go this way and I'll meet you somewhere.

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He said follow me.

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He's with us.

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And he goes before us in all of those potential conflicts because of our obedience.

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And he says follow me.

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Priority number three is obedience.

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These priorities, humility, duty and obedience are absolutely essential if we would realize

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the God given potential in our lives.

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All of us, all of us fail.

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We not only fail God, we fail each other more than we would like to think about.

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We fail each other in families.

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We fail each other in church.

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We fail in our devotion to the Savior.

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We fail in our witness to the world.

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All of us fail.

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It is a part of life and we have the freedom to fail.

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Let's give that freedom to others as well as use it ourselves.

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But when we have been restored from that failure, let's remember these priorities and get them

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busy in our lives.

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Lord humility that gives to you devotion, duty, where do you want me to be involved?

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Obedience.

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Lord I will follow you, I will do exactly what you tell me to do immediately and with

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the right heart attitude.

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We must not allow our failures dear people to rob us of coming to grips with these priorities.

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We must not allow our failures to keep us from experiencing that fulfilling God-purposed

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potential in our lives.

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Life is a precious gift from God and the very best thing that you and I can do with it is

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to give it back to Him and to declare Him the Lord of every hour and every day.

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I ask you today to let your failures bring you to the Lord and a restoration to Him.

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A few weeks ago, I guess it must have been two weeks ago now, my wife and I drove into

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our garage or started to late one evening, we had been away for the evening and as the

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garage door opened I looked in the corner of the garage and was amazed because you see

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in that corner of the garage years ago I had built a shelf and on that shelf through the

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years I had placed a lot of junk.

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It's hard to describe what goes on a shelf like that but I don't think I need to because

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most of you have a shelf like that somewhere.

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There were pieces and bits of this and that and the other thing but on the shelf too was

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a gift I had gotten several years ago was a plastic box with about 20 drawers in it

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and in those drawers were nuts and bolts and washers and screws of different sizes and

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assortments and they were carefully sorted out in the drawers.

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It's a nice gift.

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But that night one of my children was looking for something that he or she thought was up

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on the shelf and in the process of looking for it reached up and pulled down on the shelf

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and when I drove into the garage what I saw was everything that had been on the shelf

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in one big pile on the garage floor.

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When I got out of the car and I looked at that I was absolutely overwhelmed.

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I don't remember my exact words but I communicated to my wife who was there in the garage with

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me that I was distressed.

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When I'm telling you inside I felt like that pile of junk and other things was as big as

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pikes peak to me and you know what my wife said?

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She said honey don't worry about it I'll pick it up.

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Isn't that wonderful?

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I was so moved by that you know what I did?

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I let her pick it up.

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It was so nice to have someone who cared enough for me to take care of my problem that I could

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not possibly face.

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And then as I was thinking about that story I was reminded this last week I went into

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a local grocery store carrying two cartons of bottles, Coke bottles, sixteen of these

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things.

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My assignment was to take these to the store to exchange them for two cartons of bottles

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that were filled.

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It doesn't sound too hard does it?

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But you don't know me that well.

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So I went into the store carrying my two cartons of empty bottles and in this store you're

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supposed to present them to the cashier to get credit so that you get the proper credit

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and they know you haven't tried to cheat them when you come back through.

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Well as I looked at the cashier lines they were long and the cashiers were busy counting

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up all the money that they were going to ask from people and I hated to interrupt them.

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So I decided to take my cartons with me through the store and present them as I came back

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through.

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But my problem was I couldn't get two more cartons because my hands were already filled.

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So logical person that I am I saw a grocery cart and it was in a long line of grocery

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carts so I decided to use one.

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But I couldn't get the cart, my hands were filled.

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See how logical this is?

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You men will appreciate that.

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So I went over and set my first carton down into the grocery cart.

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Took my hand, this one right here, and I pulled the cart forgetting that as a cart comes out

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that way that back that is held up comes down.

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So as I pulled the cart out the back came down and took right out the back of it my

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carton of Coke bottles which then went smashing to the floor and two of them busted up splintered

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pieces going everywhere.

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Have you ever felt lonely?

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I felt alienated from the world, unclean as every eye in the store focused on me.

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Embarrassed?

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Yes, very.

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I immediately reached down.

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I wasn't sure whether it was to try to pick up the glass or to lift up the cart to get

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under it.

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But since I couldn't get under it and hide myself I decided to start picking up the glass

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and then there was a voice.

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It was the store manager.

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He said sir, now he might have said where were you when brains were passed out?

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But he didn't.

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He said sir, don't worry about that.

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We'll send one of our boys over to sweep it up and you go on.

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You know what I did?

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That's right I went on.

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You may be feeling that way today.

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You have dropped your bottles, your assignment.

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Or maybe it is that somebody else has pulled down your shelf.

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It's been out of your control but you've got a mess on your hands.

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A relationship has failed or so it seems.

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And you are overwhelmed and overcome.

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And maybe you feel kind of lonely too.

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And maybe you're embarrassed or even ashamed of what's happened.

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Isn't it wonderful that we have a savior that says my child, I'll take care of it.

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Give it to me and he'll restore us and use us again.

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I'm glad our Lord's like that because I need it.

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Let's bow together.

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Would you sing with me the chorus?

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I think a lot of us know.

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Jesus never fails.

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Jesus never fails.

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Heaven and earth may pass away but Jesus never fails.

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But the fact is that we do.

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There are some of us today who need to come to him with our broken pieces and our failures

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and respond to his words, my child, let me help.

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Let me restore.

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Will you let him do that right now?

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Tell him so.

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It may be that there is some failure with another person in your life.

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It may be a child.

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Maybe you failed your parents or your spouse and you feel like your life is in a mess.

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Will you let the Lord Jesus bring about restoration from your failure?

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Acknowledge your failure.

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Acknowledge your mess.

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But he's there to help you.

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And then will you tell him that you will put these priorities in your life?

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That you'll learn from the lesson of failure you've been through?

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Whatever character quality that may be, perhaps humility.

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That you'll get back on duty?

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Will you put the priority of obedience in your life?

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It may be that your failure is that you've never trusted Jesus Christ as your Savior.

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I invite you to do that this morning right where you're seated.

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The reason your life is in a shambles today is because you have failed to acknowledge

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Him and trust in Him.

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He's willing to come into your life and save you today to put the pieces back together

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and begin that process.

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Will you trust Him right now, right where you're seated?

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If you will, tell Him.

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Tell Him to come in and give Him the pieces.

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Would you stand together with me please?

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Lord Jesus we thank you that you have never failed.

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But as we say that we also acknowledge that we have many times failed.

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How faithful you have been to restore us.

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And I pray that just as Peter was restored, not only to fellowship but to usefulness.

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So every one of us would experience that restoration too.

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And then may we set into our lives the priorities you gave to your servant back there beside

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the Sea of Galilee.

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And go on to serve you.

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Thank you for your grace, your mercy, your faithfulness with us at all times in life.

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And may we express that same kind of love and patience with others around us who may

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fail us and be restored to them.

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We believe that to be your will for us.

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Make us peacemakers in Jesus' name, Amen.

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No hard business.