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Well, good morning again, Riverbend.
So good to see you again. My name's Todd Slade and I have
the privilege to serve as the executive pastor here, if you
haven't heard that already. And so I appreciate the
opportunity that you give me to lead here.
Well, this morning, let me say yesterday afternoon about 4:00,
I got a phone call. Pastor Ben said he had gotten
such overwhelming response from my comment about being the best
looking one on staff that he asked me to preach again today
because we need more eye candy on stage at Riverbend Church.
And so that's why he's not here this morning.
And so, no, I wish that were the case, but it's not.
Pastor Ben called me yesterday afternoon about 5:00 or 6:00 and
said, hey, man, I've just been diagnosed with the flu.
Do you mind covering for me tomorrow morning?
And I said sure. It's a it's.
A light and noble task, so I will handle it with grace,
hopefully. So I'm preaching this morning,
but this is a combination of Ben's notes and mine as well.
So hang with me if you will this morning.
I think you'll get it. The we're kicking off a brand
new sermon series today called Live Well, and we'll tell you
more about that here in just a second, but.
Beginning next Sunday, we have. We're starting our 21 days of of
prayer and fasting, and I really invite you to come along on this
journey with us. There's something about setting
aside something. In order to fill that time.
With the Lord, whatever it is, maybe you want to give up
drinking Coke or maybe you want to give up TV, maybe you want to
give up social media. Whatever it is, I encourage you
over the next 21 days. We'll start next Sunday at 6:00
PM and it'll end on December 31st.
I mean December. That would be a long time of
fasting and prayer. Y'all come along with us. 12
months of fasting and prayer. Actually, it'll end on January
31st at 6:00 PM that night. And so it's just something that
we love to do here to start off the new year, setting aside time
to just do without so that we can fill that time with the
Lord. And we encourage you to come
along that ride with us next Sunday.
We will have devotional guides that Julie and Pastor Nathan,
Pastor Ben have written. I'll tell you more about that at
the end of the service, but you can pick those up next week.
And we encourage you to journey along with us over the next 21
days as we seek the Lord's face together as a.
Church to set us up. For whatever God wants to do
with us in 2026, I can't think of a better way to start off the
new year than really seeking God's face earnestly together as
a church. And so that will begin next
Sunday night at 6:00 PM. We'll have a time of worship
together here and then that'll kick off our 20 days of fasting
and prayer. So I want to make sure that I
mentioned that this morning, but also today begins a brand new
sermon series. Called Live Well and this new
series called Live Well. If you're brand new to
Riverbend, or perhaps you've been at Riverbend for many,
many, many, many years, I can tell you I know one thing about
you already. No matter if I've never met, you
already know something about you.
Your desire is that you want to live.
Well, all of us want to live well.
As a pastor, I've had the privilege, I guess if you want
to call it that, it is a deep, deep honor when somebody asks a
pastor to to to do their funeral.
But talking about end of life, whenever I've gone to meet with
folks who are at the end of their life, they've never once
bragged about having tons and tons of money.
I did a funeral for a guy I don't know, probably two years
ago who was a multi millionaire. He didn't.
He never bragged about his money.
I did a funeral for a lady who didn't have anything probably 7
or 8 years ago. Every funeral I've done,
whenever I've met with whoever is the person who's looking at
end of life care, the one thing that they all want to know is
have I lived? Have I lived well, have I
honored God? They don't say, you know, I'm
glad I did whatever some do, but most say I wish I could have
done this different right? Because at the end of the day,
we all have a deep down desire to live well.
We want to honor the Lord with our life.
And so man, December 31st, that's a great day on the
calendar. I love December 31st.
This year we had a unique December 31st at my household.
My family had the flu over Christmas.
Normally on Christmas Day we would take off and go to Rome to
be with my parents. This year I called my mom and
said. Joshua has just been diagnosed
with the flu. We're not coming to Rome on
Christmas Day this year. And so we had to change our
plans. We ended up going the week of
New Year's. And so it actually ended up
being really, really good. We actually were able to spend a
little bit more time in Rome than we would have had we gone
Christmas Day. And also, my brother-in-law has
more money than he has since. And so he went and bought a ton
of fireworks. Like maybe illegal fireworks.
And we shot those for like 5 hours on, on New Year's Eve.
And so, but December 31st is one of my favorite days of the year.
And the reason why is because there's so much anticipation
about something old ending and something new beginning, right.
We look forward to doing maybe New Year's resolution.
I don't know who looks forward to New Year's resolutions.
Maybe you do. I don't, I don't even do New
Year's resolutions. I'm like, look, there's been so
many years in the past that I've made New Year's resolutions and
I've failed so miserably on those.
I just don't even do it anymore, right?
But you know, new life, new, new opportunities will say as the
calendar flips from December 31st to January 1st, a new
calendar, new plans, new intentions for new habits and
disciplines. We always like to say new Year,
new me. It's almost like an opportunity
to start over as we flip the calendar.
But if you're anything like me, New Year's Day was on Thursday,
Friday morning. You're like, yeah, I'll start
that new year, new, new me thing on Friday morning, right?
Or Saturday morning, right. And before you notice the end of
January and you're like, all right, Lord, those those
promises that we made, can we? Can we work on that in February,
maybe? You know, if you're anything
like me, it's hard to keep those New Year's resolutions.
And often times we feel like a failure.
I mean, if we're, if we're being honest with ourselves, we make
those New Year's resolutions and then when we don't keep them, we
get so upset about it, right? We, we fail more times than we
get it right. It's a good reminder that a new
year doesn't fix old patterns. It just reveals them.
You see if. We keep on doing what we've
always done, then we'll keep on getting the same results.
You know, I think it was Einstein that says.
When you do the same thing yet expecting different results,
that's the definition of insanity.
I think that was Einstein who said that, right?
We have to do something different.
And I happen to believe that God wants so much more from you and
from me in 2026. He wants so much more from us.
I think the Lord wants more from us than we even desire from
ourselves. I think God wants so much for
us. And in order to make that
happen, it's going to require that all of us have a strong,
strong faith. Now, if you've been at River
Mend for any amount of time, you've probably heard us define
faith this way. And it's not on your note sheet
this morning. So if you'll take your note
sheet out, if you'll write it in the margins or wherever, you can
write this down. We're going to.
Come back to this, I'm sure during the sermon Series A good
bit. So I want you to go ahead and
write this down if you don't mind.
The definition of faith that we hold here at Riverbend Church is
choosing to believe God is who he says He is and that God will
do what he says He will do even when my circumstances or
feelings may say otherwise. All right, let me say that one
more time. The definition of faith,
choosing to believe God is who He says He is and will do what
He says He will do, even when my circumstances and my feelings
may say otherwise. I don't think this will be
breaking news to you this morning, but if it is, I'm
sorry, but your feelings are a liar.
You know, one of the things I hate about our culture is our
culture tells us all the time, chase your heart, chase your
heart, do whatever makes you happy.
And I want to scream at the top of my lungs.
No, the Bible tells us that our hearts are wicked, that our
hearts are evil, our feelings are liars.
So don't trust your feelings, right?
We need to trust God. Choosing to believe God is who
he says He is and what he says He is over our feelings.
That's the definition of faith. And so I pray that through this
next sermon series that we're going through live well, that
our faith will be grown, that our faith will be challenged,
but our faith will be grown as we believe that God is who he
says He is and that he will do exactly what he says he will do.
Throughout this new series. We're going to be walking
through a small book towards the end of your Bible.
That book is first Peter. However, before we jump into
first Peter this morning, we're going to look at the at this man
who wrote first and second Peter.
His name was Simon Peter. You've probably heard of him if
you're familiar with church at all.
He was one of Jesus 12 disciples.
And so you may be familiar with who Simon Peter is.
We're going to look at his life this morning and see that Simon
Peter didn't always have it together.
Peter really, in all honesty, he was a mess.
And you know, I, I, I tend to say that I'm a little bit like
Peter. He sees an opportunity and he's
like, oh, me, me, me. And then he.
Goes like what? What?
What do we have to do? You know, like.
You want me to walk on water? Like what?
He jumps out of the boat, you know, and that dude's walking on
water. And then he looks around.
He's like. I'm walking on water.
And then he starts to worry because he's not equipped to
walk on water. And he takes his eyes off the
Lord and he starts looking at a circumstance that Peter begins
to sink, right? Because Peter was a man who he
had a, he had a shoe shaped mouth.
He always kept his foot in his mouth, but he was always getting
ahead of himself, right? And so we'll see an example of
that here in just a few minutes. But at the end of Peter's life,
there was no one more devoted to the Lord than Simon Peter.
If you have your Bibles with you, I want to invite you to
Luke chapter 22. We're going to camp out there
this morning. We're going to begin in verse
31. We'll get there in just a
second. Before we jump into our passage,
though, let me give you a little bit of context about what's
going on here in Luke chapter 22.
So by the time we get to Luke 22, Jesus, Jesus is at the end
of his life. So matter of fact, this
conversation that we're about to read between Simon Peter and
Jesus, this happens. Really.
On the last night of Jesus life. Jesus and the disciples are in
the upper room. They've experienced the Last
Supper. They've done all these different
things. And then Jesus has this
conversation with Peter. If you know anything about Jesus
final hours, you'll remember that the last meal that Jesus
had with his followers was when the was in the upper room.
Jesus had gathered the 12 together.
He had washed their feet. He had he had give them given
them bread to eat. He had broken the bread and he
said, hey, listen, this is my body, which will be broken for
you. I'm going to bleed to death.
And I want you guys to know the blood that I'm bleeding is for
your forgiveness of sins. And of course, all of them are
sitting there going, yeah, we got it, man.
We love that. That's a great thing.
Jesus, give me that bread and give me that juice.
No, that's not at all what was happening.
Those guys were like, man, what is this dude talking about?
This bread represents his body that's going to be broken for
me. This blood that he's about to
pour out, he wants us to drink, man.
Who is this dude right now? They weren't that severe.
I got it, but they didn't fully understand what was about to
take place. And funny enough, or not funny
enough, interestingly enough, this is the third time that
Jesus had told them that he his body was going to be broken and
his blood poured out for the forgiveness of sins.
They didn't get it this night, but they would soon get it when
Jesus did go go to the cross. So by the time Luke 2231 gets
here, the Last Supper has already come and gone.
One of the 12 Judas Iscariot has left.
He's gone to do his bidding for Jesus.
Remember, it was 30 pieces of silver that he sold Jesus for.
But an interesting thing that has taken place here is I want
you to think with me for just a moment.
It's hard for us to imagine. This I got it.
We know the end of the story, so it's hard for us to insert
ourselves in the middle of the story and to really kind of go
back. But if you would.
Imagine with me for a moment. I don't know if you've ever been
a part of a foot washing ceremony.
I have. I had a pastor of mine when I
was doing some when I first got into ministry, I wasn't on full
on staff. I was just teaching in a in a in
a volunteer position. I was teaching Sunday school and
the pastor that was over my particular area, he got a bunch
of us leaders together and he said I want to do something
really unique. He said I want to wash your
feet. I want to.
Serve you in this way. And so we sat down and man, I
was embarrassed. I mean like I was embarrassed.
I keep my feet covered for a reason.
And most of all? Because I was embarrassed by my
the smell of my feet if you get catch what I'm saying.
But anyway, dude made me take my shoes off.
Sits us down on the table and he grabs a basin of water and a
towel and begins going around the room washing our feet.
And I'm an emotional guy, just. I have always.
Been emotional, but there wasn't a dry eye in the room.
It was a very emotional moment as Jared went around the room
and prayed over us and washed our feet.
Very, very humbling experience. Jesus in the upper room with the
12 disciples, and he's washing their feet.
As he's washing their feet, he's praying over them.
Lord, I pray that you would use these men to change the world.
Jesus knew what was coming. He knew that he was going to
take his final breath and I in just a matter of hours.
And he knew that it was going to be up to these 12 men to go
forth and to change the world, to take this message of
reconciliation, this message of freedom, this message of, of
forgiveness of sins. Take this message to the entire
world. Jesus knew what was on the line.
And so a very emotional moment with the 12 disciples.
And as Jesus is washing their feet, he finishes and they have
the Lord's Supper together. And then right after that, these
12 disciples start arguing about who's going to be the greatest
in the Kingdom of heaven. It's like, man, what are you
doing, right? Jesus just had this very moving
moment with you. And all you can think about is,
hey, man, make sure that I'm in the right place.
Make sure that I'm at the right hand of the Father.
Make sure that I'm good, right? Lord, man, I'm, I'm, you know,
I've done all these things for you and I've been with you the
longest and I was the first one that you called.
These guys are arguing about who's going to be the first in
the Kingdom of heaven, man. They just didn't get it.
And that's when we see Luke chapter 22, verse 31.
It's on the screen. If you don't have your, your
Bible with you this morning, you can look up here and read her.
It's at the top of your note. She just says this, Simon,
Simon, behold, Satan demanded to have you that he might sift you
like wheat. But I have prayed for you and
your faith that your faith may not fail.
And when you have turned again, strengthen your brothers.
Peter said to him, Lord, I am ready to go with you both to
prison and to death. Jesus said, Oh, Peters, I tell
you before the rooster, the rooster will not crow this day
until you deny me three times that you know me.
Father, I pray that you would use your word today, Lord, that
you would use your word to encourage our hearts.
Father, that you would use your word to equip us, Lord, the most
of all, that you would use your word to deepen our faith 'cause
our faith to be stronger. Lord, use your word this
morning. Send the Holy Spirit to provide
understanding and Lord, most of all, to illuminate our minds so
that we can understand what Scripture teaches.
Father, use your word this morning.
We pray in Christ's name, Amen. Well, first of all, imagine that
you're Simon Peter and you're sitting there and Jesus looks
over as you're arguing with your 11 brothers.
Juice is scary and is gone. So 11 of them are sitting there
and they're arguing about who's the 1st in the Kingdom of
heaven. Jesus looks over and he says
Simon, Simon. Now here's the thing about
Simon. Whenever you read the word Simon
in Scripture and Jesus is saying it, this is not Jesus looking at
Simon and said, hey, good job Simon, you're the man way to go,
Simon. No, when Jesus is encouraging
Simon or Peter, he uses the word Peter.
When Jesus is condemning Simon or when Jesus is trying to get
his attention for condemning him or to to instruct him, he uses
the word Simon. So not only did he say Simon one
time, but he said Simon, Simon. Now listen, that would.
Be like the equivalent of me when I was younger.
And my mom saying Christopher Todd Slade, get you behind in
here, right? Or my dad just saying, boy, get
you behind in here, right? I knew one of two things was.
About to happen #1 Daddy had a belt in his hand already ready
to go, and he was fixing to swing it right.
Or it was he was going to start counting and whatever number he
got to was how many licks I got. So boy, come here, man, you
don't sit on the couch and wait and a few seconds now your feet
are on the floor and you're moving right now.
My dad didn't beat me, just to make that clear, but he didn't
spoil the rod, I promise you that.
Or spare the rod, He. Spoiled the rod.
I got whooped when I was a kid. How about that?
Well, the same thing here. Jesus saying Simon, Simon, he's
getting his attention and he's about to correct him.
He's about to instruct him. But here's the question.
Here's the question for us. Why, Peter, when, when you read
Scripture, does your mind ask questions like when you read
Scripture, can you do you try to like insert yourself into that
situation? So like when I, when I read
Scripture, my mind, the way that my mind works is I start asking
questions and I, I like, start trying to figure out what's
going on. So when I see that there's
eleven men in the room, but Jesus looks across the room and
he says, Simon, Simon, why didn't he say Andrew?
Why didn't he say, Hey, Matthew, Why didn't he ask any of the
other guys? He didn't do that.
Hey, John, he didn't do that. He looks and he says Simon,
Simon. And the reason why I believe is
because Jesus had special plans for Peter.
He had special plans for Peter that would require a special
kind of faith. He had plans for Peter to preach
the gospel to those inside of Jerusalem.
Remember now I talked about this a little bit last week.
If you weren't here, you can go back and watch it on our our
podcast or you can watch it on our website.
You can actually watch it on on our app as well if you've
downloaded. The Riverbend app.
But I encourage you to go back and listen to that message from
last week. A good way to end the year and
then today is a good way to begin the new year.
But I talked a little bit about faith was reserved for the
nation of Israel. You see, in old times, before
Christ came, the only ones who were worthy of salvation, the
only ones who were able to have or receive salvation was the
nation of Israel and only a select few Gentiles.
Well. That's some bad news for you
this morning. Most of us, if not all of us in
the room this morning, all of us watching online, we're all,
we're all gentiles unless you're a, a, a Jew by birth, we're,
we're all Gentiles, right? And so that was a time, and
we're told in in the New Testament that we were without
hope because we didn't have an opportunity to receive Christ.
And so Paul took the message of salvation to the Gentiles and
grafted them in. When Jesus died, when he, when
he rose from the dead. You read about the curtain in
the temple being torn in two. Now we can all enter the Holy of
Holies. That's what that's
representative of right now. Salvation is there for
everybody, Jew and Gentile alike.
There's neither Jew nor Greek nor slave nor free.
We're all able now to receive salvation.
And so Peter is the one, if you remember in the book of Acts,
Peter is the one who first has the vision about clean meat and,
and unclean meat, right? And in his vision, Peter is
told, he's told to take and eat well.
What that is representative of is salvation being for all
people, and so not only is Peter going to be responsible for
taking the salvation to the Israelites, but Peter is also
going to be responsible for ushering in salvation to the
Gentiles. God had a very special plan for
Peter's life. Not only did God plan for Peter
to take salvation to those inside Jerusalem and outside of
Jerusalem, but God also had a plan for Peter to write 2 books
of the New Testament. And we have those books.
We're going to be walking through one in great detail over
the next few weeks and months in First Peter.
And I'm excited about the the plans to jump into First Peter.
But here's the thing, just like Paul, just like God had a unique
plan for Peter, I believe that God has a unique plan for each
of us. God has a unique plan for me.
God has a unique plan for you. God wants you to do things that
are outside of your imagination. That's what I was talking about
while ago when I said God has plans for you, that we don't
even have plans for ourselves. God wants so much more from us
than we even want from ourselves.
Not in a not in a thumb, you know, heavy on you, but in a, in
a great opportunity that that, that, that we have to live for
the Lord. He wants to use us for his honor
and for his glory. That blows my mind.
Why would God use me? God can use the rocks, he can
use the trees. Why would He use me?
But the truth is, I get to participate in this thing called
Christianity and I want, I desire for God to use me, and He
wants to use me more than I even desire for Him to use me, if
that makes sense. 2 very important truths for what's
ahead for you. Your future isn't going to
involve writing additional books in the Bible.
If you plan to write additional books for the Bible, I've got
some bad news for you. The Bible is finished, we call
it the Canon, and the Canon is closed.
So no more additions to the Bible.
But I do believe that God has unique plans and opportunities
for you. Your future isn't going into
while your future isn't going involve try that again.
While your future isn't going to involve you writing new books of
the Bible, your future that God is leading you into will involve
God using your time, your hunger, and your thirst to
experience Him like never before.
God wants to use your talents, your abilities, wherever you
work. God wants to use you to bring
great glory and honour to Him. God wants to use you and involve
you to reach and teach the people around you about His
goodness. Some of you in the room this
morning, you. You're a brand new Christian.
You've only been saved for maybe a year, maybe not even that
long, and God has incredible plans for you to take this new
life that you've experienced, to take it to those who you know
that may not know Christ. God's plans for you are huge.
And I can promise you, for all of us in the room, God's plans
are for us each to share the gospel with the lost.
You may say, hey, wait a minute, I don't have the gift of
evangelism. I don't either.
But I do know that God commands me to go share the gospel, so I
try. To do that wherever I go.
I try to take little opportunities pumping gas.
I try to speak to the person who's next to me.
Often times they say, man, who are you?
Shut up, leave me alone, right? I'm like, man, I got to tell you
about Jesus, right? God didn't put you on the other
side of this gas pump by accident.
God put you on the other side of this gas pump for a reason.
And you're a captive audience. So I'm going to tell you about
Jesus, right? God wants to use us to do
amazing things. However, the strength and the
depth. Of your faith that brought you
out of 20252025. Is not going to be nearly enough
to carry us through 2026. So God wants to strengthen God
wants to deepen our faith together as a congregation so
that he can have his will and his way in and through US.
This brings us to the second point.
A faith that isn't tested isn't a faith or is a faith that isn't
worth much. Let me say it again.
A faith that isn't tested is a faith that isn't worth much.
Let's go back to Luke 22. Jesus says this, Simon, Simon,
behold, Simon, behold, Satan has demanded to have you that he
might shift you like wheat. In the ancient world, wheat was
sifted by shaking it violently. And as the, the shifting or the
the, the shaking violently of wheat, it would separate the
wheat from the husk. And that's how you got the
wheat. It would have to be shaken
violently. So you can imagine, as Simon is
hearing this, Satan has asked my permission to intentionally and
radically shake up your life. I'm sure Simon Peter was looking
at Jesus going and you told him no.
Like I hope that you told him no, because I understand the
process of of sifting wheat. Surely you told him no.
If it's all the same to you, Jesus, can you just leave my
name out of conversations that you're having with Satan, right?
I mean, don't involve me in those conversations because I
think I'm good, right? But that's not what Jesus said.
Jesus granted Satan his request. And here's why.
Jesus didn't hate Peter. Jesus wasn't intentionally
trying to pick on Peter. Jesus wasn't doing anything
other than Peter than to try to grow his faith because Jesus
knew something that Peter didn't know.
Jesus knew that the plans that God had for Peter far outweighed
the plans that Peter had for himself.
And can I just encourage you this morning when life begins to
come at us, when life begins to happen and things begin to
seemingly fall apart, just just try to with everything you have.
I realized, look, I've, I've been there.
Some could say I'm there Now. It's important for us to
remember what happened right here.
Jesus knew the plans that God had for Peter far outweighed and
far surpassed the plans that Peter had for himself.
Perhaps in your life this morning, the shaking violently
that you feel in your life, the sifting that you feel going on
in your life right now is God reminding you, hey, the plans
that I have for you far outweigh, far surpass the plans
that you have for yourself. Jesus knew that faith only grows
when it is tested and a faith that isn't tested is really only
religious sounding lip service. Let me tell the story real
quickly. Most of you know if you don't
know, my wife and I are one of those people.
We have five children. I don't get it.
We, I don't know, anyway, we didn't set out to have five
children, but the Lord blessed us with five children.
I love my children. I am so thankful for the
children that God gave me. Wouldn't have it any other way.
And so the story I'm about to tell might make it sound like
that, but it doesn't. Jeremiah 16.
So 16 years ago, I must have prayed a prayer, something like
this. And if you're newly married in
the room, it's OK to pray this prayer.
God may or may not give you 5 kids.
But anyway, good luck if he doesn't.
I'm just kidding. So I must have prayed a prayer
like Lord, please, I want to love you more.
I want to serve you more. Can you, can you deepen my
patience? Lord, my patience is not real,
Not real. Can you, can you grow my
patience? Because 16 years later we have 5
kids and their ages are 16 to 6. And so every day is a lessons
and patience for me, right? There's things that will happen
and I'll be like. I thought I was finished
learning that lesson of patience and the Lord's like the plans
that I have for you are far surpassed.
Any plans that you have, you know, whatever.
So if you're a parent, though, you'll get this, you'll
understand this. I want to be a good dad.
I want to raise my children the nurture and admonition of the
Lord. I want my kids to know Jesus and
to know him intimately. I want my kids to know Jesus so
that if the Lord calls them into ministry, there's not a question
of maybe it's the OK Lord, here I am, send me.
I want my kids to know Jesus in such a way that Jesus is who
steers and controls their life, not their daddy and not their
Mama and not their worldly selfish ambitions.
I want my children to know Jesus.
Now, saying all that, let me say this.
All of your parents get it. There was a night not too long
ago. This has happened to me several
times and I'm embarrassed to even tell the story, but I'm
going to tell it. One of my kids had done
something really, really dumb. We all do it.
So I did it when I was a kid. My parents, my parents loved me
through it, and I'm trying to love my parents.
You know, they say you get what you gave your parents times 10.
I must have been a terrible kid. But anyway, I'm teasing.
I, I, I, I yelled at one of my children in such a way that it
was belittling to his character. And as my child went to bed, I
sat down on the couch with Jennifer.
And she and I didn't say anything.
I didn't pick up my Bible. I didn't start listening to a
religious podcast, None of that. But the Holy Spirit fell on me
like mad. And he said, what are you doing?
That's my child, that's my creation.
And you're, you're treating him like that.
And I wanted to get up off the couch and go pick my child up
and to just hold them and to love them until tomorrow when I
knew I'd probably mess up again. My point this morning is to tell
you that we're all failures at some point in our.
Life. Our faith is going to be tested.
Our faith is going to be tested because God has plans that are
bigger than ours. And a faith that is not tested
is a faith that's not worth anything at all.
And life can be extremely, extremely difficult sometimes.
But I want you to remember, and I want to encourage you, just
remember what Jesus told Peter here.
I'm allowing that sifting to take place because my plans for
you far surpass the plans that you have for yourself.
Our faith grows by applying God's presence and God's
promises to our situations, our circumstances, our decisions,
and our choices. And here's the thing, often
times just reading the Bible is not enough.
Reading the Bible is incredibly important.
Don't hear me say that. It's not.
And we've got to be reading the Bible in order to grow closer in
our relationship with the Lord. But sometimes it just takes a
mindset. I was having a conversation with
the gentleman this week. He was asking me about something
that he's going on and that's going on in his life.
And I said, hey man, sometimes it's just mind over matter.
Sometimes we just have to convince ourselves that our
feelings aren't true and that God is true and the things that
he tells us are what we need to go on when our feelings are
telling us not to. And I like to say it this way.
Whenever I talk to somebody who's experiencing the sifting
of their faith, I like to tell them, hey man, look, I know it's
hard, man. Run to Jesus, run to your faith.
Don't run to your fear because I don't care who you are in the
room this morning, you're programmed to run to your fear.
All of us are. If you're not that way, I'd love
to talk to you because I'd like to know how you're not that way.
So it will help me because anytime something happens, my
first thing is to run to my fear.
I want to run to my faith because that's the truth, not my
fear. Run to your faith, not to your
fear. Do I place my trust and
confidence in what I can see and what I can feel, or do I place
my trust and confidence in God's presence, in God's promises?
This is why James, the half brother of Jesus, wrote Be doers
of the Word and not hearers only.
Deceiving yourselves in James 122, Luke 22 again, Simon,
Simon, behold, Satan has demanded to have you that he
might sift you like wheat. But I have prayed for you that
your faith may not fail. And when you have turned again,
strengthen your brothers again. Put yourself in Simon's position
here. Jesus told you that he
specifically, that your name specifically was brought up in a
conversation between you and Satan.
That would be enough, right? But then Jesus tells you that
Satan hasn't has requested to intentionally and radically sift
you like wheat to disrupt your life and expose your life.
All right, there's another level of concern.
Well, there's a third level of concern.
Jesus goes on to say that he himself has personally prayed
for you that your faith would not fail.
All right, that makes me wonder, OK, Lord, since you're praying
for me that my faith not fail, something really, really, really
bad is going to happen, right? But then this last statement
that Jesus says to Peter, this would top it all.
He says this, and when you have turned again, strengthen your
brothers. Jesus says when you have turned
again, that's not encouraging. That would have told Peter, hey,
look, you're going to fail. Not only are you going to fail
just a little man, you're going to fail miserably.
And when you turn again, when you come back to me, strengthen
your brothers. If I'm Simon Peter right now,
I'm, I'm, I'm dying like I'm, I'm, I'm literally all right.
Lord, what in the world are you telling me is about to happen?
And here's the final point for this section.
The real question isn't if I will fail.
The question is how I will respond after I fail.
Remember, in just a few short hours, Peter's gone from the
upper room, having his feet washed, being part of the Lord's
Supper to go into the Garden of Gethsemane and praying with
Jesus. Actually, Peter didn't pray.
He slept. Jesus prayed.
Sweat, drops of blood. All of these things have
happened in just a matter of minutes.
And then we see Peter around the campfire to this girl who he
didn't even know. This girl who really didn't even
matter. She asked him if he knew Jesus,
and Peter had no reason to tell her that he didn't.
But for whatever reason, Peter denied knowing Jesus not only
once, not twice, but three times.
He failed, and he failed big time.
Here's the thing though. Jesus forgave Peter and he
restored him. Remember, Jesus knew that Peter
was going to fail the test. He had already told him he was
going to fail the test. Peter could have chosen to to
wallow in his failure. But instead of that, Peter
allowed Jesus to to redeem him. And because Peter didn't let his
failures define him, he did in fact going to preach.
The message hit the teachings, the salvation of Jesus to the
people inside Jerusalem and outside of Jerusalem.
Peter wrote two books of the New Testament.
Peter's failure became his personal journey, a personal
story of Jesus's forgiveness. And I hate.
To sound pessimistic this morning, but let me just say I'm
most definitely not trying to give you a license to live
however you want to. Please know that as well.
But you and I are going to fail at some point.
It's what we do in our failure that matters.
Whether we allow God to redeem us and restore us, that's what
matters. And real quick one more point,
emotion and devotion are two very different things.
Remember at the end of Luke 22, Luke verse 33, Peter says to
Jesus, Lord, I'm ready to go with you both to prison and to
death. So Peter was all emotional after
having his feet washed by Jesus. He was so emotional that Peter
says, man, I'm willing to go to prison with you, even die with
you. And then less than probably 6
hours later, an unknown slave girl asked Peter if he knew
Jesus and Peter said, Nope. Emotion and devotion are two
very different things. A lot of times we live on
emotion when we should really live on devotion because our
devotion is what's going to get us from day-to-day.
Our emotion is going to fail us. And so emotion and devotion are
two very big things. And as we draw our time together
this morning, let's put some action to this plan.
Let me give you the big idea that's going to serve for the
remainder of this sermon series together.
Here's your big idea for the next few weeks.
To live well is to live God's way, firm in faith, steady in
trials, anchored in hope. Again, one more time.
To live well is to live God's ways, firm in faith, steady in
trials, anchored in hope. And for that to become reality,
there are 4 musts for each one of these in each one of us.
Number one, we must identify the source of my faith.
Ultimately, this is about what authority is in your life.
If you have, if your source of your faith is your bank account,
guess what? At the end of the day, your bank
account is going to let you down.
If your source of faith is your work, guess what?
There's going to come a day when when your boss is going to come
in and say, hey look, we no longer need you.
If your source of faith is anything other than God, then
your source of faith is placed in the wrong thing.
Your source of faith is ultimately about what you have
put your faith in. Identify the source of your
faith. This is really about who?
What has ultimate authority in your life?
Am I placing my faith in my bank account?
In my new vehicle, my house, my spouse?
All of these will fail. The only one that will never
fail is the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords.
Secondly, talk openly and honestly to Him.
This is all about prayer. It's like a loving father who
just wants to communicate with their children.
You know, we weren't, we were in Rome.
We went to see my parents. We don't see them very often.
We see them maybe four or five times a year.
My mom is one who she just loves to hear from us.
And so, you know, I try to call my especially Judah.
Everybody knows Judah, my youngest son, he'll come crawl
up in my lap and he'll just say Mimi, Mimi.
He wants to FaceTime with my mom.
And of course, my mom loves that.
If you have children that don't live close to you, I'm sure you
love that as well. They just want you just want to
communicate with them. Hey, listen, that's our heavenly
Father. Perhaps you're new to faith this
morning and you're like, man, I don't know what prayer is all
about. Prayer is just having a
conversation with the Lord. It's all it is man.
He wants to hear from you. He wants to hear your heart and
authentic prayer. You know, it's not one of these.
When we go to the Lord and we say, OK, Lord, thank you for the
birds, thank you for the trees, thank you for the grass.
No, man, look, be honest and open with the Lord.
Lord, I don't know why you're doing this.
Man, this stinks. Why are you allowing this to
happen in my life? God, I don't get it.
Tell me, show me why. Why are you doing this?
Why did this happen? Why did that happen?
Why? God is big enough to handle
those questions and so it's OK. Be authentic and honest with the
Lord when you pray to him. Third, learn about who he is and
what he wants. And we do this by studying the
Bible. Look, God has given us his word
so we can know Him, so that we can know His character, so we
can know His desires. And the more time that you and I
spend reading the Bible, the more that we'll figure out the
Bible is actually reading us, right?
So here's the thing. When we read the Bible, we want
to study who God is. We want to get to know the Lord.
But often times you'll read a passage, You'll read a passage
today, you'll come back to it six months later.
That passage will mean something completely different to you
because you're in a, in a different point of life at that
point. And it's like, man, this the
Bible is really living and active.
And then finally #4 intentionally make room for him.
And we're going to do this over the next 21 days as we fast and
pray. We intentionally choose to do
without something over a specific amount of time so that
we can replace that something with prayer and Bible study,
just trying to get to know the Lord better.
So two key questions as we end our time together this morning.
We always like to end with a time of application, with a time
of introspection for you just to try to apply this to your life.
It would be awful if we left from here hearing a new sermon,
another sermon, and didn't really do anything with it.
We need to apply this to our life.
So #1 what am I fasting from? Starting next Sunday, we'll have
an opportunity to fast for the next 21 days.
I encourage you to write down what are you fasting from?
Look, it's great to have a plan, but if you don't have a written
plan, I encourage you to do that.
Write down what you're fasting from so that you can come back
to that at a later date and see what God did as you were fasting
from something specific. And then secondly, what are you
fasting for going into the season, this next season, 21
days of prayer and fasting, what will be your primary focus?
What, what do you want the Lord to do to you?
And so you can set these two things side by side.
What am I fasting from? What am I fasting for?
And February 1st, it's my prayer that you'll be able to come back
to that list and you'll see how the Lord has blessed you with
not missing the thing that you're fasting from, but taking
you and leading you straight toward the thing that you're
fasting for. We come back together next
Sunday. We'll have our 21 Days of Prayer
booklets that you can take home with you.
And I encourage you to jump in with both feet as we seek and
search the Lord together. We're going to have a time of
invitation this morning. And here's the thing.
Look, maybe you want to come down front this morning and, and
maybe you just want to leave something on the altar.
Brand new year, right? You've been dealing with
something and you just want the Lord to take that off your
shoulders. So just leave that somewhere as
a as a kind of like a, a nail and a sure place, if you will,
man, I left that at the altar so that the next time that Satan
brings that to your mind, you can say, Nope, I left that right
there at Riverbend Church. I'm not dealing with that
anymore. That's in my past.
I'm leaving it right there. Look, this altar is open for
you. Perhaps you're here this
morning. It's your first time here and
you've never given your life to Jesus in a relationship with
him. I want to encourage you this
morning. Come down front, talk to one of
the pastors, and let us show you how to begin a relationship with
Jesus Christ. I promise you, your life will be
different in the best way possible.
So my prayer for you, and it was this morning before we started,
is that God would have His will and His way in this place this
morning. That He would do immeasurably
great things in 2026 with each and every one of us today as we
just give our hearts fully to Him.
Father, I pray that you would have your way and Your will in
this place this morning. Lord, I pray that you would move
and work in only ways in which you can, Lord, and our worship
team's going to come back out here and lead us in one more
song. Lord, I pray that you would help
us to do business with you today.
All for your honor, for your glory.
In Christ's name we pray. Amen.
Thank you for listening to Riverbend Church's podcast.
To find out more about this message or Riverbend Church,
connect with us online at Riverbend Church dot live.