Humiliation | Part 5A

I feel like religion misrepresents God. Jesus didn't come to start a religion, he came to restore a relationship. I want to talk about Peter today and how to overcome self-humiliation. For the last five weeks, we've been dealing with the topic of humiliation, and I want to continue today. We're looking at seven people in Scripture, and this will be the sixth, which means it looks like we're going to be back in this next week. But Peter's a little bit different than the first five we've looked at, because his humiliation was brought upon himself. And I just hope that today I'm speaking to somebody that feels discounted, disqualified, rejected because of something you've done in your life, a thought pattern you've allowed to take over your life, words you've spoken, decisions you've made, mistakes you've made. The enemy is saying, shame on you, shame on you, shame on you, because he loves to take our shame and keep us dressed in it. But today I'm saying, shame off you, shame off you, shame off you. In Jesus' name, the Lord's not called you to walk in the shame. And the beauty of this encounter that Peter is having with Jesus here in the Gospel of John chapter 1 is that in three words, Jesus is letting him know, I'm aware of where you came from, I know where you are, and I know where you're going. So let's reread this again in John chapter 1. And here's where Andrew... And by the way, Peter is not his name yet. His name is Simon. Jesus is going to give him a new name called Peter that will fit his purpose that Jesus has for him. Oh, hallelujah.

And so when Andrew brings Peter, who's actually named Simon in verse 41, he first findeth his own brother Simon and said, we found the Messiah, we found the one that's been promised, we found the one that's been spoken of since man sinned in Genesis 3, and God said he was coming through the form of the seed of the woman. We have found the one that every Old Testament prophet spoke of and the law foretold. We have found the one that has come in the volume of the book according to Psalm 47 and Hebrews 10 verse 7. Come and see. And so here's Simon coming to Jesus in verse 42. And Jesus said, thou art Simon. I know you. Before Simon could say, hello, I'm Simon, Jesus said, hello, Simon. When I came to church at the age of 17 to get my aunt to leave me alone, I was sitting on the third row with that red, bright red padded pew. That's where I was. And I wouldn't have went down front and prayed, but he called me. Before you ever uttered his name, he was already uttering yours. Isn't that beautiful? I tried to get away from it. I tried to escape it. I'd been trying to escape it for a long time. But on that day, I couldn't deny anymore. He knew me and he was calling me. Oh, hallelujah. Before Simon said, Jesus, Jesus said, Simon, you are Simon. I know who you are, even though we just met. The son of Jonah, I know where you came from.

I know your family. I know your daddy. Come on now. Imagine meeting somebody for the first time and they call your name. And then call your daddy's name. And then your granddaddy's name. Oh, you hear what I'm saying to you. He's letting Simon know I know you before you've met me. Then he says this, thou shalt be called Cephas. He's prophetically, prophetically speaking over his life. He's speaking of who he will be. Because Cephas, which is Peter, is by interpretation a stone. The word Peter comes from the word pebble, the word petroleum. It speaks of deriving from a rock. It's speaking into Peter's future. And this is beautiful here, and I hope this will help somebody. 2 Timothy 1.9 says that Jesus came not only to give us salvation, but that he came to give us purpose. And I want you to know right now that there's nobody under the sound of my voice anywhere that God doesn't have a purpose for your life. Because if the enemy can convince you that you have no purpose, he can strip your value. He can strip your identity, and that is the objective of the enemy is to say you are a mistake, that you don't belong here, that something in your past has disqualified you from your future, but I'm here to expose the lie of the enemy. Jesus came, according to 2 Timothy 1.9, number one, to give me salvation,

and number two, to give me purpose. Everybody has a purpose. Even if you don't see it, there is a purpose that God has for your life, and he saw it before you came to him. That's why Jesus looked at Simon and said, I know you're Simon, I know you're daddy, but this is what you will be called. He is prophetically speaking over his future. Do you realize when we put our faith in Jesus, when we came to him, he knew where we were in that moment, he knew where we had come from, even though we tried to hide it. My aunt invited me to church, I'm gonna be honest with you, I went down to JCPenney and bought me some khakis. I did, I found me a polo and some khakis. If I'm going to the Lord's house, I can't let him see Hootie James. I gotta put on a little something, the Lord gonna meet me for the first time. I gotta look good for Jesus. But do you know what, he knew what I looked like the day before, he knew what I looked like the night before, he knew what I looked like three weeks before. You don't dress up for Jesus. He already knew all my mess. He knew where I was presently,

he knew where I had come from, but he also knew where I was going. Have you ever given someone goodness and been good to someone, and then later they did you wrong? Wow. And then you thought, had I known, you were gonna do me like that, there ain't no way I'd have drove you to work for three months like I did, and didn't even ask for gas money. Jesus will be good to you, knowing the day you won't be good back, and still won't change his mind about the goodness that he put in your life. That's one thing I don't understand about the Lord, because there's been times in my life where I let myself down, and I felt like I let him down. I was like, Lord, if you saw this day in my future, why did you do that for me last week? If you saw this in my future, why did you do that in my life last year? I don't think we'll ever fully comprehend the grace of God, that when you're talking to Jesus, you're talking to somebody, hey, hey, settle down. When you're talking to Jesus, you're talking to somebody that sees your past, present, and future at the same time. Are y'all hearing what I'm saying?

Amen. Like, oh, I don't want Jesus to know about this. I want you to see the simplicity of the text, but it's so powerful. He said, you are Simon. Are y'all seeing it in verse 42? You are Simon, that's who you are. You're the son of Jonah, that's where you came from, but you will be called Cephas. Say it out loud, that's present, past, and future. Say it, that's present, past, and future. Do you know the Lord is not intimidated by our mess because he takes a different vantage point than everybody else in our life because he can see my past, my present, and my future at the same time? If I could see your future, I might treat you differently presently. We're gonna have to work this, y'all getting hard on me. To think that the day Jesus saves you, he already knew he was playing for you. Oh, man. So let's say that Simon is writing a journal. He's journaling. Does anybody have any journals? Raise your hand, don't be ashamed, you know you're writing about something. All right, that's about 10% of y'all, all right. How many of y'all just want to forget today? You ain't writing none of it down.

I ain't writing that down. Too much, I had to write it in a book. Have too many names in there, I'd have to lock that thing in a safe. Well, for the sake of this message, let's just pretend that Peter is journaling. So I want you to imagine it going something like this. Today, Andrew led me to Jesus. Wow, he's the Messiah. He knew my name before I introduced myself. He knew my daddy's name. He spoke prophetically over my future and said, one day I'd be called Peter. Woo, that's a good day. When you meet Jesus and he lets you know, I know you, I know your daddy, I know where you're going, that's a good day. The Lord Jesus himself has spoken prophetically over your life. That's a good day, but let's continue this journal go with me to Matthew chapter 16 Matthew chapter 16 Anybody ever had a blessed day like that For y'all I'm glad you're here. We got to change things One of them days where you feel like heaven's touching earth and the Lord has just confirmed that he knows you Watch this in Matthew 16. Let's just continue in Peter's journal when you get there to say amen Chapter 16 verse 13 When Jesus came into the coast of Caesarea Philippi He asked his disciples saying whom do men say that I the Son of Man am Church, Jesus is getting ready to ask his disciples two questions

These two questions established the foundation and purpose of the church Because he's getting ready to start his church right here with two simple questions The first one is who do they? Who does the world say I am? And so they answered verse They said some say thou art John the Baptist. He's dead. He's gone Some say thou art John the Baptist. He's dead Some say you're Elijah He's dead Others say jeremiah He's dead Or one of the prophets they're dead I was reading this and it spoke to me that ideology outlives a person Vision outlives people ideas outlive you There are things we do at our house that I got from my mama She's dead, but yet she lives Because you can't kill a vision You cannot kill an idea You can't kill a theory. You can't kill a truth And so these men jeremiah Elijah or one of the prophets they had spoken the word of god john the baptist announcing jesus and now They're gone, but their message still lives so much so that when these people saw jesus they attached jesus to those men Oh, he must be jeremiah because jeremiah spoke like that. Oh, he must be elijah elijah spoke like that He must be john the baptist preaching the same message. No before john the baptist. Jesus was Before jeremiah. Jesus was before elijah. Jesus was jesus didn't get his teachings from them They got their teachings from him because he is the manifest word of god Oh, that's heavy right there And so

that wrong answer Look at you never say wrong answer So then he looks at the disciples verse 15 he saith unto them read it out loud shreveport bosier But whom say ye that I am i've heard what the world is saying about me. But what do you say about me? And church this is a relevant word for us today because we can't reconcile The world to christ when we don't know christ Christ The church has got to get back to these two simple questions that we exist to to have jesus presented to us By his word so that we can represent jesus to the world. I cannot represent or represent What was never presented? If I don't see jesus for who he is, I might misrepresent him to people I feel like religion misrepresents god. Jesus didn't come to start a religion. He came to restore a relationship And we allow religion to make us divided we can't even share a word with somebody without them saying well I go to second church on third street and my pastor spoke of that a month ago We let religion divide us when jesus came to reconcile us wherever house We worship or wherever we gather that should not separate our brotherhood and our sisterhood There should be a community inside the body of christ that we've allowed religion to divide So jesus said Okay, who does the world say I am they say this that and the other? Okay. Okay. There's a problem That's not who I am. So who do you say I am because you're my disciples You're my students and if I can't reveal myself to you, then I won't be missed i'll be Misrepresented to the world if the church could just get back to who jesus is in his word And allow him to present himself to us in truth. We could represent that to the world But When I start off with the wrong image, she said, what do you say? Does the church know who he is? Oh man, and there are things he's gonna walk us through that help us discover him more.

Deuteronomy 29, 29 says, the secret things belong to the Lord, but those things that are revealed belong to us. God wants every one of us to become his secretaries. The word secretary means secret holder. The Lord wants to reveal things to you and me. It's the things that he reveals to us about ourselves, about life, about people, about him. And there are moments that come, it might be in church, it might be at home laying on your bed, but he'll reveal himself. And those things are building you, they're shaping you. They're molding your conviction so that you can be who he called you to be to whoever it is you might meet in the world. I can be merciful to you because I have experienced his mercy. I can love you because I've experienced his love. I can't hate you because I've never got any hate from him. I've got to give to you what he gave me. I cannot escape what I've seen in him. And my job is to reveal that to you. Life is not about what God can get to you. It's about what God can get through you. He said, who do you say I am? Verse 16, Simon answered and said, thou art the Christ. You are the Messiah. You are the one that's been promised.

Make no mistake about it. You are the son of the living God. Jesus answered and said, blessed art thou. Oh, come on somebody. When Jesus looks at you and calls you blessed, you're having a blessed day. Jesus looked at him and said, bless you and he didn't even sneeze. Jesus answered and said unto him, blessed art thou Simon, son of Jonah. Oh, you hadn't used those words since we first met. You called me Simon. You know who my daddy's name is. That's what bar means. Bar means son of. He was saying, you're Simon, son of Jonah. I hadn't forgot who you are. You're that same fisherman that came to me with your brother, Andrew, some time ago. I know where you came from. I knew you before you came to me. But Simon bar Jonah, you've been blessed. Blessings are spiritual. Ephesians one, three teaches us this. They bring about tangible, natural, physical things, but this blessing itself is spiritual. And there's a spiritual blessing that the Lord has said is over Simon here. He said, you've been blessed. Flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee.

You didn't read this somewhere. Nobody told you this. This is a revelation that you got from, read it. My father, which is in heaven. So not only do I know you, Simon, my daddy in heaven knows you. And he just spoke to you. And he just showed you something that nobody else knows yet. That's another good day for Peter. So back to the journal. Today he gathered around with Jesus and he asked us two questions. Everybody gave wrong answers, underline. I gave the right answer. Underline, bold, heart, exclamation point. Jesus in front of everyone said, I was blessed and had heard from his father in heaven. Underline heaven three times. Hashtag, what a day. Are you relating? Man, this thing's getting heavy. But we ain't seen nothing yet. Go over one chapter, chapter 17, as we continue in Peter's journal. Six days later, Jesus takes Peter, James, and John, his brother, up to the mountain. Now this is a high mountain. This is a celestial place. It's spiritual.

It's not earthly. But he takes him up to the mountain. There are 12 disciples, but only three go. Who are the three? Peter, James, and John. This shows me that in my life, Might have a Community and a circle But then I have an inner circle and we're seeing that the disciples make up a circle But that Peter James and John make up the inner circle Back to the journal today Jesus invited us up to the mountain. Well, not all of us Just Three of us, but I was invited first underline underline underline Like I win me And in this celestial place verse 2 Jesus was transfigured before them And his face did shine as the Sun and his raiment was white as the light you say what's going on here I'll tell you what's going on here. Jesus is being transfigured. That means what was on the inside came on the outside The glory of God was in Jesus. It just manifested on his exterior The deity inside the humanity came out on the humanity He looked like Moses did when he went up to the mountain So they're seeing Jesus glorified in a way they had never seen him before Verse 3 and behold there appeared unto them Moses and Elijah Talking with him Now, you know, you gotta write about this You just met Moses And Elijah at this mountain with Jesus and only three y'all got to go Not gonna believe this but today I met Moses and Elijah And you wonder why why is Jesus calling Moses and Elijah who are both men that We see is dead. Even though Elijah never died. He was caught up by God in a chariot. I Believe same time the body of Moses was retrieved. He took both

One a picture of the dead in Christ and one a picture of the live in Christ both meeting Christ like the rapture Where the dead in Christ and the live in Christ will meet together. Come on somebody But there's something heavier that's going on here that I want to illustrate So if I could get Jaron and Jacoby you got a lot of stuff in your lap Can you help me still I want y'all to help me real quick because what is Moses and Elijah doing here in front of Jesus? Peter James and John so if I could get you to stand right up right here by Moses and you right here face me here You're gonna be Elijah What happens here, let me read the rest of the verses so we can see what's going on What is Peter seeing and so there's Moses and there's Elijah talking with him Let's establish who Moses is Moses writes the first five books of the Bible Moses writes the law He's God's lawgiver when you look at the Old Testament. It's really just made up of two sections law and prophets Jesus said in Matthew 5 he came to fulfill law and prophecy So Moses is a lawgiver he writes all of the law and Elijah is the only Old Testament prophet that didn't see death That might make you famous Especially when you consider that but the Bible said before Jesus would come there would be one filled with the spirit of Elijah that would introduce Jesus and John the Baptist was filled with the spirit of Elijah So Elijah represents all prophets and Moses represents all law and there they are in front of Jesus Who is the fulfillment of them both? And what does the Father in heaven say Let's look at it in verse number five While he had spake behold a bright cloud overshadowed them and behold a voice out of the cloud which said This is my beloved son They're listening to God talk from heaven This is my book out of the cloud. This is my beloved son in whom I'm well Pleased read those last three words church. Hear ye him So, what's the father saying? He's saying law

hear Jesus Prophecy hear Jesus. Jesus is superior to both Both only spoke of him both only pointed to him. He is the manifestation of what they were alluding to The Father has just endorsed his son as the fulfillment of all law and prophecy and guess who had a front-row seat Peter Yeah with me still no, you may be seated guys Thank you. So imagine Peter's journal. I heard the Father speak from the cloud and told Moses and Elijah and James, John and me to hear Jesus. I saw Jesus in a way I'd never seen him before. I saw the glory of God. Hashtag, it just gets better. Amen. But go with me to Luke 22. Now, I don't know how many people right now are saying, man, that looks like my journal. It looks like my journal. I keep having days like that. Bless your heart. Well, that's an amazing journal so far. I bet you'll never doubt. I bet you'll never miss a beat. I bet you'll never slip. With that kind of encounter, with that kind of revelation and that kind of experience with Jesus, oh, anybody more faithful than you to have seen all that.

Oh, you couldn't have had all those experiences and ever doubt that he is who he says he is. I mean, I didn't hear the voice from heaven and I didn't see you in a glorified form. I mean, surely there's nobody like Peter. Man, you are special. I bet you, you'll never waver. And I let myself down all the time when I walk in the goodness of God and I feel like I miss him. Lord, how could you be so good to me? And yet I miss you in these moments. And I'm willing to speak to somebody right now that's looking back across their life and it doesn't matter if you're a teenager or what your age is, there are these moments in our life we wish we could relive, we wish we could go back and do something a little bit different. I wish I could have said something different back then. I wish I wouldn't have done that. I shouldn't have went with them. There's something in your life. You look back and it's self-humiliation and you receive it and you walk in it and you wear it, why? Because you feel like you owe it to yourself to wear this shame because you did it to yourself. Self-humiliation is not like any other humiliation

because you can humiliate me and granted when someone humiliates me or you, that is the hardest time to be humble. Well, I wanna thank you for allowing me into your viewing area today and I hope that you were blessed by the ministry of God's word. Our broadcast is made possible through the faithful financial support of our members and partners here in this viewing area. And I wanna encourage you to prayerfully consider supporting the work of this ministry so that we can take the message of Jesus as the manifested word of God, reaching more people in more ways and in more places than ever before. Thank you for your support. ♪ The enemy ♪ The enemy Y'all better hear what I say. The enemy can touch who you are in the flesh but he can't touch who you are in the spirit. He can touch the old you but he can't touch the new you.