Overcoming Failure

Would you pray with me and for me as we look to God’s word? Father, I pray now that your Spirit would work through our hearts through the preaching of your word. Help me to communicate what you have for us. Help me to clearly articulate the truths of this text to us in a way that is clear, that leads us to want to live by them. Father, if there’s anyone here who’s struggling with despair, guilt, or shame, I pray that this text would be used in their hearts in a special way to bring them to the grace that relieves us from that. We pray these things in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Her life was a total disaster. In fact, it was a train wreck. See, when she was a little girl, she never imagined that things would turn out this way. They would end up this badly. After her first marriage ended in divorce, she still held out hope that she would find true love, that things would get better. Things would be difficult. She knew that. It was a tough path ahead of her. But she believed that she could get through it. In her culture, in her time, see, divorce was viewed a lot differently than it is today in our culture. In her culture, it led to living in shame as a social outcast, having to wear a proverbial scarlet letter. People knew. They gave you looks. It was not okay. You would be ostracized. You were a second-class citizen.

But things for her didn’t get any better. In fact, they only got worse. After her second marriage, too, ended in divorce. She picked up the pieces and married again for a third time, hoping that this time things would finally be different. But it wasn’t. And yet again, her third marriage ended tragically in divorce, which every divorce she had seemed to increase her guilt and shame all the more. After her fourth and then, yes, her fifth marriage ended in divorce. She had given up even trying and then found somebody else and moved in with them instead of marrying them. Which actually just increased the people around her. It made the people around her just despise her even more. That was even more taboo. The result of this was a snowball of guilt and shame that seemed to perpetually increase as time moved on.

Without a doubt, there are people here today who are experiencing shame and doubt and feel a lot like this woman. Though you may not have been divorced five times, many of us carry the burden of guilt and shame over other past failures. When people ask us how we’re doing, we quickly respond, oh, fine, everything’s just great. Yep, how about you? But really, the reality is inside of us, there’s a storm of guilt and shame that is raging like a hurricane. And no matter how much we try to ignore it or distract ourselves from it, when it’s quiet and when we are alone, it haunts us. Maybe it’s that marriage that fell apart, or the children that you raised who didn’t turn out like you had hoped and dreamed they would. Which makes you wish if I had only done things differently, if I’d only read that parenting book two decades ago. Maybe it’s a foolish financial decision that you made when you were young, or the lost years in your life when you weren’t living for the Lord like you should. Maybe it’s an abortion you had many years ago that keeps you up at night, or it’s just maybe some terrible sin from your past that nobody knows about, that’s so bad that you wouldn’t dare breathe a word of it to anybody. So, just like Adam and Eve covered themselves up and hid in the garden, you too try to hide from your past mistakes, even though it leads to suffering alone in your silence.

Is there any one of us who doesn’t look back at some point in our lives and wish we had done things differently? Of course, we do. We all have something where it’s like, ah, why was I so dumb? Why did I do this? As one great theologian put it, “I wish that I knew what I know now when I was younger.” Okay, that’s the 70s band the Faces. Okay, it’s not a theologian, but it’s still true, right? It’s absolutely true. Every single one of us has sang the desire of that song in our hearts. We have all longed to undo past mistakes, to right the wrongs of our failures, to live freely at peace without the burden of guilt or shame or regret. If that’s you here this morning, hear me when I tell you this: not only can you be free from your guilt and shame, but you can turn that mess from your past into something that will fuel you forward today to live even more victoriously. You can take that horribleness in your life and turn it into something good. It’s absolutely true.

Maybe you’re thinking, yeah, preacher, okay, maybe for most people, but you don’t know what I’ve done. You don’t know. If you knew the deep stuff in my closet, how terrible I’ve been in the past, you wouldn’t be saying that. If you only knew how bad I messed up, you’d think differently. Well, I see your past failures, and I up you a man’s failures named Peter, who makes your mistakes look a lot like forgetting to take the garbage out. And if a guy like Peter could be restored from his brokenness, guilt, and regret, then that means that you can too.

Let me remind you just a little bit about the Apostle Peter. Not only was Peter one of Jesus’ 12 disciples, but Peter, he was in the super club. He was in the inner three, the inner circle, which included himself, James, and John. And because Peter was in this inner circle, Peter was closer to God than anyone who’s ever lived, which includes Abraham. That includes Moses, who went up on Mount Sinai and received the law from God. That includes King David. Peter was one of only three people who were invited to the Mount of Transfiguration, where they saw something remarkable. They saw what Jesus was like in all of his kingly splendor and his glory before he became a man. And they got to see that. Yeah, it disturbed them. It was terrifying. But they still got to see something nobody else saw. They saw Jesus’ face shine like the sun. The Bible says that his clothes became radiant and white as light. And if that wasn’t amazing enough, they also heard the voice of the Father speak out from a bright cloud that overshadowed them, saying, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.” Peter knew who Jesus was. He had all the evidence he needed to know. This was just no teacher. This was not just another rabbi claiming to be Messiah. Peter saw the king of glory in his splendor and in his beauty.

Yet, even though he saw all this, you know what Peter did? Well, as we know, he still went on to deny Jesus, not just once, but three times. And to make things worse, I mean, it’d be bad enough if he just denied Jesus three times. But before it happened, Jesus came to him and said, You’re going to deny me three times before the rooster crows. In fact, all the disciples, you’re all going to abandon me when my hour comes. But Peter then turns to the Lord and he says, Not I, Lord. I will never leave you. Even if the rest of the disciples do, not I, I will go to prison and I will follow you even to death. Though Peter was brave enough to defend Jesus with his sword when he cut off Malchus’ ear when the mob came to arrest Jesus, and he even followed Jesus from a distance to the trial, Peter still ended up betraying him.

And we know the story. Peter followed him to the trial. He sat outside by a fire during Jesus’ trial, and a servant girl comes along and she’s like, I know you. You were with Jesus. He’s like, no, I don’t know what you’re talking about. I was not with Jesus. So then he kind of moves to a different spot and another servant girl comes along and says, hey, you were definitely with Jesus. And he says, no, I wasn’t. I do not know the man. And if that was the end of Peter’s failure, that would be bad enough. But in fact, I didn’t know this till this week, but Peter went even further on his third denial. Here’s what Matthew and Luke tell us Peter did next:

After a little while, the bystanders came up and said to Peter, “Certainly you too are one of them, for your accent betrays you.” Then he began to invoke a curse on himself and to swear, “I do not know the man.” And immediately, while he was still speaking, the rooster crowed. And the Lord turned and looked at Peter. And Peter remembered the saying of the Lord, how he had said to him, “Before the rooster crows today, you will deny me three times.” And Peter went out and wept bitterly.

Matthew 26:73–75; Luke 22:60–62

Does anybody want to trade their past failures for Peter’s? As bad as mine are, I would not want to make that trade. You know, I used to think that when it said Peter invoked a curse and swore that it was basically a super duper pinky promise that he didn’t know Jesus. You know, like, I promise I absolutely don’t know him. I swear on a stack of Bibles. And I don’t know if you’ve heard that before. If it was one of those kind of things. But what it appears that Peter is actually doing was he was bringing down curses on Jesus to show how much he was not a follower of him. Now, to us, that seems bad. But in Jesus’ day, in Peter’s culture, this was super bad. This was the ultimate betrayal.

You see, Jesus was Peter’s rabbi. He was his teacher, and Peter lived with him for nearly three years. Peter knew exactly who Jesus was. And in fact, before all this, Peter looked at Jesus and said, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” And yet Peter still called down curses upon the Son of the living God. He betrayed him. And in fact, as the text we just read says, Peter met him eye to eye as it happened. Can you imagine the shame that that would have brought on Peter, which led him to go weep bitterly? We don’t get how bad this is as modern readers. Our culture doesn’t have value towards loyalty like Peter’s culture did. I mean, loyalty was huge, absolutely huge. And for Peter to turn his back on Jesus like this was the ultimate betrayal. It was inexcusable. It was seen as being completely unforgivable. But as we know, it wasn’t unforgivable, was it? As bad as it was, Peter still came to find forgiveness. And if an abysmal failure like Peter can be forgiven, you know who else can? You. Me.

So this morning I ask you, are you living in shame and guilt from your past mistakes, from your past failures? And do you want to overcome them? You want to be free from the shame and guilt? If so, turn with me, if you have your Bible, to John 21 as we see how Peter’s failure was overcome so that we might too overcome our failures. To overcome failure, we must do four things. We must recognize, receive, reach, and refrain.

1. Recognize the Depths of Your Failure

Let’s look at this first point. To overcome failure, we must recognize the depths of your failure. Okay, that’s a no-brainer, right? If you’re going to address your failure, you have to recognize that you have failure. See, if I have an infection, but I don’t know I have an infection, I’m not going to go to the doctor’s office to try to get it dealt with. I need to know it’s there. And only if I recognize my problem can I hope to address it. And the same thing is true of failure. And in our passage this morning, this is exactly what Jesus is helping Peter to do. He’s helping him to recognize the infection that he didn’t know was there fully. How? By bringing Peter back to face his failure directly, head on.

In John 21, what’s going on in this text, as Josh read for us, is Jesus appears to his disciples for a third time after his resurrection. Jesus tells us that the disciples were out fishing all night and caught nothing, which is very similar to what happened at the beginning of Jesus’ ministry when they were out fishing all night and caught nothing. And so early in the morning, Jesus shows up and calls out to them, saying, Children, have you caught any fish? Or boys, have you caught anything? And then again, like he did years before, he tells them, throw your nets on the other side of the boat, which results in them catching literally a boatload of fish. They then realized who it was. It was Jesus. So Peter gets up, puts his outer garment on, dives in, and swims to shore, which doesn’t make a lot of sense because if you’re going to dive in, you wouldn’t put your outer garment on. But that’s what Peter did.

Now you’ve got to try and visualize this. So I need you to put your imagination caps on for this. Imagine them sitting around with Jesus by the fire. A man who had recently been executed on a Roman cross. There was no doubt about it. He was dead as dead gets. Then he’s there living, breathing, eating, drinking with them three days later. Imagine for Peter what this must have been like and how much sitting here with Jesus must have stirred his imagination and his memory of the past three years of being with Jesus, of that first catch of fish when Jesus called them to be his disciples, the feeding of the 5,000 with the bread and the fish, and being around that campfire, which would be a painful reminder of Peter of the same campfire of where he denied his Lord three times.

The Bible tells us that after Jesus rose from the grave, he made a special appearance to Peter. And it doesn’t tell us in that text whether or not Peter and Jesus addressed the denial. I don’t know if they did. It doesn’t tell us. But here, Jesus addresses Peter’s denial publicly with the rest of the disciples. Why does he do it publicly? Well, because in the Bible, you’ll see a principle ring true throughout it, which is public failure, public sin needs to be publicly confessed. And so, with the other disciples listening over Peter’s shoulder, Jesus brings Peter face to face with his failure by asking him three times, Peter, do you love me? Which correlates to the three times that Peter denied him.

Why is Jesus doing this? Is he just trying to shame Peter? Like, rubbing his nose in it? Pouring salt on the wound? What is Jesus doing? Trying to make him feel bad? I mean, come on, Jesus. Peter cried about it. Doesn’t he feel bad enough? Leave him alone. Jesus is doing this not to shame him, not to harm him, but to heal him. This is absolutely necessary for Peter to be fully healed and overcome his past failure. And what Peter needs, and Jesus knows this, Peter needs to come to recognize the depths of his failure. See, just having a superficial understanding of your failure, that’s all Peter would have had, that wouldn’t have been enough. Peter needed to really see his failure as God saw his failure. See, if we don’t understand how bad we are, we can’t appreciate the wonderful cost of God’s grace. Which is the only thing that’s actually powerful enough to set us free from our guilt and shame.

And this is so important. If you checked out, check back in for this. The world will tell us that the reason that we experience guilt, shame, and doubt, it’s because we don’t love ourselves enough. Because daddy didn’t hug me enough as a kid or something, right? It tells us to fill in the excuse here for why we experience guilt and shame. But the Bible tells us very clearly why we experience guilt and shame. It’s because we should. It’s a part of how God made us to recognize that we’ve fallen short to some degree. See, every single one of us is a Peter. We all have denied our Lord in one way or another. We all have sinned, as Paul tells us in the book of Romans, and fallen short of the glory of God. There’s no questions about it. That’s why we feel shame and guilt. It’s because we have done things worthy of feeling shame and guilt.

And just in case you think it’s really not all that bad, let me show you just a few examples from God’s word that tells us how bad it really is. Ecclesiastes says this about our failure:

The hearts of the children of man are full of evil, and madness is in their hearts while they live.

Ecclesiastes 9:3

Jeremiah 17:9 says this:

The heart is deceitful above all things, desperately wicked. Who can know it?

Jeremiah 17:9

Matthew tells us where evil comes from. He says it comes straight out of our hearts. Not our conditions, not the way people treated us, comes out of our hearts. Now, I could keep going with these, but I don’t want to be too encouraging here. But here’s the point: you have to get a hold of this point if you’re ever going to overcome your failure. And here’s what it is: every single one of us is more wicked than we could ever dare imagine. And we need to recognize that. Peter needed to recognize that.

See, because God is holy, he couldn’t show up to Peter and just give him a high five and say, hey, I got you, man. It’s okay. No big deal. We’re good. I’m a God of love after all. Couldn’t do that. Why? Because that’s cheap grace. Cheap grace doesn’t change anybody. Cheap grace is powerless. It’s going to leave you in your guilt and shame. It’s completely worthless. But do you know what isn’t worthless and powerful? God’s costly grace. God’s costly grace is powerful to change us and free us from our guilt and shame. God’s costly grace required a payment. It wasn’t free. You couldn’t just throw it out there. It required the payment of Jesus’ precious blood as he sacrificed for us on the cross. And so Jesus brings Peter face to face with his failure so that he can bring him face to face with God’s wondrous grace.

How does Peter respond to having his sin laid out before him? Does he start making excuses? Does he start saying, all right, come on, Jesus, I messed up, but you need to understand what I was facing. I didn’t get much sleep the night before. You know, I was already cranky, and I already was in a bad mood, and then I got put in a situation where I thought they were going to kill me if I confessed to knowing you. Peter doesn’t do that. He doesn’t make excuses to justify his failure. You know, another thing Peter doesn’t do? He doesn’t become full of self-pity. He doesn’t start going around like Eeyore and say, oh, you’re right, Jesus, I’m such a worthless bum. Depart from me. No, he doesn’t do that. He doesn’t go Charlie Brown mode here. Peter doesn’t try to turn his failure into a pity party to draw attention to himself in order to try to lessen his guilt and shame. That’s called worldly sorrow. That’s not biblical sorrow.

2 Corinthians contrasts this pretty clearly. In chapter 7, verse 10, it says this:

Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret. But worldly sorrow brings death.

2 Corinthians 7:10

Peter is responding to his failure with godly sorrow, not worldly sorrow. He’s not sorry that his reputation as the leader amongst the disciples is in shambles. That’s not what’s driving his sorrow. His sorrow is not inwardly focused on himself, it’s outwardly focused on what his failure did to offend a holy God. It’s God-focused, not self-focused. And that’s absolutely crucial because if you want to overcome your failure, you must recognize the depths of your failure, which will then and only then open you up to receiving God’s wondrous grace, which leads us to our second point.

2. Receive God’s Grace

In verse 15, it says:

When they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these? Peter said to him, Yes, Lord, you know that I love you. Jesus said to him, Feed my lambs.

John 21:15

What a remarkable picture of God’s grace in this text. Do you see it? Because I didn’t see it at first. It wasn’t until a pastor that I follow pretty regularly pointed this out, and I was like, wow, how did I miss this? The second Peter recognizes and admits his failure, you see what Jesus does? He’s completely forgiven. Peter is completely forgiven. And then Jesus turns and gives Peter a great leadership responsibility of shepherding God’s people. In the Bible, see, God’s people are called sheep, and sheep need to be fed, led, nurtured, and protected. And so God has given the church pastors to do that. Pastors who are the undershepherds of Jesus, who is the great shepherd. And here God takes Peter, old denying Peter, and out of his wondrous grace, after Peter admits his failure, Jesus forgives him completely and then appoints him graciously to such a wondrous position. Position of great responsibility.

I said before that our past failures can actually lead to strength. And Peter’s case shows us how this is true. See, Peter went from being the biggest loser to the biggest leader. How? Because he realized how weak he was on his own. Jesus warned him ahead of time that he would fail, and Peter failed anyways. He didn’t just slip once, he slipped three times. He fell into that failure. Peter’s failure then, after he repented, after he received God’s grace, led him to forever remember just how weak he was and how desperately he needed God’s grace and power in his life if he was not going to fail. And what a visual aid here we find for this in this text. Just like the disciples didn’t catch a single fish without Christ, so too will you and I accomplish nothing until we learn how weak we are on our own. Until we learn just how much we need to depend on God’s power, on his grace.

Realizing this truth, here’s what the Apostle Paul wrote. In 2 Corinthians 12:9, the Apostle Paul says this, and this is God talking:

My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.

2 Corinthians 12:9

Therefore, Paul says, “I will boast all the more gladly about my weakness, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.” Those who live triumphantly for Christ are those who recognize their weakness, which leads to them living in meekness as they depend upon God’s grace to empower them. Did you catch that? I’m going to say that one more time. Those who live triumphantly for Christ are those who recognize their weakness, which leads them to live in meekness as they depend upon God’s grace to empower them.

Sadly today, we are surrounded by so many leaders that forget this. Pastors who start thinking as Peter did, thinking they can handle the situation, they can handle the pressure on their own, in their own power. But the result is failure and devastation. These are leaders who forget the blood that bought them and the costly grace that they have been given. And so we must never forget the depths of our failure, which the Bible calls sin. But we must also never take our eyes off the height of God’s love and grace. And once you’ve done that, and only once you’ve done that, will you then be able to overcome your failure by reaching out to the unlovable? Which is our third point.

3. Reach Out to the Unlovable

Jesus said to him, Peter, feed my sheep. Truly, truly, I say to you, when you were young, you used to dress yourself and walk wherever you wanted. But when you are old, you will stretch out your hands and another will dress you and carry you where you do not want to go. This he said to show by what kind of death he was going to glorify God. And after saying this, he said to him, Follow me.

John 21:17–19

That’s pretty remarkable. Here, Peter promises Jesus that if he follows him, he can have his best life now. That he’ll be blessed financially and have everything he wants. It will go his way if he just believes and follows him strongly enough. His life will basically be a country song played backwards. That’s what Jesus is telling him, right? Wrong. That’s not what Jesus is telling him. Jesus is telling Peter what the cost of discipleship will be for him. And the cost will be his life. It’ll be his own crucifixion. Now, Lord willing, none of us here will ever face that heavy of a cost to follow Jesus, though many others throughout church history have. But make no mistake about it. To follow Jesus, there will be a cost, which is why Jesus tells his disciples, “Take up your cross and follow me.”

See, before we became Christians, we dressed how we wanted. We went where we wanted. We spent our time and our money how we wanted. We basically spent our lives organizing things around us to serve us instead of serving others. But Jesus tells Peter, Peter, do you love me? Take care of my sheep. I know it’s been done to death, but sheep are really dumb animals. They’re not smart animals. Which is why the Bible uses them for pictures of us. It’s not very flattering. I know that, but it’s absolutely true. Though Christ calls some of us to the position of shepherd or pastor within the church, he calls every single one of us to follow him and live sacrificially as we care for the needs of others.

And you know what’s going to happen if you do this? You’re going to find out pretty quickly that sometimes that’s not very rewarding. Loving unlovable people can be really, really hard. Sometimes you’ll spend your time loving people who drain you and wear you out because they are the sheepiest of the sheep. We’ve all met people like that. Maybe some of us are the sheepiest of the sheep. Sheepiest is a real word. I made it up just for that sentence. Trust me. You know that sheep aren’t like dogs. They don’t have a strong and affectionate personality. Do you know that sheep can bite? They can. And I can tell you this: if you start loving the unlovable, you’re going to get bit. You are going to feel the pain of sacrificing yourself for them. The people who basically have nothing to offer you in terms of social status or fulfilling relationship. You’re going to start to feel the weight of carrying your cross.

Though your arms might not be literally stretched out and nailed to a cross like they were with Peter and Jesus, you’ll feel the vulnerability of being exposed as you stretch out your arms to lovingly embrace those who it’s difficult to love. People who it’s not easy to be around and show compassion to. People who are constantly biting at you when you’re trying to love them. Yes, you will have those times where you say, you know what, forget this. This isn’t worth it. I’m done with these dumb sheep. I’m done trying to serve them. They just keep biting me. All I’m trying to do is feed them. But then, you’ll remember the grace you’ve been given by the great shepherd, despite your many failures, despite how many times you too, as a sheep, have bitten others and even him. And then you’ll remember his hands, which were stretched out for you upon a cross.

To overcome failure, you must recognize the depths of your failure. You must then, after you recognize that, receive God’s grace. And then you must reach out to the unlovable. And then, fourth and finally, you must refrain from wandering.

4. Refrain from Wandering

In verse 20, it says:

Peter turned and saw the disciple whom Jesus loved following them, the one who had also leaned back against him during the supper and had said, Lord, who is it that is going to betray you? When Peter saw him, he said to Jesus, Lord, what about this man? Jesus said to him, If it is my will that he remain until I come, what is that to you? You follow me.

John 21:20–22

After Jesus tells Peter how he would be martyred and then tells him to follow him anyways, Peter’s response is, oh, well, what about that guy? What’s going to happen with him? In which Jesus’ response is basically, Peter, don’t worry about it. It’s none of your business. What about yourself? See, here’s Peter, who is the disciple, remember, who walked on the water. As Jesus was walking on the water, he asked if he could come out to him. And Jesus said, Come on, Peter, come on out. So Peter walked on the water until he took his eyes off Jesus and started looking at the waves crashing around him. And so Peter is told again here by Jesus: Peter, follow me. Keep your eyes on me, Peter, not anybody else.

And what a reminder this is for us. The Apostle John is the one who Peter was asking about. And the Apostle John was called to a different path. He was called to a long life and to write the final book of the Bible, the book of Revelation. Well, Peter, he was called pastoral ministry and a martyr’s crown. Why? Why the different paths? It’s because though we all follow Jesus, every one of us has a different task, a different purpose, a different mission, and therefore a different path to follow. Which means don’t start looking at other people’s paths. Keep your eyes on Jesus and follow him. Don’t play the measurement game. It’s a pointless game to play, anyways, because we aren’t doing this in our own strength, anyways, but in his.

If you start taking your eyes off Jesus, you know what’s going to happen? One of two things: either you’ll start looking at others, and if you’ve had some success in your ministry or in following Jesus or whatever, you’re going to start getting an ego, and you’re going to begin to rely on your own strength, which Peter will tell you is an absolutely terrible idea. Second thing that might happen is you’re going to look at other people and you’re going to see how successful you are and start feeling like a failure. You’re going to look around at them and start envying what they’re doing, how God’s using them, and wishing you could do things that you were never meant to do, nor were you gifted by God to do. That’s why it’s pointless. And so, as Jesus said to Peter, “What is that to thee? Follow thou me.” If you’re here this morning and you’re feeling defeated, learn from Peter’s defeat. And through the grace of God, recognize the depths of your failure, receive God’s grace, reach out to the unlovable, and refrain from wandering.

When we began, I told you the story of the woman who lived in her shame and guilt because of her numerous past failures. But I didn’t tell you how that story ended. But in John 4, it does tell us. This woman one day goes to the well to draw water in the hottest part of the day by herself. See, normally the women would go in the cool of the day where it wasn’t so hot, but she wouldn’t dare do that because of how ostracized she was. And Jesus shows up and he tells her and shows her he knows it all. You don’t have to cover up and hide from me. I know the depths of your failure. And yet, still, even though Jesus knew her shame and guilt and her past mistakes, Jesus still offers her eternal life, saying this:

Everyone who drinks from this well will be thirsty again. But whoever drinks the water that I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water, welling up to eternal life.

John 4:13–14

If you try to deal with the guilt and shame from your past failures by drinking from some other well, you’re going to be thirsty. It’s not going to work. So instead, turn to the one who already knows about all your failures. The one who turned to the woman at the well and said that he knew about it all. And after this woman met Jesus and experienced the grace that he offered, she said, “Come and meet the man who knows everything that I ever did.” She became refreshed by the living water that he gave. And if you do that, you’ll find that there were never truer words than when Jesus said:

Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.

Matthew 11:28

Pray with me. Father, I thank you for this text. I thank you that you don’t leave us in our shame and in our guilt, which we rightly feel. That you offer us grace, costly grace, that required the shed blood of Jesus. Father, if there’s anyone here who doesn’t know you, who hasn’t received that grace, pray for them especially. You would heal them. Pray that they would be drawn to the beauty of Jesus. Father, if there’s a Christian here who has forgotten the grace that they’ve been given, I pray that they too would return to the cross and be reminded that it’s all been paid for, that all of their sin, even sin as bad as Peter’s, has been nailed to the cross, been completely forgiven by your grace. We praise you. We love you. We pray these things in Christ’s name. Amen.