LEARNING DAILY

Luke 22:32, “But I have prayed for you, that your faith should not fail; and when you have returned to Me, strengthen your brethren.”  Jesus

Usually, I write about the weekend message given at Community Bible Church on Monday. I missed this past weekend and am waiting for it to be put on their website. I did get to watch the message by Pastor Jonathon Moore given at NorthRock Church. His message was about telling Peter to throw his net on the other side of his boat after a long night of catching no fish. I have recently written about this so I won’t rewrite it. Remember Peter was reluctant to do what Jesus did; even though Peter doubted, he did as Jesus instructed and the net was full of fish.

Pastor Moore’s message was about failure, how people respond to failure, and how Jesus has a “track record of using imperfect people or people who have failed”. Go back and read the entire passage in Luke 5:1-11 that shows Peter being tired and discouraged and just did not want to go back out in the water to throw down the nets again. Read about him finally doing so and the result of his obedience. His reaction to the catch was recognizing his failures, falling at the feet of Jesus, and declaring he was a sinful man.

As Christians, we know that there is an enemy that does everything he can to disrupt our Christian testimony. His aim is to rob, kill, and destroy every person who is walking on a narrow way into God’s eternal kingdom. Jesus told His followers that they would have a difficult time walking on the narrow way. It is difficult because of this enemy, the traps and enticements of the world, the lust of the eyes and the flesh, and the pride within us that wants recognition and position. When we place our faith or trust or desires for any of these things, we stumble on this narrow way, we fail.

In my own life I have been amazed that after many failures, Jesus has “always presented me (you) with an opportunity to move forward” (Pastor Moore). It comes after the posture Peter assumed after his failure; “he fell to his knees and declared his sinfulness”. Pastor Moore stated in his message an important key in walking on this narrow way. Every believer must invite Jesus Christ into every aspect of our life – every day, not just when we are at church. Here is the importance of this – we never know when an opportunity will be presented to share Jesus with someone or be able to encourage another. It could be a family member who has watched you for a long period of time. It could be someone at the gym you have not talked to before. It could be the pastor of a church that you give a word of encouragement to about the work being done.

Pastor Moore spoke about doing what Jesus leads you to do even when it does not make sense. Go out again after a long night of failure? Really? Pastor said, “Like Peter, we may need to get off the shore, to get out of our comfort zone, and go to the deep” out of obedience. He said, “that means we need to get to the end of ‘me’ and do what Jesus leads us to do”.

Pastor Moore concluded his message with Luke 22:32. He said, “Jesus knew Peter would fail again”. Jesus knows you and I will fail again! Reread 1 John 1:9. “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” Have you memorized this? Do you follow this? Jesus has forgiven every sin you have and will commit. That should give us confidence to tell Him when we fail and get up and follow Him. That is what Peter did in this account!

Pastor Moore reminded us that Peter went from experiencing the miracle of catching a net full of fish to participating in a miracle where 5,000 plus were fed with just a few fish and a few loaves of bread. I don’t know about you but I have experienced the things Jesus has done in my life that I consider miracles and I want to participate with Him in miracles he wants to do in the lives of others!