Disapproval: The Fear of Rejection

Message Description:

The longing for approval by man is a never-ending spiral, but with God there is acceptance as we bow our head and knee to Christ and receive His unconditional approval.

• Saved…but not “So Saved”
• Dr. Jeremiah’s message – “Disapproval: The Fear of Rejection”
• Next Time on Turning Point

This is one of the most interesting parts of the story in my estimation.
Luke 20 254 says, having arrested Jesus, they led him and brought him into the high priest house, but Peter followed at a distance.
Now, what’s going on here, class is this.
Peter wanted the approval of the followers of Jesus, for following Jesus.
But he didn’t want the disapproval of the Jews for following Jesus.
So he was concerned about what might happen to Jesus and he didn’t want it to happen to him.
So he followed at a distance.
That way, he could still be considered a follower of Jesus, but not following so close that if something happened to Jesus, it would happen to him.
Don’t shake your head like you’ve never been there and done that.
You all have done that, so have I.
It’s kinda like what somebody once told me about a person they knew, they said, he wanted to be saved, but he didn’t wanna be so saved.
Do you know what he meant by that?
You know, just just to kinda get in the kingdom, but don’t go any further than that, just to be saved, but don’t let don’t be fanatical about that.
Do you know what that’s where a lot of Christian people are in our churches?
They’re saved, they know they’re going to heaven, they’re pretty certain they’re not going to hell, their members of the church, and they’re saved, but they’re not so saved.
It doesn’t really affect a lot of how they live their lives. That’s where Peter was.
He was following afar. He was a follower of Jesus, but not really. Not really.
Let’s don’t go too far with this. That’s what double mindedness looks like in someone who fears man.
He fears man so much that he’s afraid to demonstrate total allegiance to Jesus.
In her time, she was a superstar of the cinema.
They didn’t come any more glamorous than Marlene Dietrich.
She began her career performing on the stages of Berlin in the silent films of the 19 twenties, and her success eventually brought her to Hollywood.
where she became a US citizen in 1939.
And at the height of her career, she commanded $200,000 per film, which is really small by today’s Hollywood standards, but it was huge in her day.
In 1999, some, 6 years later, after her peak of fame, the American Film Institute named Marlene Dietrich, the 9th greatest female star of all time.
But her true story is as heartbreaking as any film in which she ever performed.
You see, in spite of her success and acclaim, Dietrich was a conflicted soul.
She lived for the approval and applause of her adoring public.
When she invited guests to her home, believe it or not, she would play for them the recorded applause of the audiences present at her live performances.
no music, no words, just the sounds of cheers and applause.
Guests many of them equally famous, were forced to sit and listen as she identified the cities where the applause was recorded.
During her one marriage, she carried on a string of affairs with leading figures in Hollywood, going from man to man, she never found the fulfillment and approval she was looking for, and she even passed on to her husband, the love letters from her paramores, to show him how much they adored her.
Dietrich’s life in the spotlight ended in Sydney, Australia in 1975, when she fell off a stage and broke her thigh.
She became addicted to alcohol and pain killers, and she lived her final 11 years in loneliness and seclusion bedridden in a Paris apartment.
Humans have a built in longing for approval.
It originates probably in the human psyche where we have embedded the knowledge that we’re not what we were created to be.
that Romans 323 is accurate, that we have all sinned and fallen short of the glory of god.
Believing that we have lost god’s stamp of approval, we search everywhere for some affirmation, and the longing for approval is so strong that we spend our lives chasing after it, often sacrificing our values and priorities in order to get it.
It happens usually for the first time around as teens. We encounter peer pressure.
Then as young adults it’s people pleasing, and we’ve even invented a new term called codependency.
But it’s all roughly the same thing.
In every age group, people live in self imposed slavery to others and their opinions of us.
Now, the Bible has a name for this.
The Bible calls it the fear of man, the fear of man, King Solomon put it very well in a proverb that he wrote.
He said in proverbs 2925, the fear of man brings a snare, but whoever trusted the lord shall be safe.
In this message today, I wanna share with you a biblical character who shows us the danger of fearing man’s disapproval.
And the person I wanna talk with you about is the apostle, Peter, Store of Peter disowning Jesus 3 times is one of the best known in the Bible, and even is accorded as one of the best known stories in world literature.
We often think of Peter, we identify with him, because Peter was a guy who always put his foot in his mouth, every time he turned around, he always did stuff we we think, oh, I could have done that, you know.
He was impulsive. He was faithless on occasion. He was excitable.
But if you examine his life, the root of Peter’s weakness was his fear.
Peter feared disapproval so greatly that he let its shadow come between him and the lord that he loved.
And in the moment of all moments when he could have stood up for Jesus, He denied him three times, denying that he even knew him.
Now, by way of summary, here’s how it all happened. at Jesus last supper with his disciples.
He predicted that Peter would deny him three times before the rooster crowed, And shortly afterward, a band of soldiers and Jewish officials arrested Jesus in the Garden of Ghessemane and took him to the high priest.
Peter and some of the other disciples wanted to see what happened, and they followed at a distance.
And he and another disciple were allowed into the high priest courtyard to await the outcome of Jesus before the high priest.
While they waited, 3 different people ask Peter if he was one of Jesus disciples, and each time he denied it, After Peter’s 3rd denial, a rooster began to crow, just as Jesus had predicted, and Peter knew that he had done just exactly what Jesus said he would do.
Now Peter’s fear, you see, was rooted in the Jewish leaders disapproval of Jesus, and his followers.
He feared that their disapproval could easily result in his own arrest.
So he lied, and he denied knowing his leader, and the crowe of the rooster brought home to Peter what he had done in the Bible says he went out and he wept bitterly.
The reality of the fear of disapproval is on the night Jesus was arrested Peter countered people representing 3 different dynamics.
Let’s look at how he responded to all of them. These are all very interesting.
They’re unique, and yet Peter shows us what happens when we fear disapproval in every situation.
It begins with what we might call an unexpected fear. and John 1817 has the story.
The first person that Peter encountered was a servant girl at the high priest house who was assigned the task of keeping the door.
And she brought Peter into the courtyard, and she asked him, You are not also one of this man’s disciples, are you?
And caught off guard Peter just mumbled, the first thing that came to his mind, he said, I am not.
I am not. Peter, you see is the leader of Jesus disciples.
He had sworn that he would never deny Jesus, and now only a few short hours afterward, he’d already done it.
and it wasn’t in front of the emperor or someone he might understandably fear, he had just let an unexpected question from a young servant girl intimidate him to the point that he denied his allegiance to Jesus.
And before we condemn him too harshly, we should ask ourselves whether we have done the same thing.
Peter’s unexpected fear is a warning decide in advance what you believe.
Decide in advance who you are loyal to so that when you are under pressure, you don’t have to stop and consider what to do.
You already know what to do. It’s embedded in your soul.
Peter obviously was vacillating, trying to find his way he’d never really thought of being confronted for his faith in this matter.
And even though this girl had no power over him, nor authority, nor could she do anything to him if he had sworn allegiance to Jesus, because he wasn’t prepared, because he hadn’t thought it through, because he wasn’t ready.
He denied that he even knew Jesus. it was kind of an unexpected fear.
And then the next one is sort of an understandable fear, again, in the 18th chapter of John, we’re told the story, After leaving the servant girl, Peter moved quickly to disappear into a group of servants and officers who had made a fire of coals in the high priest courtyard, John 1818, and Peter stood with them and warmed himself.
This group was already in place when Peter showed up. He didn’t know any of these people, obviously.
He had no relationships with any of them, He just sort of nonchalantly and unobtrusively stood around the fire, sort of, to disappear among the group.
But he hadn’t been there for, but a moment, in verse 25 tells us that someone said, you are not also one of his disciples, are you?
And fear came over Peter and he lied a second time denying his association with Jesus.
Peter was caught in the classic peer pressure of one person being intimidated by a group.
That person said, you are not also one of his are you, and I see Peter looking around at all the eyes that are staring at him, not one of them friendly toward him, and he said, I am not.
flash back to your junior high school days.
You’re in a social setting with kids from your school and they offer you a cigarette or some alcohol or even a pill.
And you hesitate, and then the pressure starts, What are you afraid?
Hey, look, it’s mama’s boy, mister Goody two shoes. It’s probably past your bedtime kid.
Maybe you should call your mommy to come and get you. And so it goes.
on that moment hangs everything you’ve wanted since you were in the 2nd grade, respect, inclusion, acceptance, and status.
If you say yes, you’re in, and if you say no, there will be no more invitations to any parties to come your way.
And all of us are kinda shaking our heads up and down because we remember that.
We know what that was like.
And we see the pain of it in our own kids and grandkids, don’t we? We see that.
And you think, well, if they’re in a Christian school, you don’t have to worry about, though.
Oh, yes, you do. don’t don’t be put asleep by that idea.
Kids are under that kind of pressure all the time, and for a young person who wants to stand up for Jesus and be counted for him, and really make a difference in his or her life, they will not necessarily always be applauded by their so called Christian friends.
Can I get a witness? That’s true. So Peter’s in the same situation. He’s standing there.
Only he’s surrounded by those who don’t know who Jesus is.
And he’s asked this question, and once again, for the second time, he says, I’m not one of his.
Now, the third time is is the one that makes the most sense in many respects, but for you to understand this, I have to give you a little background to it.
This is what we’ll call an unsurprising fear.
Once again, it’s also in John chapter 18, but let me set the stage for what happened.
The 3rd accusation again Peter seems to have been the most threatening and the least surprising, it gives us another window into the nature of fear.
Now, if you remember, when the Jewish leaders came to get the 70 to arrest Jesus, they came with soldiers, And Peter wasn’t afraid then.
I mean, absolutely, he he took out his sword and he cut off the right ear of one of the servants.
The man’s name was Malcolm. a servant of the Jewish high priest.
And we look at that, and at first, we’re kind of surprised.
I mean, what does a fisherman need with a sword?
And I wonder if Peter was very good at it.
Most people think he tried to cut the guy’s head off, and he missed.
I’m thinking that’s probably not a good shot on this part.
Yeah, he was willing to risk his life at that moment there with Jesus and the others.
Perhaps he thought if he could wound or maim this man that it would give Jesus a chance to get away.
But the problem is that wasn’t the plan of god at all. That wasn’t what Jesus was there for.
And, uh, he rebuked Peter, and he told Peter to put his sword away.
And then Jesus reached out and healed Malcus’ ear.
Now, back to the courtyard of the high priest where Peter’s warming himself at the fire.
and he just become the center of attention when someone suggested that he was one of Jesus disciples.
And for the second time he had said, no, was suddenly, another high priest servant became very interested if you have your Bible’s open.
This is in verse 26. And one of the servants of the high priest a relative of him whose ear Peter cut off said, did not I see you in the garden with him?
Now, Peter knows he is in real trouble. This isn’t just an incidental.
This isn’t some servant girl or a bunch of strangers, Here’s a relative, a kinsman of the person who Peter cut the guys ear off.
But once again, Peter had to stick to his lie, and he denied again that he knew Jesus.
And verse 27 says, and immediately a rooster crows.
And Peter remembered what Jesus had said, he had so buried himself in his lies about Jesus that he couldn’t change it now.
How many of you know that when you tell one lie, you often have to tell another cover up the first one.
And before you know it, you’re just telling the same thing over and over again, at least trying to be consistent in your lying.
And that was Peter succumbing to the disapproval of men.
Now, you all know that story, and I’ve just kinda given you a refresher but let me go back now, and let’s take this apart and see if we can discover the reasons why Peter failed and why he succumbed to the fear of disapproval.
First thing we notice is that Peter was filled with himself.
When we fear others, it’s usually because we’re too enamored with ourselves.
It is clear from the biblical record that Peter was of energy and optimism and boldness and outspokenness and confidence, Peter was the kind of person who thought everyone was entitled to his opinion, even including Jesus.
On one occasion, he took Jesus aside and rebuked Jesus because Jesus said he was going to Jerusalem to die, and Peter rebuked him.
And of course, Peter was the one who jumped out of the boat when he saw Jesus walking on the water, basically, to say if you can do it, I can do it.
and he had to learn a little lesson there, as you remember.
So it’s not surprising that Peter boasted that he would never deny Jesus, and then Grassley took a sword out and maimed one of the enemy.
Peter was impulsive. He was prideful He was an embarrassing calamity just waiting to happen because he was all about himself.
He was into himself Peter was full of pride.
In fact, even Satan recognized the potential for Peter’s downfall And Luke records that the lord said, Simon Simon indeed Satan has asked for you that he may sift you as wheat.
But I have prayed for you that your faith should not fail, and when you have returned to me, strengthen your brethren.
I believe that Satan was allowed to access Peter for a very good reason.
Peter needed to see his own human weakness in order to learn that his strength was inadequate for following Jesus faithfully.
Peter had yet to learn what Paul learned that when we are weak, than we are strong.
Here’s another interesting thing that comes out of the greater context. He failed to pray.
It’s interesting that people who depend on themselves usually don’t pray, because what is prayer?
prayer is our declaration of dependence.
when we pray, what we’re saying is lord, I haven’t got this all sorted out yet, and I really need you.
If we think we’ve got it all sorted out, we’re not very prone to pray.
I mean, why would we pray? We don’t need god. we got it all together.
Well, it’s interesting that just after Peter boasted that he would never deny the lord, Jesus asked him and the other disciples to pray with him in Ghassemi saying, watch and pray lest you enter into temptation, the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.
This occurred immediately after Satan had asked for permission to attack Peter, and Jesus was trying to shield Peter by urging him to do the thing that would protect him.
and Peter failed three times to respond. He just didn’t pray. He fell asleep.
I mean, it’s hard to be motivated to pray when you think you don’t need to pray.
Prayers hard enough work when you are sensitive to the fact that you are needy and dependent, but when you don’t think you’re dependent, why would you pray?
so Peter didn’t pray. And isn’t that what Paul was thinking about when he wrote, let him who thinks he stands take heed, lest he fall, pride goes before a fall and a haughty spirit before destruction.
When we find ourselves fearful of others disapproval, it may be because we haven’t spent enough time in prayer reminding ourselves of our dependence on Christ.
Here’s the 3rd reason. We function in the energy of the flesh.
in Matthews account of what happened in Ghassemane, we know that Peter was walking in the energy of the flesh because most obviously, it was demonstrated by his attack on the high priest servant.
Peter wasn’t in the spirit when he did that, You say, wouldn’t god tell Peter to do it?
Absolutely not. No one in the high priest party had attacked Jesus?
Peter went on the offensive on his own, making an unprovoked attack with a sword.
What was he thinking? You see how absurd this is when Jesus responds. Listen.
All who take the sword will perish by the sword, or do you not think that I cannot now pray to my father, and he will provide me with more than 12 legions of angels, thousands of angels.
If I had been Peter, I would have turned beet red with embarrassment Here, I am a lowly fisherman, wielding a seldom used sword, trying to defend someone who had legions of angels waiting at his command to strike.
Give me a break. Why didn’t Jesus call his angels?
He didn’t call his angels because John 1836, my kingdom is not of this world.
If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would fight so that I should not be delivered to the Jews.
Here’s what Peter was doing, and we do it too. Peter was trying to help god out.
He was saying in essence, I don’t think the father in heaven can take care of the son on earth So I’m gonna have to intervene and help god.
And then when Jesus said, Peter, don’t be ridiculous. we don’t need your lousy sword.
I got all these angels. If I need help, I can just say a word. Put your sword away.
before you hurt somebody else. Isn’t that what we do sometimes?
We we see something and we go off half cocked in our own energy in own flesh, and we think we’re gonna fix it.
We don’t pray. So if we don’t pray, we don’t have any word from god.
So we get in a situation where we could be under pressure and we just go bull bull ahead, and then we get in trouble.
And that that’s Peter. That’s classic Peter. Here’s the 4th thing. we follow Jesus from afar.
This is one of the most interesting parts of the story in my estimation.
Luke 2254 says having arrested Jesus, they led him and brought him into the high priest house, but Peter followed at a distance.
Now, what’s going on here class is this.
Peter wanted the approval of the followers of Jesus, for following Jesus.
But he didn’t want the disapproval of the Jews for following Jesus.
So he was concerned about what might happen to Jesus and he didn’t want it to happen to him.
So he followed at a distance.
That way, he could still be considered a follower of Jesus, but not following so close that if something happened to Jesus, it would happen to him.
Don’t shake your head like you’ve never been there and done that.
You all have done that, so have I.
It’s kinda like what somebody once told me about a person they knew, they said, he wanted to be saved, but he didn’t wanna be so saved.
Do you know what he meant by that?
You know, just just to kinda get in the kingdom, but don’t go any further than that, just to be saved, but don’t let don’t be fanatical about that.
Do you know what that’s where a lot of Christian people are in our church They’re saved.
They know they’re going to heaven. They’re pretty certain they’re not going to hell.
They’re members of the church, and they’re saved, but they’re not so saved.
It doesn’t really affect a lot of how they live their lives. That’s where Peter was.
He was following afar. He was a follower of Jesus, but not really, not really let’s don’t go too far with this.
That’s what double mindedness looks like
in someone who fears man.
He fears man so much that he’s afraid to demonstrate total allegiance to Jesus.
I recall that struggle as a young Christian in high school.
I wanted to be approved by Jesus.
I was a Christian, but at the same time I wanted to be popular and I wanted to be approved by my peers.
The guys that I played basketball with and ran track with were not Christians.
when I was with them, their agenda was much different than mine could ever be.
But in order for me to fit in, I felt like I had this sort of And therefore, a while as a student in high school, I was living 2 lives.
I had my life that I lived at home with my parents, My father was a pastor and the kids that went to church.
And then I had the life that I lived at school with all the people that didn’t go to church.
Unfortunately, that there were some crossovers, and they got me in trouble.
Unfortunately, there were some kids that went to church and and in my attempt to try to marry these 2 worlds, I made some serious mistakes, and some of you have heard me tell a story of when I when I got caught, I was, uh, playing a high school basketball game in a little gym that was in the town that I grew up and and, uh, it was a gym that where the door kind of opened out into the street and it was the winner and some kids, some people had come in and they hadn’t gotten the water off the floor.
And I was out in a fast break, and I hit the the water and I skidded, and, uh, I, I skidded over into a corner, and there were a bunch of Cedarville College students, my father was the president of Cedarville College, all standing down looking at me and not really realizing who they were, I uttered a word that should never come out of the mouth of a young man who’s related to the president of Cedarville College.
And all of a sudden, I realized these people know I’m a phony.
And I remember that night as if it were yesterday.
I went home in my little bedroom and got on my knees.
We had bunk beds, and I I was down on the bottom.
I got on my knees before before the lord, and I said, god, I’m really tired of this.
I can’t live like this. I wanna get both of my feet on the same side of the fence once and for all.
And I did, and it wasn’t an easy thing.
I’m not going to tell you I didn’t have any relapses, but that’s where our kids are today.
That’s where we all are. you cannot live in both worlds, as we’re going to see in just a moment.
If we’re not careful, we follow Jesus afar off And then, number 5, we find our fellowship in the wrong place.
Notice John 18 again. We step back from the or John Paints of Jesus arrest, and we see 2 groups of people, Jesus and his disciples in the garden.
and the servants and the soldiers of the high priest entering the garden. And the 2 groups are essentially enemies.
Now, fast forward, maybe an hour, and we find a very curious scene.
Peter is now standing in the midst of the courtyard with the people who just arrested his lord, and he’s warming himself by their fire.
Is it any wonder? that he couldn’t come out for Jesus.
He had, in so many ways, switched sides.
because of his fear of what they might do to him, because of what they had done to Jesus, he’s over here on their side trying to make peace with them so that the same thing that’s going to happen to Jesus doesn’t happen to him.
And so It’s a reminder to us that who we hang out with usually has something to do with how we function.
If you can hang out with people that don’t know the lord and be called and strong in your testimony so that they know who you are from the outset, then you have a chance.
But if you try to morph into their group and be with them and a part of them, It won’t be very long before you will be doing things you do not wish to do just so you can be approved by the group you’re hanging out with.
Be very careful about the friends you cultivate and the time you spend with people who are out to take you away from your faith.
I’m not saying don’t be friends with unbelievers. That’s one of the big problems we have in the church.
We can’t get anybody saved because we don’t know anybody that needs to be saved.
We’ve never cultivate friendships with unbelievers. We need to do that, but you cannot allow them to set the agenda.
That’s what I’m saying. you have to be strong. You have to declare your faith.
You have to walk in there, and in some way, they need to know who you are and what you stand for, and then you can function in the group.
But if you don’t allow that to happen, you will be victimized.
Those are the realities of the fear of disapproval and some of the reasons for it, I wanna finish up with some resolutions to help us get on the other side of it.
And there’s an act 3 to all of this, and it’s in the 21st chapter of John.
So if you have your Bible, just turn over a few pages.
John chapter 21 is one of my favorite chapters in the Bible.
because in this chapter, we see the grace and mercy and love of almighty god.
I have to tell you that after Jesus resurrection Peter probably thought his chances of finding a place in the kingdom were slim and none.
So he and some of the other disciples went back to galilee, and he’s gonna take up fishing again, going back to his original his original habits.
But Jesus would have none of it, And the Bible tells us in John 21, that Jesus went after Peter, and he met him and the other disciples on the shore of the sea of Galilee And it was there that Peter discovered this good news, that even though he had miserably failed the lord in the test of loyalty, it was possible to be restored.
And here’s what Jesus did for Peter and what he can do for us.
Replace our fear of others with his approval of us.
You know what Romans 831 says, it says, if god before us, who can be against us?
Say that with me. If god before us who can be against us. Jesus did not abandon Peter.
He pursued him, had Peter’s rejection in the shadow of the cross, cut him off from fellowship, as a matter of fact, Jesus decreed that it did not.
Jesus’s goal was to replace Peter’s fear of men with his own approval.
And once Peter knew that Jesus had forgiven him, he had no reasons to fear what others might say or do.
He was back in the good graces of his master.
I want you to know all of us who at one time or another have been afraid of disapproval and have in our own way denied the lord, all we have to do is come back and ask for forgiveness, and the lord will forgive us And as we’re going to see, he can do more than forgive us, he can change us.
The next thing I notice that we can do is to replace our fear of others with our love for him.
As you read John chapter 21, you read about this interchange between Jesus and Peter, and three times in three verses Jesus asks Peter the same question.
He says, Peter, do you love me? Do you love me? Do you love me?
And you can almost sense in Peter’s response. He’s a little annoyed by it.
Jesus, you know that I love you, and I know all the nuances about the Greek words there, but it’s not my purpose to go into all that today.
but simply to say that Jesus came alongside of Peter after his failure and three times He solicited a response from Peter to solidify the relationship that he had with him in love.
Thirdly, replace our fear of others with love for others.
When Peter answered the question that he loved of the lord and he Lord, you know, that I love you.
Jesus told him to do something again, three times. In a little different wording, he said, tend my sheep.
feed my sheep, take care of my sheep. You say, what is that all about?
Well, Jesus is saying to Peter now, now that you’ve got straight now that you know where your loyalty lies, live out your life for others.
And when you’re so involved in serving god in the lives of other people, you don’t have time to be afraid of what they say.
Here’s the dynamic here, you guys.
If you’re afraid of what people will say, there’s no way you’re ever gonna be able to serve them.
But if you know who god is and what he has done in your life and you’re strong and secure in his approval of your life, you’ve maybe messed up, but you’ve sensed his forgiveness.
Now you’re set free to help others and to be an encouragement to them.
And in the very process of helping others, you strengthen your faith.
I remember, uh, thinking through this this past week, and I wrote down in my notes, these words when we love others, life is no longer about us, and the fear of disapproval is driven away.
Number 4, we can replace our fear of others with faith in him.
Jesus now gives Peter a little forecast of his life. Peter’s come through this test.
He’s now been forgiven, and now you think, well, now it’s Peter going to sail right on into eternity with no issues.
And know the lord Jesus said, Peter, I want you to know this.
Now that you’ve come through this test, I want you to know life is not going to be easy for you.
He said to him in John 21, 18 19.
But, Peter, when you are old, you will stretch out your hands, and another will gird you and carry you where you do not wish.
This Jesus spoke signifying by what death Peter would glorify god.
And if you know the story, the secular historians tell us how it happened Peter was arrested, and they crucified him.
But before he was crucified, he requested that he be hung upside down because he did not believe that he was worthy to be crucified in the same way that Jesus was.
He faced a lot of other tests The lord Jesus said to Peter, you’re gonna face some challenges in essence.
In the world, you will have tribulation, but the rest of that is be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.
We need to not be, uh, naive about what we’re facing in our world today, men and women.
We’ve got to get it straight that our loyalty belongs to god, or we’ll be all over the place.
Every week, we are tested about this. Where do we stand with the lord?
I want to encourage you to take take energy from Peter here.
Peter was an man who failed, but he got it right, and he came back.
And let me tell you what happened after that. Peter was a changed man.
I remember, uh, after a Monday night NFL Football game back in 1990, something happened in the NFL for the very first time.
Uh, the San Francisco 40 niners in the New York Giants completed their game, and a group of 8 players, some from both teams gathered near the center of the field, and they knelt on one knee, and they prayed together in the name of the lord Jesus Christ.
first time that it ever happened.
And the practice caught on and soon other players began gathering on the field to pray after their games.
And to no one surprise, not everybody supported the idea of mixing your faith with football.
Sports illustrated the iconic Sports Magazine said the players should pray in private.
NFL Management considered prohibiting the practice but the players made it known that they would not budge, and that they would continue to pray after all the games.
And some of them said, if you find us, we will gladly pay the fine.
So I’ve had to ask myself this question, if Peter were in the NFL, and I think he’d be a linebacker I don’t know about that.
I don’t know where that came from. I just thought that up. Here’s the question.
Would he maintain his faith in the face of media and spectator approval? What he have?
In the beginning, he would not. In the beginning, he would not.
In the beginning, he would have never seen him out there on one knee praying after a football game.
what after god got done with him, and after he saw what had happened, I believe at the end, he would have led the prayer meeting.
Don’t you? he would have been standing up with both hands up in the air and saying, bring it on.
And the reason I know that is because after Peter was restored by the lord and took a new look at what god had called him to do.
He was a changed person. I don’t have time to tell you all that happened except that with the other disciples, he preached a powerful sermon to the massive crowds in Jerusalem who were gathered on the day of Pentecost, And when he got done, he gave this he gave this conclusion to his sermon.
See if this sounds like Peter before or, Peter, after. Here’s what he said.
Therefore, let all the house of Israel know assuredly that god has made this Jesus whom you crucified both lord and Christ.
And the Bible says the the sermon was so powerful that people came from everywhere, and 3000 souls were converted on that day.
And the Bible says later on, as he was preaching that they watched him, and Acts 4 13 says, when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, listen, the boldness of this man who was afraid.
When they saw his boldness, they perceived that they were uneducated and untrained men, and they marvelled.
Here’s Peter failing because of his fear, and here’s Peter excelling because of his faith.
And we have to live our lives out in one of the two ways, don’t we?
We either live in fear or we live in faith.
I can’t tell you that you can reproduce Peter’s journey. None of us can.
All of us will experience some of the emotions that Peter experienced.
But what I can tell you is this, we can, every one of us ask for the boldness of Peter.
We can ask god to give us boldness in our lives is confined as that may seem to us.
I promise you sometime this week, whatever you do wherever you go, you will have an opportunity to declare your faith.
You won’t have to push it on anyone.
You will just have to be normally a Christian, and you will be tempted to water it down.
Have you ever watched people pray in a restaurant who aren’t sure whether they want to or not?
the what their head like this and say a quick prayer.
I believe when we get to heaven, we’re gonna find out the shortest prayers ever prayed.
We’re prayed in a restaurant. On the other hand, I had a friend that used to preach for me years ago, who thought that he should make up for all of this, by standing up in the restaurant and praying for the whole restaurant to hear, which was not not the right thing to do either.
I never wanted to go eat with him because, uh, I just Why don’t you come over to a house?
We’ll have a sandwich at my house tonight. Right?
On the other hand, have you ever been in a restaurant where you saw a family, maybe a mom and dad, 2 or 3 kids, and without making a big deal out of it, they just join hands around the table.
And before they eat, they say a prayer.
And I tell you what, I almost want to cry every time I see it because I see it less and less than I used to.
men and women, we don’t have to be ashamed of our faith.
We don’t have to be bullnosed about it or, uh, we don’t have to be belligerent or obnoxious but we need to stand up for what we believe.
And we can’t let this secular culture in which we live, push us around and make us something that we’re not.
We are children of the king.
We can stand with our hands up and our heads up high, and we can go on So when you’re tempted to be afraid of disapproval, just remember who approves you.
And the one who approves you is the only approval you really need. Here’s how it works.
if you are in the right fear relationship with god, you need fear. No man.
If you know who god is, and you understand how important he is.
And if god has approved you, you don’t need anybody else’s approval.
If god is for us who can be against us.
So with that confidence in our hearts, let’s don’t cower when the pressure’s on.
Let’s live for god with joy in our hearts, and you can do it in such a natural way.
Declare your faith as you have opportunity. Don’t have to be ashamed of it.
The greatest thing that’s ever happened to me in my life is when I met Jesus Christ as my savior, why would I wanna bury that under the debris of all the other things that happened to me?
I want it to be top on top. I’m not ashamed of Jesus Christ.
Thank god he wasn’t ashamed of me.
One of the great comforts in scripture is Romans 831.
If god is for us, who can be against us.
It is god’s remedy for the fear of rejection for those of us who have placed our faith in him.
I pray that you’ve done that, that you’re living boldly for God and that you’re assured of his approval, regardless of any disapproval you may face in this life.
No earthly rejection can compare with god’s rock solid approval.
the only approval that really matters.
If you’ve made that decision but want to know more about living the Christian life, let me send you 2 resource I think you’ll find helpful.
A booklet called Your Greatest Turning Point And Our Monthly Devotional Magazine entitled turning points.
We’ll send them both to you at no charge if you take a moment to contact us today at Turning Point.
Next time on Turning Point.
adversity is a part of life. We don’t get a different out through life because we’re Christians.
We are on the same road with the same adversity that everybody else has.
The difference is He’s in our boat. He’s in our car. He’s with us.
Thank you for being with us today. Join to Jeremiah next time for his message.
Danger, the fear of sudden trouble.
Here on Turning Point.