What Happens When You Miss the Mark

When it comes to finding inspiration, Peter’s steadfast devotion to Jesus is like that empowering girlfriend we all connect with. His ‘ride or die’ spirit can really give us a boost, but sometimes life can throw curveballs that challenge us. That’s when grace kicks in. WE back in the ring sis, where you at?

I often wonder, though I see in scripture, especially in John, over and over again, where John goes out of his way to say that he was the disciple whom Jesus loved.
And I often wonder to myself, Whether or not John was true in his perception, not that he wasn’t someone who Jesus loved, but to go out of his way to say he was the one whom Jesus loved, suggests to me that he felt a little bit favoritism in his relationship with Jesus.
And while I certainly believe that that is the birthright of any of us, who are believers, we should feel like we are the favorite one.
You know, on the outside looking in, I do wonder, though, if he and Peter had a unique bond that has not fully been explored.
Because when I look at the dynamic between Peter and Jesus, I see over and over again how he allowed him insight and access that he didn’t necessarily give to the other disciples.
When I look in the scripture and I think to myself, what is the most powerful interaction between Jesus and Peter there are so many different moments that come to mind.
He healed his mother-in-law. He went out of his way to make sure that his mother-in-law was healed.
He also allowed him the opportunity to exercise whether or not he could walk on water.
We often talk about how Peter failed at walking on water as if we have jet skis on our feet, but the fact that Peter even had the audacity to ask whether or not he could do it.
And Jesus said, if you have the audacity to ask, I’ll create the opportunity for you to do it To me, there’s something powerful about their relationship that he knew that he could ask something of Jesus and that Jesus would fulfill it Now, maybe he didn’t keep the faith and maybe he could have worked harder, but he had a certain audacity that I don’t think we can underestimate what is the most powerful interact perhaps it’s at the amount of Tabar when he has the amount of transfiguration moment, and suddenly this Jesus that they have been following is now dazzling white and shining, and it is undeniable that Jesus is not just a good man.
He’s not just the anointed one, though, they thought that he was, but this is something that you’ve never seen before.
This is a glory that the world has yet to beholden he allowed Peter to be a part of that moment.
Was that the most powerful interaction? Maybe. Maybe it was the moment.
Where Jesus asks Peter, who do you say that I am?
And when Peter responds, he receives a new name because at the end of the day, Jesus tells him that this revelation is what I’m gonna build my church on and flesh and blood did not reveal this to you.
Peter and Jesus had a think I like Peter, and not just because they say he had a custom spirit on him because I am delivered.
And not just because he cut the ear off because I too am delivered.
One of my favorite moments, I think, perhaps the most powerful moment between Jesus and Peter, is in John 13, though there are other moments in the synoptic gospel that all that also covers it This moment in John 13 sticks out in my mind because it is the end of the last supper.
And Jesus has made clear his journey toward the cross.
They have had the first communion.
And I imagine when I try to depict what it was like to be in that room, that there was a real seriousness, a real sobriety, between Jesus and the disciples at this moment.
And I think the most powerful interaction that we see between Jesus and Peter takes place when Peter asked in John 13 whether or not he could follow Jesus where he was headed.
I didn’t give them this scripture, but I wanna read it to you for the sake of you fully understanding.
It’s in John 13 verse 37, And it says Peter said to him, lord, why can I not follow you now?
I will lay down my life for your sake.
And Jesus answered him, and he says, will you lay down your life for my sake?
Most first of all, y’all better. Okay.
Most assuredly, I say to you that the rooster shall not crow till you have denied me three times.
To me, this is the most powerful interaction between Jesus and Peter.
Not the moment where he had the opportunity to walk on water, not the moment where he was at the mount of transfiguration, not the moment where he healed his mother-in-law, not the moment where he gave the revelation.
This to me is the most powerful interaction because this is the moment in which Jesus tells Peter something about himself that he did not know he was capable of.
This is the moment where Jesus gives Peter insight about Peter that Peter himself doesn’t even know exist.
We love these moments where Jesus sees us as greater than we see ourselves.
Where our future and our destiny and our gifts and talents are more powerful than we could even imagine.
We love it when we feel like we’ve been sleep on ourselves.
But very rarely do we dig into those moments where Jesus tells us something about ourselves that doesn’t quite measure up to who we see ourselves as.
Like I’m loyal.
Like I have integrity, like you can count on me.
This is the most powerful interaction because Peter thinks highly of himself as a disciple.
He sees himself as one who can easily follow Jesus no matter where he goes.
I don’t care how dark the road is gonna be.
I can be with you, and yet, Jesus says that you cannot live up to your own intention.
Yeah.
Because who we intend to be and the impact of who we actually are sometimes have distance, your intention, and your impact.
We are responsible just as much for our intention as we are for our impact.
So it doesn’t fully matter what you mean if what you mean didn’t come out in the way that you delivered it.
Which is difficult for us to comprehend because, yes, you cannot control the way that a person experiences you.
And, yes, they need to do their own work but that does not give us license to just do and say whatever we want to say, well, I didn’t mean it that way.
If they took it that way, that’s on them No. No. No.
You are responsible for making sure that the way that I impacted you, the way that I said it, that I can stand by it in my intentions and in the presence of god, I am responsible for making sure that my intention and my impact align.
Which is why relationships become so challenging for us.
Not just our relationship with Jesus, but also our relationships with others.
Because there’s a certain level of humility required for us to make sure that our intentions are constantly aligning with our impact as much as possible when we’re parenting.
I like that. When we’re loving on one another, I have a responsibility to make sure that this all aligns because I recognize that in this season of my life, and the influence that god has given me.
And everyone if you know one person, you have influence, that that influence could be the very thing that makes or breaks who god is calling them to be.
I am responsible for my impact because I never wanna say or do anything that robs you from becoming who god has called you to be.
I recognize that when you recognize that you have been the villain in somebody’s story, it changes.
Everyone has been the victim. And we could shout all day about who did you wrong.
But if we were really honest, there are some of us who have been the villain in other people’s story and not because I meant to, but because I was so blind to the way that my words come out, I was so blind to my own brokenness that I hurt you in the process when you become aware that I can sometimes act in a way that even I don’t agree with and makes you listen differently when someone everyone is saying the same thing that you don’t know how to talk to people.
Maybe there’s nothing wrong with the hears. Maybe if I’m wrong with your mouth.
And you mean well, but you’re not always doing well.
I think that Paul unpacks this in great lengths in Romans 7.
He says, for I do not do the good I want to do.
But I do the evil. I do not want to do. Wait a minute.
I don’t do what I wanna do.
My intention is not showing up in my action.
I do the very thing that I don’t want to do, my impact. There’s a distance.
This I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not wanna do, it’s no longer I who do it.
But it is sin living in me that does it.
This word sin when you look it up in the Greek, it means Hermiti.
It means to miss the mark.
I’m, okay, I’m gonna say this.
Sometimes in church, not this church. Other churches.
We talk about other churches.
We reduce send down to maybe who you’re sleeping with it and whether or not you lie.
But when we see sin as missing the mark of who we are called to be, it humbles us because we recognize each day that I wake up.
There are moments where the thing I wanna do, I don’t do. I don’t wanna talk to you crazy.
I don’t wanna shut you I wanna be open. I wanna be honest.
I wanna be vulnerable, but the thing that I wanna do, I do not do.
And it is sin that is doing it in me.
What we saw those moments where we missed the mark as not as just being human, but as is actually sending, missing the mark on who god has called us to be.
As a partner who god has called us to be as a parent, who god has called us to be as a leader who god has called us to be as a friend.
I know it’s not on those sexy messages, but I’m telling you that you have to recognize that there is a possibility that you are missing the mark.
And if I’m missing the mark, What is it that needs to happen within me?
Where I do not compromise the mark because it requires too much communication, and it requires too much humility, and it requires a skill set.
And quite frankly, they don’t even deserve the version of me, uh, who I would be if I actually met the mark.
So now I’m meeting them mark instead of his mark, and they have become my lord instead of him my lord.
I am who I am regardless of who you are.
Sometimes I apologize not because you deserve it, but because I didn’t deserve to miss the mark in that way.
Yeah, you may have deserved that cousin, but I didn’t deserve to abandon my mission in order to get down on your level because when I get down on your level, I am no longer the mark And I can’t miss just because you missed.
There are some people I don’t wanna be even with.
I’m sorry.
I don’t I don’t wanna be on your level. I tried that. It didn’t work for me.
I don’t wanna be on your level. I who I was. I don’t wanna be on your level.
It left me better. I don’t wanna be on your level. It left me angry.
I don’t wanna be on your level. This generational curse can’t get broken if I stay on your level.
Even doing this in my family for generations. God has called me 2 different more.
So, yes, I’m sorry that I abandoned myself.
And, yes, I repent God because missed the mark when I went off.
And I read them fulfilled, but I came home dirty because I missed the mark.
Paul doesn’t just leave us there in Romans 7.
He tells us in Romans 8. That, yes, it is singe dwelling in me.
I am missing the mark because the sin that is dwelling in me, but in Romans 8 and 2, he lets us know for the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus, has made me free from the law of sin and death.
That means that though I have missed the mark because sin is dwelling in me, There is also something else dwelling inside of me.
And the spirit of god dwelling inside of me is going war with the sin that is living inside of me.
You can’t tell it, but you’re sitting next to somebody in a war zone because the sin that is dwelling within me is that war with the spirit of caught that is in me.
And I just wanted to let you know that you may be in the midst of the battle but the spirit of god does not lose.
And sometimes god allows that sin to come to the surface so that the spirit can get it on the front line.
Cause if you kits y’all sin on the front line, and you release the spirit of god over that sin.
Now god can go to war
with the thing that’s going
to war with your destiny.
Now can go to war with the thing that’s going to war with your family. Yeah.
Bring it out. Bring it out.
Bring it out. Because I got killed with something
that’s bigger than the sin dwelling within me.
The spirit of god.
That’s why I don’t wanna just be in a room with the spirit.
I gotta lift my hands and receive it. That’s why I don’t wanna just be around the spirit.
That’s why I say things like fill me
up. Until I overflow because I recognize that there is some stuff in me that’s gotta get out of me if I gonna be who god has called me to be.
I realized I got some abandonment issues.
I got some rejection issues.
I got a demon in the fight, and I can’t do it on my own.
Some of y’all sing fill me up. You singing song.
I’m making a request to god.
Fill me up god till I overflow. I wanna run over if I could sing out and run you out of this building because we would take about 10 seconds to ask god to feel us up until I hope a flow.
Cause I got sinned well and give me. I got pains well and give me. I’m carrying generational sin.
This sin didn’t even start with me.
I got my great grandmother sin down on the inside of me, but I gotta swear a cop that can chase it out of my blood line.
It’s called overflow. It’s called overflow.
You get filled with the spirit. Sometimes I lift my hands. I don’t even feel like it. I’m tired.
I’m depressed. I’m worried, but I lift my hands
because the spirit makes utterance on my have when I can’t say a word, I just lift my hands because it’s all I got, and it’s all Nikita.
This is a job for the spirit.
This is not a job I can think my way out of.
This is not a job I can play my way out of.
This is a job for the spirit. This sin is a job for the spirit.
This addiction is a job for the spirit. This lust is a job for the spirit.
Now when the spirit gets finished with me, I might be in rehab when the spirit gets finished with me.
I might be in therapy, but no matter where I go, it’s gotta start in the spirit because the spirit’s gonna finish this thing.
Because I gotta be free.
I gotta be free. I can’t do it bound. I can’t do it in bondage.
Of you, I can’t promote you because I’m
a be promoting a bound version of you. And where you go, you got to be free to create.
You gotta be free to think. You to be free to speak truth to power.
And if I send you a bound up. You mess around and
compromise when I’m calling you to set a new standard.