[0:00] All right. Thank you again for joining us today. Go ahead and open your Bibles to the Gospel! of John chapter 21. And I'm going to say this now before I forget, but Cindy just reminded me! that after the children's program today, after the musical tonight, there is a fellowship in the fellowship hall. And so bring some finger foods with you for that. Okay? All right. Now, Cindy, I won't forget. There we go. All right. Well, the story that we're looking at today, this event that took place, is a story of restoration. It's Peter being restored back to his apostleship, to the gospel ministry that Christ had called him to. And everyone loves a good restoration project, right? Maybe not to actually put your hands on it and restore things yourself, if you're like me. But at least we all like to see the before and after pictures or the videos, you know, on social media. I don't know about you guys, but I'll get caught watching these videos of people restoring things. There's this one guy I found. He restored his old baseball gloves. It's really, it's amazing to see the difference in a, you know, nasty, dirty old baseball glove and one that's been cleaned and restored to its former beauty. It's pretty cool. I've restored something before. I restored a kitchen table that we have. We still use it to this day, so it's still standing.
[1:25] That's positive. And when I say restored, I want you to understand, I mean that in the most simplest of senses possible. I took the top layer off, refinished it, and now we have a kitchen table that isn't scuffed up and nasty. But I learned some things about restoration. One, furniture restoration is not as easy as it looks on those videos. Take some time. Take some elbow grease. Number two, the clear coat and a sander, you'd think it just goes right through it, but man, you go through sandpaper like crazy. To get through that, that clear coat, it kind of gums up. It's not, I mean, maybe I'm doing it wrong. Somebody can tell me later. But the other thing is that takes patience. It's not a project that you can do and be done with in one day. You have to work it over time. I made the mistake of starting that project before we moved away from Texas, which means it took about four months into being here before I finally got back to it. So it really, I really spaced it out, you know. So that was a lesson too. But that's the most I've ever restored. I have nothing special. But this week, I reached out to a handful of guys who I figured were handy and had probably restored some things. And I talked with Tommy
[2:34] Wynn. So Tommy is, in case you don't know, extremely handy. And he has restored a handful of vehicles, right? A handful. And I asked him, I said, Tommy, what was your favorite restoration project? And he said that there was this 1964 and a half, which I didn't know they did half years for cars, 1964 and a half Ford Mustang convertible that he restored. All right. And when he got it, the car looked like this, if I can get this there, yeah, looked like that. Which, if you are like me at all, you see that and you go, that's messed up. Just walk away, you know. But if you're like Tommy, you see that and you're like, no way, that's a 1964 and a half Ford Mustang. You can see the beauty in it.
[3:19] And so he spent, he told me, he spent about three years restoring this car. And that was not just because, um, he moved. He didn't know it was because, you know, you space things out. You buy things when you have some extra income to buy things and you take your time with it. He told me he touched probably every nut and bolt in this car. And, uh, by the end of it, by the end of it, produced a pretty beautiful project. Okay. Look at that. Yeah. He said he won an award for this, by the way. So yeah, good job. All right. Yeah. All right. It's beautiful. It's beautiful.
[3:57] Like the before and after it's stunning, the difference, like from that to something he drove on the road. You know what I mean? Like that's unbelievable. It's unbelievable. Uh, but we all love these restoration projects. We love these restoration videos before and after it's a beautiful thing. And the reality is we're restoration projects ourself, right? We are fallen people.
[4:16] We are human beings who are capable of messing up, have messed up, and will mess up again in the future. And each time we do, we have to be restored back to right fellowship with our relationship with God. And when we sin publicly, we have to be restored to right fellowship with fellow believers in the church. It's an important thing. We are restoration projects. And God is patient. He doesn't leave us in this old, dilapidated, guilt-ridden, shame-filled state. He doesn't leave us here, right? He takes us from that and he turns us into something even more beautiful than this 1964 and a half Ford Mustang. The work of restoration is God's work of grace in our lives. He doesn't leave us in a place of shame and doubt and fear and guilt. He restores us to right relationship with himself and with others. And take Peter, for example, okay? And that's, that's who we're talking about today.
[5:11] Peter made a pretty big mistake. He sinned in a very public way. He denied Jesus three times. Remember this? He denied Jesus on the night of Jesus's trial three times. And this wasn't a minor incident. It was a public ordeal. And in the gospels, in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, it's one of the few stories that's mentioned in each of the four gospels. It impacted the other disciples greatly. That Judas would betray betray Jesus. And then Peter, the one who was supposed to be strong, he was supposed to be the leader, he was supposed to have faith. It impacted them greatly that Peter fell. He fell dramatically and he fell publicly. But have you ever thought about how similar Peter and Judas are in that way?
[5:56] Yeah, Judas betrayed Jesus. He sold Jesus out. But on that same night, Peter denied Jesus three times publicly after he had promised to go die with Jesus if it took that. He, he got scared, right? He let fear win. He let the fear of man fall. And when he had the fall on him, and when he had the opportunity to stand firm, to honor Christ, to stand alongside Christ, he, he failed. He caved.
[6:23] At this point that we're looking at in the story, Jesus has already met with Peter personally, privately. And Jesus has already seen Peter with the other disciples twice. And now this is the third time that, that Jesus is encountering Peter. We can assume that Jesus had already had the conversation with Peter. Like Peter had already gone to Jesus and asked for forgiveness. I'm sorry, I'm sorry I denied you. I'm sorry I lied to you. And Jesus told him that he was forgiven. He had that private moment of confession with Jesus where he told him that he was forgiven. He knew that he was forgiven. But now, Peter needed to be restored publicly. His sin was public. It was well known. The disciples knew it.
[7:08] They were ashamed of it. How could they trust him again? How could they follow him again? So Jesus knew that. He knew their heart. He knew Peter's heart. And we have this tendency too, as human beings, where when we've messed up in a big way, it takes us a long time to not think about that mistake again, right? I'm scared I'm going to fall again. I'm scared I'm going to make that mistake again. We let the guilt and the shame remind us constantly that we're not good enough, that, that, that God hasn't forgiven us enough, that, that we're not worth anything. We have a tendency to do that. And so Jesus, knowing those things, he didn't stop there with a private moment of forgiveness where Peter knew he was forgiven. He went public with it. He told the disciples that, that Peter was restored back to a proper relationship. Restoration is a great thing, but we have to trust the restoring and redeeming work of Jesus Christ in our lives if we're going to be effective in what he's called us to do and who he's called us in being who he's called us to be.
[8:06] The work of restoration and the call to endure in the faith, it all relies on a deep and abiding love for Jesus. And that's what we see here in this passage, a deep and abiding love for Jesus. So would you stand with me while I read the passage for today?
[8:26] John 20, 21, 15 through 19 says, And when they had eaten breakfast, Jesus asked Simon Peter, Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these? Yes, Lord, he said to him, you know that I love you.
[8:41] Feed my lambs, he told him. A second time he asked him, Simon, son of John, do you love me? Yes, Lord, he said to him, you know that I love you. Shepherd my sheep, he told him. He asked him the third time, Simon, son of John, do you love me? Peter was grieved that he asked him the third time, do you love me? He said, Lord, you know everything. You know that I love you. Feed my sheep, Jesus said.
[9:07] Truly, I tell you, when you were younger, you would tie your belt and walk wherever you wanted. But when you grow old, you will stretch out your hands and someone else will tie you and carry you where you don't want to go. He said this to indicate by what kind of death Peter would glorify God.
[9:24] After saying this, he told him, follow me. Would you pray with me? Dear God, we pray for your blessings as we continue to study your word and your truth today. Meet with us, oh God. Open our eyes, open our hearts to know you more. We love you, and it's in Jesus' name that we pray. Amen. You can be seated.
[9:48] So, we know the backstory that Peter's denied Jesus, and it's a good thing that we do because this would be a really odd moment in scripture if we didn't have that backstory. It's one of those things that context is helpful, to know that Peter had denied Jesus. Now, I'm going to read for us from Luke 22, verses 54 through 62, the scene where Peter did deny Jesus. It says, they seized him, led him away, and brought him into the high priest's house. Meanwhile, Peter was following at a distance.
[10:15] They lit a fire in the middle of the courtyard and sat down together, and Peter sat among them. By the way, it's interesting, and I'll go to this in a second, but John, in his gospel, tells us that the fire that Peter was sitting around was a charcoal fire. So, when he came to the beach, and Jesus had prepared fish and bread on a charcoal fire, do you think Peter knew? Do you think Peter went back in his mind to that smell of the charcoal burning? And it reminded him of the scene where he had denied Jesus.
[10:41] Peter sat among them. When a servant saw him sitting in the light and looked closely at him, she said, this man was with him too, but he denied it. Woman, I don't know him. After a little while, someone else saw him and said, you're one of them too. Man, I am not, Peter said. About an hour later, another kept insisting, this man was certainly with him, since he's also a Galilean. But Peter said, man, I don't know what you're talking about. Immediately, while he was still speaking, a rooster crowed. Then the Lord turned and looked at Peter. So Peter remembered the word of the Lord, how he had said to him, before the rooster crows today, you will deny me three times. And he went outside and wept bitterly. You know, Peter was once the man who had boldly proclaimed Jesus as the Messiah. If you remember in Matthew chapter 16, it says, when Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, who do people say that the Son of Man is? They replied, some say John the Baptist, others Elijah, still others Jeremiah or one of the prophets. But you, he asked them, who do you say that I am?
[11:41] Simon Peter answered, you are the Messiah, the Son of the living God. And Jesus responded, blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, because flesh and blood did not reveal this to you, but my Father in heaven. And I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overpower it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom, and whatever you bind on earth will have been bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will have been loosed in heaven. Peter knew who Christ was. Peter loved Jesus Christ. He even promised to lay down his life for Jesus Christ, yet in the moment when push came to shove, when he had the opportunity to stand firm, stand tall, and announce publicly his relationship with Jesus, his friendship with Jesus, he denied him instead. And Peter's story is not uncommon. It's a sad thing, but it's not uncommon. Too often there are people who have genuine hearts of love for God, like Peter did. Peter genuinely loved Jesus. But in moments of intense temptation, or because of the fear of man, or whatever it is that comes up in our life, people will do what
[12:52] Peter did and deny their Lord. And when we fall into sin, when we live in sin, what we're doing is we are denying the Lordship of Jesus Christ. We are, in effect, telling him, your ways and your word is not sufficient for me. My way and my word is better. So we deny his Lordship. When we sin, we deny his Lordship. We deny Christ. And when people fall into temptation, when we fall into temptation, there's a need for restoration. So why is it that restoration is essential? One, we need restoration because we are full of shame. We have a tendency to fall, and we have a tendency to fall hard. If we're not picked back up and restored to fellowship with God privately, personally, or when it's a public ordeal with the fellowship of the church publicly, we can turn an incident into a catastrophe. We can continue to fall in that sin pattern over and over again. We remind ourselves that we're not trustworthy, that we can't be trusted. We'll fall again. We'll mess up again. People say they forgive us, but we have a hard time believing that people have forgiven us. We have a tendency to be filled with shame and guilt over our sin. And so restoration is essential for the believer. Number two, we need restoration because we're broken people. We're broken people because when we don't confess our sin, when we don't submit to accountability, when we don't repent of our sin and turn from our sin, we have this other tendency to live in private sin consistently, secretly, so that no one knows. And then one day what ends up happening is that person who's had a private sin struggle for many years fails in a major way, and everybody's shocked. But in reality, they've been living in unrepentant sin for years and years and years, and there's been no accountability. There's been no repentance, and therefore there's been no restoration. We need restoration because we're broken people. We're capable of continuing to fall into the pattern of sin. The only way to break the cycle of private sin that becomes public sin is if we are restored, if we repent and are restored. The third thing, though, is that we need restoration for the sake of others. We need to be restored for the sake of others. The restoration of Peter is a perfect example of this because, like I said, this was a public ordeal. All of the other disciples knew that
[15:24] Peter had fallen and that he had fallen hard. They knew that it was a big deal that he denied Jesus. They would have been shocked, probably as shocked as Peter, when Jesus told him at dinner that he would deny him. Right? That would have been a shocking thing because of who Peter is. Peter's the tough guy. Peter's the fisherman. Like, fishhooks, they don't scare him. You know what I mean? Like, he was the one that carried a sword. He was ready to fight. How is it that Peter, the tough guy, the faith guy, the leader, how is it that he would fall and deny Jesus? That doesn't even make sense. And yet, he did. And so, Jesus, who had already told Peter who he would be, the rock that he'll build his church on, right? That now he's not Simon, he's Peter. He already told him that he was going to lead the church on his behalf for him on earth. Peter was called to lead the apostles and to lead the early church. The only way for him to do that and the only way for the other apostles to get behind Peter and trust his leadership was if they had seen him publicly restored by Jesus Christ. So, we need restoration for the sake of others, right? If we know of someone who fell in a big way, in a private, in a public way, a sinful mistake that took place, the only way that we'll trust them to serve faithfully in the church, trust that they're not going to do the same thing again, is if we see a repentant heart, a love for Christ and restoration in the church, right? And this extends beyond the life of the church, okay? Consider the story of a president of a non-profit. He'd led his non-profit faithfully for many, many years. He was known and trusted. The board loved him and believed in him. And his staff loved him and believed in him. And he had served his staff, he had served his constituents of the non-profit faithfully for many, many years. But when he became incapacitated and unable to work for a period of time, some in the organization saw it as an opportunity to take the power for themselves.
[17:23] They saw this as an opportunity to get him out. So, they drug his name through the mud, created lies about him when he couldn't defend himself, created lies about his family, all so that they could prop themselves up as the new leaders of this non-profit. In doing so, they caused the president incredible harm and harmed his family greatly. His staff never spoke up and never came to his defense, and neither did the people that he had served as the president of this non-profit.
[17:50] Years later, one of the staff members was filled with guilt because of the way that things were handled. He approached the ex-president, went to his house, and tearfully apologized and begged for forgiveness for his cowardice for not standing up and defending him when he knew that things weren't being handled the right way. Now, the president of that non-profit, or the ex-president of that non-profit, he could have responded in a couple of ways. Option number one, which many of us, including myself sometimes, unfortunately, would take, is pile it on, right? Make that guy feel even worse, you know? Really pile on the guilt, you know? Yeah, you did let me down, that did hurt me, and then just leave it at that. Option two is reprove the individual, hold him accountable for where he failed, but forgive him. The president, in this case, took option two. He took the second route. He did explain, yeah, what happened was hurtful, but you coming here, repentant, begging for forgiveness, tearfully, how can I not forgive you? Obviously, God has worked in his life, and so that relationship had been restored. The president needed to see, after years and years of hurt, and believing that this person didn't stand up for him, and didn't believe in him, now he sees that it was a moment of weakness, and that person was repentant and sorrowful for it. And in the same way, the staff member needed to hear the president know that he had forgiven him, right? That he really did, that he was sorry, that he didn't mean to do what he had done, that he was sorry for it, he was heartbroken. And that is a beautiful picture of restoration.
[19:24] That relationship was restored, and both individuals left there with full trust in one another again. That's the type of restoration that's possible for those in Christ. We have a tendency to believe that when relationships are severed, and relationships are broken, that's it.
[19:41] They're done, right? There's no use in fighting for that relationship again. There's no use in reaching back out to that person again. They wouldn't want to hear from me anyways. They don't want to hear how sorry I am anyways. But as Christ followers, we have a responsibility to see people and hear the repentant heart, and forgive them when they've wronged us, and in the same way, repent and ask for forgiveness when we've wronged others. And this leads us to the text that we're looking at today.
[20:09] Jesus addresses this issue of restoration with Peter with three questions and answers, and then three commands. So the questions and answers, number one, do you love me more than these? The answer, yes, Lord. Number two, do you love me? The answer, yes, Lord.
[20:26] Number three, do you love me? And the answer was, Lord, you know everything. You know that I love you. These questions, there's some variance in the Greek, but that's not really relevant. The point is, Jesus is asking Peter three times, do you love me? And Peter's answering three times, yes, I do.
[20:43] All right, but the first question, why did he ask, do you love me more than these? You see, Peter had claimed a superior love over the other apostles. So Jesus is actually asking him, do you love me more than the others do? These others who didn't publicly deny me, do you really? It's kind of like Jesus asking, do you want to reevaluate what you said? Do you really love me more than the others do?
[21:06] And this is what we're talking about here in John chapter 13. Lord Simon Peter said to him, where are you going? Jesus answered, where I'm going, you cannot follow me now, but you will follow later. Lord, Peter asked, why can't I follow you now? I will lay down my life for you. Jesus said, will you lay down your life for me? Truly I tell you, a rooster will not crow until you've denied me three times. So Jesus was asking Peter to reevaluate his love. And Peter, in his response, refused to compare himself to others, and he simply told Jesus that he did love him. The first question there was for Peter to do some soul searching. It was also restorative. It was for Peter to publicly say, to publicly proclaim that he does love Jesus. You know, sometimes when we've fallen in a private way or in a public way, we have to be able to say after that, I do love Jesus. I made a mistake, but I do love the Lord Jesus Christ. When we sin against Christ, we have to remind ourselves that we have a deep and abiding love for him. Because how else will we live for him? If we don't love Christ, how will we live for Christ? We have to love him more than we love sin. So Jesus knows the human heart, he knows that we need to remind ourselves of these things and build up this integrity before the trials really come. And that's what Peter needed to do, was build up this integrity, to build up this resistance, or, you know, the ability to know and believe and trust that he does love Christ supremely, so that whenever trials do come, he can rest on his love for Jesus. So he asked Peter a second time,
[22:47] Peter had to be grounded in his love for Christ. If he were to accomplish the purpose that was set out for him. And by the time Jesus asked Peter a third time, Peter was grieved, the text says. He was grieved. He's like, why do you keep asking me? You know the answer. I don't know if any of you have kids, but I have a two-year-old, which means I get a lot of questions now, you know? And thankfully, they're still easy questions, but man, the number of them is, it really, you know, it kind of grinds on you a little bit. You know what I mean? Like, I love him, don't get me wrong, but it can be exhausting.
[23:21] I'm not saying I'm grieving when my son asks me a ton of questions or anything, but Peter, it's like, come on, you know the answer. I've already answered this question twice. Why do you need to know it again? But it's a reminder here, Peter 1 points to Jesus's omniscience. You know everything. You know the answer. That's a really cool thing. I read in a commentary this week, for the believer who has a genuine love for Christ, the omniscience, the all-knowing capacity of God is not a scary thing, but for the person who's a hypocrite, who doesn't actually love Christ, doesn't actually believe in Jesus, the fact that God knows all things can be quite terrifying, because he knows your hypocrisy.
[23:59] But for the person who has a deep and biting love for Jesus, the all-knowing nature of Christ is a comfort. So he says, you know everything. You know my heart. You know I love you. But that third question wasn't just for Peter. Remember, he's there with these other disciples as well.
[24:17] They needed to hear that Peter truly loved Jesus, and they also needed to see that Jesus truly understood that Peter loved him, that Jesus truly knew that to be the case, because how else could they follow Peter's leadership? Jesus asked Peter three questions, and they were all the same.
[24:36] And the main point is that when we've fallen, the only path to restoration is a compelling love for Jesus. Our love for him will compel us to ask for forgiveness. It will compel us to accept reproof, and it will sustain us to trust his work of restoration, when Christ has forgiven us and restored us. But there are also three commands, and these three commands, again, it's kind of three ways of saying the same thing. Feed my lambs, shepherd my sheep, and feed my sheep. These are especially important for someone called into ministry in some capacity, but they matter for all of us. Jesus had confronted Peter with one issue, love. Did Peter love Jesus? If so, he should love those who Christ loves.
[25:20] The basis for ministry and pastoral care is love. If a person in ministry loves the Lord Jesus supremely, then naturally that person will love the people that Christ loves.
[25:33] The basis for leadership is love. If we don't love Christ, we won't lead others in a way that glorifies Christ. And Peter was called to lead the disciples and to lead the early church, so his leadership had to be rooted in a sincere love for Christ. And then finally, when someone is publicly restored, others need to see and trust that they have a deep love for Jesus. So when we see someone that's fallen, right, and the Bible talks about this process of restoration, we call it church discipline. Discipline's, you know, a scary word, but it's not a scary word in the Bible. It's a good thing, right? There's formative church discipline, and there's corrective church discipline. And when people have sinned, and they submit to the church, the leadership of the church, for reproof, for rebuke, that's a beautiful thing.
[26:21] That's a beautiful thing. And as they work through the process of discipline, and as they pray and are repentant, and as they ask for forgiveness from the people that they've hurt, seeing the restoration from a person who was under church discipline, which sounds so scary, to a person who's been faithfully restored to the life of the church is a beautiful thing. And that's what's happened here with Peter, but it's a reminder for all of us that earning trust is not the same thing as maintaining trust. He wasn't just called to love Jesus and that be it, right? I love Jesus, and that's good enough for me. He was called to love Jesus, and from that love, act like Jesus. Serve others, love others, shepherd the sheep, feed the lambs.
[27:10] When we're restored to the fellowship of believers, we have to maintain the trust by being faithful and obedience because of our love for Jesus. And there's three directives that I want to point to from this text, all right? There's three things. Number one, love Jesus supremely. Number two, care with Jesus's heart. And number three, follow Jesus obediently. If you look what happens here in verse 18, Jesus describes the type of death that Peter's going to die. Truly, I tell you, when you were younger, you would tie your belt and walk wherever you wanted. But when you grow old, you will stretch out your hands, and someone else will tie you and carry you where you don't want to go. He said this to indicate by what kind of death Peter would glorify God. After saying this, he told him, follow me. It's almost odd that Jesus would talk about Peter's death after this moment of beautiful restoration and public forgiveness and acknowledgement of the call for Peter to lead the church. And yet, it's powerful because it's a reminder there at the end when Jesus says to follow me. It's as if Jesus, literally, like in Greek, it's continue following me.
[28:19] Keep on following me. What he's telling Peter is, I'm calling you to this ministry. Your basis for this ministry has to be love, and the result of this ministry has to be the concern and care for the believers of Jesus Christ, believers in himself. But then, it's not all going to be sunshine and rainbows, right? It's not all going to be beautiful, happy-go-lucky, easy days where he's, you know, making millions of dollars, profiting from the church, and all those types of things. That's not what Jesus called Peter to, or anyone in ministry to, for that matter. It's a call to follow Jesus into his sufferings. He knows where he's going, and so when Peter knows that this is the end, he knows that if he's going to face those sufferings, if he's going to follow Jesus all the way through, he has to love Jesus supremely. He has to be committed to faithfully living out the word of Christ to himself from Jesus directly. And so, when Peter's called to follow Jesus, it's a call that extends beyond Peter, and it's a call to each of us.
[29:22] We're all called to continue to keep on following Jesus, to follow Jesus obediently. This means that when we're tempted, our love for Christ must be greater than our love for sin. And when we do fall, our love for Christ must lead us to repentance and restoration. And when we're restored, our love for Christ must motivate us to serve and to love the way that Jesus does. In other words, very simply, follow Jesus. Follow Jesus. Follow Jesus in obedience. And so, we're going to have a closing song. We're going to stand, we're going to sing together. But I just want you to understand this passage, this idea of restoration, it's a beautiful thing. So, if you're a believer, you know, you doubt your ability to serve in the church because of some past sin, please don't hide behind the guilt and the shame of sin. And instead, one, confess your sin to Jesus. Two, confess your sin to others. And watch as God restores you and restores your heart to a place of being able to serve Him faithfully in fellowship of the church. I know that struggle well, by the way. I'm just telling you, whenever God called me to ministry, I was like, I said, no, I can't go. I can't do that. Like, I have made a fool of myself in so many different ways. And if someone, if somebody from college knows Joseph's going to ministry, then like, they're going to, well, then, you know, this thing doesn't even matter. If Joseph can go be a pastor, then, yeah, like, it was, it was, but it was, here's the thing. What God showed me in that moment was really powerful for me, and maybe it's powerful for you. The guy who wrote like 13 books in the New Testament, the Apostle Paul, literally killed Christians before then. If Jesus can restore that person who hated him, who hated Christ, hated the church, killed people because of His name, if Jesus can restore him to a place where He's used faithfully as an apostle to the Gentiles to proclaim His word through Him, then God can use any of us. He can absolutely restore any of us to a place of ministry, to a place of serving Him faithfully. And then here's the thing, if you don't know Christ, if you don't have a relationship with
[31:32] Jesus, the only hope of restoration that you have is by believing in His name. The only hope, the only way that you're going to go from being like this broken down, completely useless car headed for the junkyard to this beautiful, you know, restored new, that's a new creation, right? That's not the same, I mean, it's the same bones, I guess, but that's a new creation, right? The only way to go from one to the other is by faith in Jesus Christ, and so today, if you don't have a relationship with Him, if you don't have faith in Christ, then I encourage you to believe on Him today, repent of your sin, and trust Him to not only restore you, but to create a new life within you. I'm going to pray for us and we'll sing. God, thank you for who you are. Thank you for your word and your truth.
[32:19] We love you, Lord Jesus. Thank you for this example of restoration that you gave us with the apostle Peter. I pray, oh God, that we would glorify you in all that we do. It's in Jesus' name that we pray. Amen.