Elevation with Steven Furtick - Life After The Let Down

Episode Date: April 18, 2022

In “Life After The Let Down,” we’re reminded how powerful God’s grace is — even after we’ve faced unmet expectations.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an I-Heart podcast. Guaranteed Human. I am so excited with like 10 extra oaths about this message that you're about to hear today that God gave me for you. But before that special message, I have this special message. I want to see you at Elevation Nights. Go to Elevation Nights.com. Our tour starts soon. It's me, Elevation Worship, the Holy Ghost.

always going to be amazing. All right, here are the dates, April 26th through May 5th. Here are the cities, Chicago, Indy, Washington, D.C., Newark, New Jersey, Grand Rapids, Michigan, Columbus, Ohio, Redding, Pennsylvania, and Boston, Massachusetts. Yes, I'm reading them on my screen.

Yes, I'm excited. Yes, you need to get your tickets now. Before they're all gone, Elevation Nights.com. And now, to the word. Be blessed. Let me know in the comments where you're watching from. I'll see you on the other side. Lift your hands. Jesus Christ, King of Kings, Lord of Lords, Savior of the world. We came today to crown you, not like you need our crown to be worthy, but we just want to join in with what heaven already knows, what has already been demonstrated by your sinless life, your unjustness. death, your unprecedented resurrection from the dead, your ascension into heaven where we know

that now you are seated at the right hand of God. We lift our hands to acknowledge that there is no one higher than you, no one greater than you. We lift our hands to acknowledge that all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to you. And when we proclaim the name of Jesus, we are seated in heavenly places with you today. forgiven of our sin, filled with your spirit, assured of our place in your family, and called to be your friends. Now, God, I pray for the sleeper to wake up. I thank you that today is a divine wake-up call. God, I pray that today, as we have been singing the truth of the gospel, that people have been shaking,

and they can't hit the snooze button one more time, because the king is here and res, resurrection is real and nothing is impossible for him who believes. So have your way in this house, God. We're full of faith. We give you praise and honor and glory. In Jesus' name, amen. Clap those hands and give him praise. Good to see you.

Welcome all of our eFAM around the world. Happy Easter to our EFAM all over the world. Good grief. If I told you where everyone was joining us from, you would think I was just making it. stuff up. But when they go on the chat and say, here's where I'm watching from, do that right now, okay? Those of you watching on YouTube and Facebook, let us know where you're joining us from. And we're from the country. We're here from Charlotte, North Carolina, just to welcome you into the presence of God. Such an exciting day, man. Chris, I rounded

the corner and you were preaching, man. Beated it! I was impressed. He was going on and on about the scripture and I was like, man, he really knows the word. And then I got around the corner and he was holding a Bible. I thought he hit it in his heart that he might not sin against God. No. He was holding it in his hand. Well, I can't possibly name everyone who's joining us, but just from all over the world, whether Missouri, UK, Houston, Abby shouted out a few people during the world.

welcome, and I just want to join in welcoming you into the presence of God. Sometimes the question is not whether we are welcome in his presence. It's whether we will really let him into the places of our life that we hide from others. So there's always a guilt trip that preachers put on people on Easter and Christmas, and they call them, they say, it's good to see all the CEOs, the Christmas and Easter-only Christians. And everybody goes, ha, ha, ha, and they laugh so nobody will know it's them. And a fear you might sink through the floor because, you know, you haven't been here. But that's not our message today.

Our message today is you are welcome in the presence of God. And you're welcome in our church. But the song that we were singing, that's the real question of Easter. Will you welcome resurrection? And listen, in an irony and ironic twist of fate, cruel twist of fate, On the biggest Sunday that we have is the church Easter, I have the shortest preaching time. Because the most people come, and if I go too long, it will cause confusion, and then people will, in the parking lot will get violent and somebody might get shot. And I can't raise you from the dead. I'm not Jesus.

So what I have to do is stay on my clock today. Y'all know how difficult that is for me to do. So rather than get into the formalities, any in things. you need, you'll have to get it from somebody else. I'm going to get right into the word God gave me today. I'm going to get right into it. Praise the Lord. We've been singing, and I don't know if you missed the singing and missed the worship, but it was glorious. And now we want to turn our attention to the word that God has for us today. And I want to start in John chapter 20, take up two verses from the end of that chapter, and then I want to read a little

story from the next chapter. Happy Easter, man. Happy Easter. You made it. You made it. You made it. Tell somebody, I'm so proud to be sitting next to somebody who looks as good as you on Easter Sunday. Makes me feel beautiful. Now, listen to this from John 20, verse 30. John says Jesus performed many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not recorded in this book, but these are written that you may believe. Believe what? That Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in His name. Y'all, I'm so glad it doesn't say by behaving I may have life in his name. Because I know you're on your best behavior today, but if we would have followed you this week,

you'd be shouting over that verse by believing. Because if we based it on your behavior, you might go to the other place. But by believing, you may have life in his name. Now, it would appear that John is drawing his gospel account to a close with those verses. But there is an entire chapter that follows. and I won't read the whole thing, but I'm so glad that it was put in as an epilogue or as a PS in John 21, because I think there's something very important for you to know today that John really ended his gospel account. He said, hey, Jesus did a lot of other things. I can't tell you everything.

And then he opens back up. Oh, by the way, let me tell you one other thing he did. He's not finished yet. He's not finished yet. That's what I need you to know more than you know anything that you know or think you know. I need you to know that better than you know your name. I need you to know that better than you know your Social Security number. I need you to know that better. You don't even know your phone number anymore because you don't have to. But I need you to know that you know that he's not finished.

I need every single solitary person under the sound of my voice to find one person and tell him he's not finished. And put it in the chat too. Put it in the chat right now. He's not finished. He's not finished. Now listen to the next part. This is where my sermon comes from. That was the frame.

Here's the picture. Afterward, Jesus appeared again to his disciples by the Sea of Galilee. It happened this way. Simon Peter, Thomas, also known as Didamus. He gets called Doubting Thomas in a lot of churches. He's not here, we don't call him that. We call him Honest Thomas, because he had the faith to say, I need to see for myself. And guess what Jesus did?

Showed up. So it was Simon Peter, Thomas, also known as Didomis, Nathaniel from Cana and Galilee, the sons of Zebedee, James and John, and two other disciples were together. So that's seven total. They were all together. Verse three, I'm going out to fish, Simon Peter told them. And they said, we'll go with you. Nothing else to do.

I've got to eat somehow. So they went out, got in the boat, but that night they caught nothing. Early in the morning, Jesus stood on the shore, but the disciples didn't realize it was Jesus. He called out to them friends. Friends. Friends. Keep that right there in your reticular activating system. were friends, haven't you any fish? No, the answer. No. No. When I was like, do you have joy today?

No. Do you have peace in your heart? How many of you have faith to? No. Sometimes the greatest way you can invite God into your life is with an honest no. Yeah. Practice one time, just say no. No. If you would get better at saying that in your everyday life, you wouldn't have so much ulcers from committing to so many things that you don't even need to be doing to begin with. So now, let's really zone in here. We need to focus.

He said, throw your net on the right side of the boat, and you will find some. And when they did, they were unable to haul the net in because of the large number of fish. the disciple whom Jesus loved. That's the nickname John gave himself. Said to Peter, it is the Lord. As soon as Simon Peter heard him say, it is the Lord, he wrapped his outer garment around him, for he had taken it off and jumped into the water. The other disciples followed in the boat, towing the net full of fish, for they were not far

from the shore about a hundred yards. Peter, you couldn't wait a hundred yards. When they landed, they saw a fire of burning coals there with fish on it and some bread. And Jesus said to them, bring some of the fish you have just caught. So Simon Peter climbed back into the boat and dragged the net ashore. It was full of large fish, 153. But even with so many live fish, you know how hard it is to haul in live fish? You know how hard it is to haul in live fish?

I never did it, but it sounds hard. One guy said it was 300 pounds of fish, and Peter hauled it in all by himself when he saw Jesus. Some kind of strength kicked in that he didn't have when the rooster was crowing. When he saw Jesus, he dragged 300 pounds of fish behind him. And even with so many, the net was not torn. And Jesus said to them, Come have breakfast. None of the disciples dared ask him, who are you? They knew it was the Lord. Jesus came, took the bread, gave it to them, and did the same with the fish. This was now

the third time Jesus appeared to his disciples after he was raised from the dead. So here's what we're going to talk about today. We're going to talk about life after the letdown. Life after the letdown. Thank you for the ministry of your word. As it goes forth today, may it do so with convicting power and with life-giving, changing, saving, resurrection, power. In Jesus' name, amen. You may be seated. I collect Easter sermon ideas because it comes around once a year. I have big lists going into this Easter, and the Lord said, this will not be your sermon text. You're going to talk to the people about life after the letdown. And it was weird for me yesterday because I wanted to be happy about Easter, excited about

Easter. I wanted to be full of energy. But I felt like I I spent all day living in your letdowns. Because I've studied my text, right? I already figured out what the Hebrew and the Greek means down in John chapter 21, where Jesus says to Peter three times, we didn't read this part, do you love me? And he said, yes, and he said, do you love me? And he said, yes. And he said, do you love me?

And he said yes. And I had already read how that's not really about what I heard growing up where, Jesus was saying different words for love, the Greek words for love, you know, filetio, which is like a brotherly love, and Agape, which is the God kind of love. And he was really trying to get Peter to a new level of love because Jesus didn't speak Greek. So I'd already studied that part about how really, when Jesus asked three times, Peter, do you love me? It wasn't really so he could give him a vocabulary lesson about different types of love.

Really, the meaning in that three times is not in the words he uses at all. It's in the math. Because if you go back just a few verses before Jesus comes to Peter on the shore, Peter has just denied Jesus three times. And it helped me to see that it was a full circle moment for Jesus and Peter, that he was giving him grace to cover all of his failures. And that Peter didn't have more denial than Jesus had grace. That Peter didn't have more doubt than Jesus had mercy.

But after studying all of those nice things about Greek and Hebrew and numbers and all of the things that I studied during the week so that I can be prepared to serve you a good meal and you don't choke on the bones of a sermon that I didn't prepare correctly, it came to me that really, unless we make this message very personal for you, it will be yet another superstitious activity that you fulfill, thinking God, you did him a favor by putting on perfume and sitting still for an hour and 15 minutes. And we don't want this Easter to pass us by and it just be another ticket punching thing on our list in case we die before the next one. Now, I believe that because of what Jesus did for me, I'm going to get to go to heaven when I die. I believe that. And I believe that even if you don't like it, you don't like,

me, I get to go. I believe that even if you don't think my theology is exactly correct, or you don't think that my Easter attire is dressy enough because the Lord deserves our best, I still get to go to heaven, and so you should be nice to me and what you say to me, because when we get to heaven, I might be your neighbor. And wouldn't it be weird for all the people that you didn't like on earth and you get to heaven and they say, hi neighbor? All the people that you thought they didn't have the correct, you know, all of the theological suppositions and share all the same common beliefs, you might get next door to them in heaven and realize you have to spend eternity with them.

Yet, as much as I believe that what Jesus did for me prepares me for heaven, I think that often the message of resurrection gets weakened in our tendency to defer its importance. implications to the next life. For us to think that John is saying, believing gives us life in Jesus' name after we die is an unnecessary limitation of the finished work of Christ. For me to believe that I'm going to get to heaven one day and play a harp, and whatever they're doing in heaven, I'm going to do it with them. If they're playing harps, I'm going to take harp lessons.

If they're dancing, I'm going to take dancing lessons. There will not be any TikTok in heaven, so I will not have to be shown to the world. But if they're dancing in heaven, I'm going to find a corner and practice how to dance. I'm going to do it all when I get to heaven, yet there are some things that I need Jesus for while I am still here right now. That's why John 21. Listen, Jody, that's why John 21 had to be in the Bible. Because if it just ended on this note of abstract universal reality called belief in life, we would kick it somewhere someday to Amazing Grace in the Sweet By and By and Potato Pie in the sky,

and then here on earth, we would continue to suppress the questions that we have and the fears that we wrestle with. and the ugliness that marrs our own self-concept and our identity, and just press it down, and keep pressing it down, and hope that it never comes out. That's why I wanted to talk to you about life after the letdown. When I say the letdown, I am leaving it open-ended so that you can supply your own event, experience, or condition. where I say the term letdown. It's kind of like a code language. I have secret hand signals with my family that mean things when we're in public. And for the rest of our time today, you are my family. And this is going to be our secret signal to each other. When I say let down, you put the one in there that you don't talk about. So when I say let down, you will have something that you may not even have language for that will come up when I talk about the letdown. We are so quick. not only to want to get to heaven when we die one day, but to want to get to the part of the story where Jesus got up, that we will waltz right past the part where he went to Jerusalem to be handed over

and crucified at the hands of sinful men. There is really no way for us to experience Easter, the events of Easter, without experiencing the events of the cross. And there is really no way to experience way for us to experience the events of the cross like the disciples did. Because for us, the cross has a certain measure of comfort. We know that our sin is nailed to that cross. We know that it canceled the written regulation that stood against us. We know that the power of shame was broken on the cross of Christ. We know all of that.

So when we sing the wonderful cross, when we survey the wondrous cross, we see the promise of redemption and atonement and his blood that was shed for us. But that same blood that we rejoice in represented for the disciples, a broken promise and an unmet expectation of the kingdom that Jesus came to bring. These were his friends. Peter was a friend of Jesus. Everybody has crazy friends, and Peter was Jesus' crazy friend. Who's your crazy friend? I don't have any crazy friend. Then you are the crazy friend. Peter was Jesus' kind of crazy. One dude came over to the church. He said, I just followed my kids over here to see if you were running a cult. My kid came over. We're so excited about church. I said, my kid is excited about church. That must be a cult.

And I came over to find out if you were crazy. I said, well, was I? And he said, yeah, it wasn't a cult, but you are crazy. But you're my kind of crazy. And I gave him a fist bump, and I was like, that's all right, because this whole thing that we're celebrating today is kind of crazy. Try the side of the room. This side of the room has no anointing of honesty whatsoever today. This is kind of crazy. I'm going to have to preach to the people in the back who got here late. This?

I'm going to have to go out and preach it in the overflow. This is kind of crazy. It's crazy. It didn't seem crazy at first. When Peter met Jesus, all Jesus said was, can I use your boat to preach? There's something crazy about preaching, and there's nothing crazy about doing it from a boat. Because that will provide natural amplification for Jesus' voice. Matter of fact, if you really liked the Bible, you were confused when I read the story, because you're like, is this a resurrection scripture? Isn't this what happened when Jesus first called Peter? And you're right.

It's the same story from the other side. It's the same story from the other side. But let me show you how it started. When Peter was out fishing one night and he caught nothing, the only thing that the stories have in common really is that Peter wasn't a very good fisherman in either one. The only thing that I can really find that's exactly the same is empty nets. And there's a message in that. There is a message in that about the God who loves to fill what is empty, and the God who loves

to empty what is full. One is the nets, the other is the tomb. My faith is not in my own fullness. My faith is not in my own ability. My faith is not in my own righteousness. That's not how I'm getting to heaven. You get to heaven, how you want to get to heaven, but I don't have the perfection pass. It's not going to let me through.

I don't have my card punch. Not all the time. I'm honest. I'm sincere. I love the Lord and all of that, but sometimes I slip and sometimes I'm crazy and not in the Christian way of crazy. Now that that's out of the way, let me show you when Jesus called Peter. Look at this.

It says that Jesus, Luke 5, verse 4, had finished speaking and he said to Simon, that's Peter's given name, not the name Jesus gave him, but the name his parents gave him. He said, put out into deep water and let down the nets for a catch. Everybody say let down. Next verse. Peter said, this makes no sense. We've fished all night. We've caught nothing.

We're hanging it up for the night. There's no need for us to keep fishing in the daytime. The fish won't come to the surface when the water gets hot. But because you say so, I will let down. the nets. I will let down the nets. This was the beginning of Peter's participation in the ministry of Jesus. And I preached about it many times in the church, so I won't bore you with the review today. But when he let down the nets in that passage of scripture, he could have had no way of knowing how his life would change because of the moment that he let down the nets.

He could have had no idea that he would be front row seat to blind eyes open when he let down the nets. He could have had no way of knowing that he would see the widow from named son raised from the dead when he let down the nets. He could have had no idea that he would have seen a roof come off a house because the ministry of Jesus would be so popular that people watch this on an Easter Sunday. If they couldn't get into overflow, they would repel down the roof to see Jesus. I don't preach as good as Jesus, so the roof is still here. But Jesus had so much power that stuff started falling from the ceiling when they said, I'm so sorry you'll have to sit in overflow. They were like, oh, I'm not sitting in overflow.

I'm sitting in the room. I got a knee, and I got a friend who has a need, and I'm going to get my friend to the feet of the one who has the word. He taught with so much power and authority. that the crowds, the crowds, loved him until he got to the part that they couldn't stomach, until he let them down. Now, this is something I want to bring you today and see if it resonates with your heart. Are you a come-up Christian only? You know what I mean? By come-up?

In the original Hebrew, come-up means the part of the story where the success is accumulatory. and the benefits are accruing. It seems that Peter, as he followed Jesus, through a certain season, was experiencing the come-up, which made it the ultimate betrayal of Peter's faith when Jesus went to the cross. When Jesus said, I'm going to the cross, Peter said, no, not you. And the cross interrupted the come-up. Now, we We experience the cross in the knowledge that Jesus isn't there anymore. We experience the cross with the knowledge that the ultimate destruction can be transformed into the ultimate redemption.

We experienced the cross that way. But for the disciples, the cross was shaped like a question mark. Did we waste our lives? Could we throw our careers away? Should I have listened to my mom and not followed this carpenter's son all through the Galilean region? So I think before we rush to the part where he got up, that's the Easter part. I can make everybody in the room clap real quick.

High five three people and say he got up, he got up, he got up, he got up. What you won't see while they're high-fiving you is the let down that they push down. And that's why yesterday was hard for me, because I was imagining us together. And I knew you were going to wear your best button-down shirt, because mom came to church with you today. And you don't tell her you normally come to Elevation Church in a tank top, but you dressed up today. And I spent yesterday thinking about the fact that before he got up, they were let down.

the Lord was ministering to me about my letdowns. Yeah, I have some. I went through my camera roll recently, and I was laughing at some pictures and smiling at some pictures. And some of them made me want to cry. It made me want to cry because I could almost divide my camera roll into halves based on certain things, people, plans, and places where I experienced a let down. One of them in particular was right in the middle of the summer 2013 when dad died. I could see a dividing line almost between that year. That was a hard year for me in general. A lot of things happened that year.

I'm not here to have you do therapy for me, and I want you to send me a bill. But I could almost see my eyes change in the pictures before and after. You know how we say that the birth of Jesus Christ changed everything? That's an incomplete statement. Because if he didn't die, it changed nothing. His teachings wouldn't be here. They wouldn't be recorded. And if he died and didn't rise, then his death was in vain.

So really, the dividing line for my understanding of my relationship with God is not that he was born in a manger, and not even that he died on a tree as much as both of those things informed my faith. The fact that he got up is what divides my life. And yet, don't clap. Because that's the part. Y'all want me there so bad. Yes, yes, he got up, he got up, he got up, he got up, he got up, like popcorn going up all over the church. The Lord directed me before we can really get to that in a way that matters more than a motivational speech. We need to decide, is he the Lord of your letdowns?

This message for Easter Sunday, Lord, this is the phone to me a happy day. I was looking through the pictures, and I thought, man, that guy who was 28 didn't know. know what that guy knew who was 42. And some of it, I feel like this gray hair gave me a little bit of authority, wisdom. Yeah, can't you feel it? But some of it, I saw something had changed in my eyes after I found out what people can do to you. After I found out that not everything I'm going to put on my wish list of God to do is going to come. And here's the biggest one, okay, Because a lot of times we talk about letdowns in terms of the thing that you went after, that you wanted, that you didn't get. Some of the biggest letdowns are the things that you wanted and you went after and you got them and you can't send them back.

You're letdown. I got one honest organist. Some of the things that you ask God for. Do you know why I feel so uncomfortable when we get to this part of the story? Because we know the ending, so we just want to say. skip there. Peter didn't. Fishing. There's nothing wrong with fishing. Do you hate fishing, preacher? Are you saying fishing is a sin? No, Peter didn't do anything sinful. There's nothing wrong with fishing. Peter didn't go open a strip club? Oh, well, I guess if God isn't going to do what I want,

I'm just going to go sell drugs. I got to provide for my baby's, my, I got to take care of my family. I got to do what I got to do. Peter went back. to what he knew. It's not what he did that shocked me. It's when he did it. This is the third time he's seen Jesus since he's been alive from the dead. I can totally understand. Peter goes fishing because Jesus hasn't made a special appearance yet. But he's already seen Jesus. and he's back fishing because he's still living in the letdown. I don't know what you're talking about, preacher. I trust God.

So when God says yes, I accept it. But when he says no, I equally accepted, knowing that, he knows what's best for me. This is not your Easter sermon. give me a message for you because apparently you are already in heaven. The rest of us, the rest of us, need a message about the low moments of our faith. I don't just need... This is so powerful. This is so powerful. How can you go fishing when there's a whole world to be reached? How can you go fishing when Jesus hasn't even ascended to heaven yet? This is only the second week after his resurrection.

We've still got weeks to go, and Peter's fishing, and Jesus has nothing better to do than to cook breakfast? What about that? Jesus needs a time management class. You want to change the whole world, and you have a message of resurrection, and you are wasting time here cooking for these jokers who forsook you on the cross. And not only that, he calls them his friends. I need God to help me to give me that kind of love, because I have this certain line that when people cross it, I have a really hard time letting them back in again. I don't know if this is right or wrong, but there is a certain line where if somebody lets me down long enough, I'll just start working around them. I won't cuss them out.

I won't call down curses from heaven on them. I'll just stop. I'll just stop letting them in. I'll just kill my expectation of you if you let me down long enough. I'm the same way about life. If I pray for something or go after something or work towards something and I do it long enough, if I get let down long enough, I will not let hope in anymore. So Jesus stands as my model and Peter stands as my message.

Jesus is standing on the shore, calling to the same disciples who let him down in his lowest moment. And he approaches them with empty nets and says, would you like to eat some breakfast? Now, this passage I selected, because the resurrection of Jesus Christ is, a well-documented event. You believe it or you don't. But this part will redefine your relationship with the resurrected Christ. Because if you think that he only got up for the moments where your faith is high, you have missed the message of John chapter 21, which says that before Jesus could go forward, before Jesus could be taken, before Jesus could be seated at the right hand of God, before Jesus could sit down and call his work on earth,

He had to find Peter. This is not the first time, the second time, or the last time. But there is something significant about the third time. Peter had three denials. Jesus was dead for three days, three times. This is the third time. It represents the point at which their expectation had run out. And Jesus steps into this moment, the moment at which they still had no fish.

Jesus steps into the moment where the fog in the mist is so cold on the sea that it is blowing against their face, and they cannot even recognize his presence. And he chooses the lowest moment of your life sometimes to reveal the greatest love. He chooses the lowest moment of your life sometimes to reveal his greatest love. So while we can praise God for all the great things that he has done, and while we can praise him that he got up, because we read that. part because it's in the Bible, but it wasn't in their Bible because this book hadn't been written yet, so they had to sit there in the boat and wonder in the middle of the storm.

Just because he got up doesn't mean they knew what to do next. We preach it like that, like, except Jesus and life will be wonderful. What? I have found my Christian experience doesn't help me to avoid any of the disappointments of life. It's not avoidance. You keep thinking that more and more, if you pray, God will help you. avoid certain storms. No, no, no.

Faith doesn't make me avoid it. It helps me transform it. I can preach a little bit on Easter, right? I can teach a little bit on Easter, right? That's what the cross means to us. It happened. He died. It happened.

They buried him. It happened. They mocked him. So for all of you who are coming to church for the message, that God will never let you down. Peter wanted me to tell you. Sometimes he does a little bit. Because see, you keep basing it on your expectation and calling it faith. You customize the Bible to the parts that made you feel good and cut out all the parts where they fished and caught nothing. What I love about this message, what I really love about this message. If you want to know what I really love about this message, it can apply to the capital

L let down or the lowercase L let down. Capital L let down. Jesus went to the cross and died. That's about as bad as it gets. The guy that you loves everything to follow dies. And he's supposed to overthrow Rome and get the oppression out of the... Yeah, he's supposed to... Yeah, but he doesn't.

He dies. That's pretty bad. That's what I've got to clarify. This is not... Man, I had really hoped they were going to do Amazing Grace at church today. This is not an I really hope... This is I risk everything. Now, some people are not disappointed in God because they never really hoped in them to begin with.

Peter was the leader. When he said, I'm fishing, they said, we're fishing too. When he jumped out the boat, they were like, come on, let's go to the shore. Peter's going to the shore. They were following Peter more than they were following Jesus at that point. And the one with the greatest potential also experienced the greatest pain. Now, that's a word for somebody. The more you hope and trust in God, the greater vulnerability there will be for those moments in your life, the enemy whispers, God is not with you. For those low moments. Who's been in a low moment lately? He's the Lord of those low moments. I know everybody tells you he's the resurrected Christ, and he is. But before he got up, he was laid down. See how this is cyclical? See how when Peter

says, I will let down the nets. That wasn't the last letdown in the scripture? If only that were the last letdown. If only Jesus didn't let Lazarus die, see, they've had practice for this. And so if you, you have had practice to know that what you're going through right now that you don't think you're going to make it through, you thought you wouldn't make it through, the last thing that you were going through, that you thought you wouldn't make it through, and you made it through that. And so even you being here today is evidence of the fact that life will let you down. People will let you down. That's what I told Elijah the other day. I said, being a dad is my greatest privilege, next to being Holly's husband. Next to that, that's the main thing in my life.

Because even me being a dad, I wouldn't be able to do it without her. I mean, she's the only thing that makes me look good most days anyway. But being a dad is amazing. But I'm disappointed in being a dad from this perspective, not because of you, not because of you, not because of you. You surprise me every day in good ways. No, I love it. I really love it. I really love it. I really love it. I really love it. I love being a dad. But it's almost like when I thought of myself as a dad, I thought of myself like I would be coaching the players in a game. And I would be on the sidelines calling the plays, telling them how to follow God and telling them how to be disciplined and teaching them in the ways that they should go and training up a child. But in my picture of being a dad, I was doing all of this from the sidelines of parenthood. Nobody told me that they leave you in the game to get hit while you try to coach this team

that is running down the field in the wrong direction. Nobody told me you don't get to take off the pads to be a parent. You still are getting hit. You're still dealing with whatever you brought into parenthood. There was no one. In fact, is there any couple in the room that has been married for a year or less? You got that newlywed. Holy Ghost, love.

Stand up right now. Stand up right now. Oh, let's give them a hand, y'all. Let's give them a hand. Let's give them a hand for absolutely nothing. Oh, isn't that wonderful? Oh, that's wonderful. Did you do the marriage vows?

Did you write your own vows? Did you put this part in? Look at each other right now. I'm going to do it real quick. I'm ordained. I'm ordained. I'm ordained. It's okay.

I'm ordained. Say, I will let you down. Now, sit down. I bet you didn't put it. You didn't know to put it in. So what you have in your relationship will not be known until after, after, after. I thought I'd be an amazing parent because I thought I would have a box in the sky and a headset to call the place they would give to the quarterback.

I didn't know I'd be out here getting hit too. I didn't know that I would let them down. Because the biggest thing in the passage to preach about isn't that Jesus let Peter down, because he got up. And he walked in locked doors to show Peter. I told you. I told you. He walked through locked doors to show Thomas. I died for you. But now this is the third appearance. And it seems that Jesus is no longer dealing with the fact that he let Peter down. Seems like now he's trying to deal with the fact that Peter led him down and denied that he even knew Jesus. And that's what Peter had to move through.

He could get through the fact that it didn't end like I wanted because he saw the resurrected Christ. But John 21 is added in the Bible. Help me, Holy Spirit, to show you that God knew the ways that you. You would let him down before he ever called your name to follow him. And that Jesus had gone back up to heaven before John 21, Peter could not have preached on the day of Pentecost. He was no longer living in the letdown of what Jesus didn't do. He was living in the letdown of what he didn't do for Jesus.

That is why it was important for Jesus to take time to cook breakfast for these disciples who denied him. Even the ones who didn't deny him, they disassociated from him. Even the ones who said, I will follow you to death. Even loud mouth Peter, who was willing to cut off an ear in the garden so that no one would take his Lord away. Even Peter, who was willing to give Jesus his boat not even knowing yet where this journey would leave.

Even Peter, in the moment of crisis, he let him do. down. That's what I'm upset about. Not that God let me down. If I'm honest, the biggest thing I have to process is that I constantly feel like I'm letting him down. That's why I go back fishing, doing what I know to do, because I don't want to let you down. God, I'm sorry. I'm here again. Here I am struggling with this again. I've already had help with this. I've already prayed about this, you already taught me about this, I memorized scripture, and here I am again. I let you down. I let you down. God said, really? I wasn't aware that you were holding me up. That's why he got up out of the grave. Not only holding his own, not only, he wasn't holding anything, but the keys to death hell and the grave.

All of your sin, all of your shame, all of the record, all of the guilty stain. It was in the grave that he left. The only thing he was holding was the keys to let you know, Peter, that you can't let me down. Because to disappoint God would mean that you had something deep down inside that he didn't see. And since God is this thing called omniscient, which means all-knowing, and since he is all-seeing, and since he fills everything in every space, even the spaces in between the things you show him, even the spaces between Sundays where you struggle, even the spaces in between your great burst of faith, since he fills that space, he came to the shore to show you something that I want you to get the revelation for today,

Not just that he got up. He got up. Oh, isn't that wonderful? Not unless you believe that you can too. You've got to get up. You must get up. Your purpose demands it. Your faith commends it.

You must get up. You must get up. This is not a suggestion. It's a command. If you've got to jump in the water, you must get up. You must get up. It's a summons the faith. You must get up because there is life after the letdown.

There is life after the letdown. And confess it by faith with your own mouth. There is life after the letdown. Yeah, this didn't turn out how I wanted, but I'm going forward by faith because there is life after the letdown. A lot of people left me. They left Jesus too. He called them friends.

He didn't get bitter. He fed them breakfast because there is life after the letdown. That lets me know he can forgive any dirty, rotten, stinking, sinful thing I do. You know that. How do you know he can still use me? How do you know God's not disappointed in me? How do you know he hasn't changed his mind? How do you know I didn't blow it?

How do you know the best days aren't behind me? How do you know I didn't make a mistake I can't come back from? How do I know it? Because the fish told me so. Not the ones Peter caught, the ones that Jesus was already cooking when he got to the shore. See, he's not finished with you yet. That's why you didn't die yet. That's why some of you made a plan to kill yourself, but you couldn't.

That was the grace of God to hold you up. He won't let you down that far. No, no, no. That's where my solid rock kicks in. He's got a purpose for me. He's got something to build through my life. And Jesus said, bring me some fish. And then they ate.

Which fish did they eat? Not the ones that Peter caught, but the ones that Jesus had already cleaned. Was he trying to give us a little message this Easter about the ways that we think we've disqualified ourselves from his grace? Was he trying to tell you it's already clean? Was he trying to show you that he bring us here for this moment for all the ways that life has let you down? I'm sorry. For all the ways that you've let God down, he already knows.

But he still got up. And he still called you. What would that have sounded like through the ears of failure? What would that have sounded like? What would that have looked like through the eyes of frustration of fishing all night? Catching nothing. Did God bring you to this moment? To show you who he really is, they recognized Jesus after the letdown.

I believe God is calling new life forth in this moment. Everyone's standing, everyone's standing, nobody moving, every head bowed, every eye close. I invite you right now to come out of your grave and meet Jesus. I invite you right now to see the Christ upon the cross who was wounded for your transgression, who was bruised for your iniquity. The chastisement that brought us peace was upon him. By his stripes, we are healed. It's already done.

It's already clean. The price has already been paid. The blood has already been shed. It is not that we are righteous. that enables us to come to God. It is not that we will do better. It is by believing that you have life in His name. The scripture says that if you will confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart, that He got up, that God raised him from the dead, that you can get up to, and you can be saved, and you can have a new beginning, and you can

have a fresh start, and he will call you friend, and he will call you his child, and he never stopped loving you, and he never stopped pursuing you, and he never stopped wanting you, and he never stop calling you and he's still going to use you. But this is your moment of decision. There is life after the letdown, after the worst possible thing, after the greatest possible pain. There is life after the letdown. This is the part of the sermon where you decide whether to walk out that door just like you came or really let God into that place in your life. where you need to be forgiven and saved. With every head bowed and every eye closed, I'm going to lead you in a prayer right now.

This prayer is not just magical words strung together. It's an actual declaration of faith. For those of you who are standing there and you're going, God's speaking to me today, he's calling me to come out of my sin, to come out of my shame, and to receive him. This is your moment to be saved. We're going to pray it all out loud together for the benefit of those who are making a decision to do what Peter did and follow Jesus Christ to receive His grace and new life and the forgiveness of sin.

This is your resurrection moment. For all of you who want to give your life to God, or you've been far from him for a long time and you want to come back right now, repeat this prayer after me. Church family praying out loud. Heavenly Father, today is my day. my day of salvation. I am a sinner in need of a Savior. And I believe that Jesus Christ is the son of God and the Savior of the world. And today I make Jesus the Lord of my life. I believe you died, that I would be forgiven and rose again to give me life. I receive this new life. This

is my new beginning. On the count of three, shoot your hand up if you prayed that. One, two, three. All over this room, all over our campuses. Come on now, shoot it up high, shoot it up high for a third day miracle. And the rest of us, let's celebrate the resurrection of our king. Well, if you enjoyed today's podcast, there are a couple things I'd love for you to do. Make sure to subscribe, rate, and review this podcast. You can also help us reach others by investing today at elevationchurch.org slash give. And thanks again for joining us on the Elevation podcast. This is an I-Heart podcast, guaranteed human.