Amen, the part of the chapter that I wanted to focus on is beginning in verse number 26.
And let me just bring you up to speed in the story here.
This is the famous story, of course, about the children of Israel having come out of
the land of Egypt, and they come to the brink of the promised land, and they send in the
twelve spies to check out the land, and they weren't supposed to be going in to decide
whether they're going to do it or not, or whether they could do it or not.
They'd already been commanded to do it.
This was the whole purpose of the journey.
They were just supposed to go there and plan things and basically just scope it out, do
reconnaissance.
But, of course, ten of those spies come back and bring an evil report saying that they
couldn't do it because the inhabitants of the land were too strong and they weren't
going to be able to defeat them.
And then two of the spies, Joshua and Caleb, came back and they had faith and they tried
to rally the people, but the people turned against them and so forth.
And if we pick up in verse 26, the Bible says,
And the Lord spake unto Moses and unto Aaron, saying, How long shall I bear with this evil
congregation which murmur against me?
I have heard the murmurings of the children of Israel which they murmur against me.
Say unto them, As truly as I live, saith the Lord, as ye have spoken in mine ears, so will
I do to you.
Your carcasses shall fall in this wilderness, and all that were numbered of you, according
to your whole number, from twenty years old and upward, which have murmured against me.
Doubtless ye shall not come into the land concerning which I swear to make you dwell
therein, save Caleb the son of Jephunneh and Joshua the son of Nun.
But your little ones, which he said should be a prey, them will I bring in, and they
shall know the land which ye have despised.
But as for you, your carcasses, they shall fall in this wilderness, and your children
shall wander in the wilderness forty years, and bear your hoardums, until your carcasses
be wasted in the wilderness, after the number of the days in which ye searched the land,
even forty days, each day for a year, shall ye bear your iniquities, even forty years,
and ye shall know my breach of promise.
I the Lord have said I will surely do it unto all this evil congregation, that are gathered
together against me in the wilderness, they shall be consumed, and there they shall die.
And the men which Moses sent to search the land, who returned, and made all the congregation
to murmur against him, by bringing up a slander upon the land, even those men that did bring
up the evil report upon the land, died by the plague before the Lord.
But Joshua, the son of Nun, and Caleb, the son of Jephunneh, which were of the men that
went to search the land, lived still.
So God is very angry and upset, and he pronounces judgment upon them, and says, because you
refused to obey my voice, because you lack faith, and because you have this doom and
gloom idea that you're all going to die in the wilderness, he says, well, you know, guess
what, you are all going to die in the wilderness, and I'm not going to allow you to go into
the Promised Land, because of your unbelief, but your children will go into the Promised
Land, but first, you and they both are going to have to wander around for 40 years, and
he said, everyone who is 20 years old and upward will be dead by the time you go into
the Promised Land, 40 years from now.
And then the sign whereby the people knew that this was the word of the Lord, is that
the 10 spies who brought back the wrong report, they died immediately of a plague.
They all died, and Caleb and Joshua did not die.
So when the people see this, they bethink themselves.
If you would go to Deuteronomy chapter number 1, we'll flip over to Deuteronomy 1.
We already read the whole chapter of Numbers 14 before the sermon started, so we might
as well get another angle of this from Deuteronomy chapter number 1.
Deuteronomy chapter number 1, beginning in verse 32, the Bible tells us the same story
in a more abbreviated format.
Yet in these, I'm sorry, verse 32, yet in this thing ye did not believe the Lord your
God, who went in the way before you to search you out of place, to pitch your tents in,
in fire by night, to show you by what way ye should go, and in a cloud by day.
And the Lord heard the voice of your words, and was wroth and swear, saying, Surely there
shall not one of these men of this evil generation see that good land, which I swear to give
unto your fathers.
Give Caleb the son of Jephunneh, he shall see it, and to him will I give the land that
he hath trodden upon, and to his children, because he hath wholly followed the Lord.
Also the Lord was angry with me for your sake, saying, Thou also shall not go in thither.
But Joshua the son of Nun, which standeth before thee, he shall go in thither.
Encourage him, for he shall cause Israel to inherit it.
Moreover your little ones, which he said should be a prey, and your children, which in that
day had no knowledge between good and evil, they shall go in thither.
And unto them will I give it, and they shall possess it.
But as for you, turn you, and take your journey into the wilderness by the way of the Red
Sea."
Now God tells them, you can't go into the Promised Land, you're going to wander for
40 years, your children are going to have to go in, but in the meantime, you need to
now head for the Red Sea.
So God had a different direction for them to go, he had a plan for them going forward
even after this great failure, and he tells them to head for the Red Sea.
Now they disobeyed that, it says in verse 41, then he answered and said unto me, we've
sinned against the Lord, we will go up and fight, according to all that the Lord our
God commanded us.
So basically they think that it's not too late to still obey, and to go in and take
the promise that, oh we're sorry that we doubted it, we see that the ten spies died, we're
ready to do right now, let's just forget about this whole lack of faith thing, and
let's just go in and do it.
You know now that they've seen more of God's power.
Halfway through verse 41, and when you had girded on every man as weapons of war, you
were ready to go up into the hill, and the Lord said unto me, say unto them, go not up,
neither fight, for I am not among you, lest you be smitten before your enemies.
So I spake unto you, and you would not hear, but rebelled against the commandment of the
Lord, and went presumptuously up into the hill, and the Amorites which dwelt in that
mountain came out against you, and chased you as bees do, and destroyed you in seer
even unto Hormah, and you returned and wept before the Lord, but the Lord would not hearken
to your voice, nor give ear unto you.
So you bode in Kadesh many days according unto the days that you bode there.
Then we turned, chapter two verse one, then we turned and took our journey into the wilderness
by the way of the Red Sea, as the Lord spake unto me, and we compassed Mount Seir many
days, and the story goes on and on.
Now the title of my sermon tonight is this, God's Plan B for Our Lives.
God's Plan B for Our Lives.
You see, even when we mess up our lives, even when we commit a major sin and do irreparable
damage to our lives as believers, God still has a Plan B for our lives.
It's not that we should just throw in the towel and say, well, my whole purpose in life
was to go into the promised land and God's told me I'm never going to make it.
I'm never going to accomplish that.
So I might as well just quit even serving the Lord.
Why even obey him?
Why even follow him?
Why not just live a worldly life and forget about the whole thing?
No, because God still wants to use us and God still has a Plan B for our lives.
Now if you think about the children of Israel in this story, let's say that they had just
thrown in the towel after this major failure.
And this is a pretty big failure.
I mean, they've been in bondage in Egypt.
The whole reason why they left Egypt was to cross the wilderness and go into a promised
land flowing with milk and honey.
No more slavery.
No more oppression.
We can actually sit down and own our own land and be under our own vine and our own fig
tree.
But they're just going to wander around in the desert for the rest of their lives.
God's telling them you're going to spend 40 years in the desert.
You can see how this would be discouraging and depressing to think we will never succeed
at God's perfect will for our lives.
We've already missed that boat.
And even when we tried to do it, God said I'm not going to bless you and we failed.
But you see, God always has a Plan B for our lives.
Now, of course, he would prefer us to stay on Plan A. But many people in this room tonight
are far from Plan A or have veered off from Plan A. And all of us in some areas of our
life have failed and we have missed out on God's perfect will for our lives and we've
missed out on blessings that he had for us.
But no one should get the idea that it's too late for them or that there's no use even
trying anymore because they've just completely blown it.
Because God does have a Plan B. Now, think about this.
What if the children of Israel had just thrown in the towel and said, you know what, I give
up.
I'm a failure to God.
I'm a total loser.
Why don't I just quit serving God?
And why don't I just maybe go back to Egypt and just turn myself in?
Or why don't I just go find some other group of people that I could join up with and live
with them and just forsake the tabernacle of the congregation, forsake Moses, forsake
the children of Israel.
Well, if you think about it, God's Plan B for their lives was that they would raise
their children to fear the Lord and go into the Promised Land.
I mean, think about it.
How can the children grow up and go into the Promised Land 40 years from now if they didn't
have parents that were rearing them in the nurture and admonition of the Lord?
You see, there was a Plan B for their lives where they were going to be the ones that
would raise the children, teach their children, train their children to be a generation that
would have faith and do it right unlike their parents who had blown it.
So they still had purpose and meaning in their lives in rearing those children.
Not only that, God had other plans and blessings in store for them.
He takes them to the Red Sea.
They wander here.
They wander there.
But God had a plan for them also to defeat Og and Bashan, the kings of Sihon, or I mean
Og and Sihon, the kings of Bashan.
He had a plan for them to defeat those kings and to inherit that land for the children
of Israel.
So God had a land for them.
God had a blessing for them.
God had something for them even though it wasn't Plan A for their lives.
And so obviously, there are a lot of stories about this.
But if you would flip over to Psalm 51, there are a lot of stories in the Bible about this.
I'll just mention a few other stories in passing.
What about the story of the woman at the well?
I mean, this was a woman who had really messed up her life because the Bible says that she
had actually been married to five different husbands.
And at the time that Jesus met her, she was living with a dude that wasn't even her husband.
And she'd already had five husbands.
I mean, that's a pretty messed up life.
That's not God's plan for anybody's life.
Even the world would look at that and say, wow, that's a pretty messed up life.
But yet God wasn't through with her.
God had a Plan B for her life.
God used her in a great way.
Jesus came and met her.
And she ended up preaching the gospel to a lot of people, bringing a lot of people to
Jesus.
And Jesus still loved her and cared about her and wanted to talk to her at the well
and made a point to preach unto her the gospel and so forth.
And so maybe that's you tonight.
Maybe you're one who's been divorced multiple times.
Or maybe you're one who has made a lot of mistakes in your past that you can't undo,
where you've done irreparable damage to your life.
But that doesn't mean that God doesn't have a Plan B for your life.
That doesn't mean that you should think that you have no place in His plan and in His work,
or that you have no place in our church.
Because there is a place for you.
There is a role for you to play.
Now, there are consequences to our actions.
For example, if you're one who's been divorced, then obviously the office of being a pastor
or a deacon is not for you, because the Bible has a specific criteria there for a bishop
or a deacon that he has to be the husband of one wife and one that ruleth well his own
house, who has faithful children not accused of riot or unruly.
So God has said that that door is closed for you.
But does that mean that there's nothing for you to do?
No, there's lots of other things that you could do to serve God as a Plan B for your
life.
And it's a dangerous thing when people commit a great sin and they think that it's all over,
and they think about just throwing in the towel.
Now here's another example of a guy who really messed up his life.
The children of Israel, they blew it big time.
They screwed up their lives and had to spend the rest of the time just wandering in the
desert.
And David, he really messed up his life too, because David had everything going for him.
God's blessing him.
He's a king of Israel, and he ended up committing adultery with Bathsheba.
And then he compounds his sin by then having her husband killed to try to cover up what
he had done because of the fact that she was pregnant.
But when he's confronted with the man of God telling him that he's done wrong, he's sorry,
and he repents.
And in Psalm 51, we see David's prayer unto God where he wants to continue to live for
God.
He wants to continue to serve God.
He's not going to quit just because he screwed up.
He's going to get back up and do it again.
You know the Bible says in Proverbs 24 verse 16, for a just man falleth seven times and
riseth up again, but the wicked shall fall into mischief.
If you fall into sin, if you commit sin, you fall off the wagon of whatever it is that
you've turned away from in your life, don't ever get the attitude that says, well, you
know what?
Now that I have failed God, now that I have committed this great sin, now that I have
just completely given it a temptation, what's the use?
I might as well just quit.
I might as well just give up.
Why do I even go to church?
Why even go to soul winning?
God can't use me.
You know, that is the wrong attitude.
You got to get back up, confess and forsake that sin and get right back into the battle.
Have you done irreparable damage to your life?
I hope not, but many things that you do will cause irreparable damage to your life.
You know, you young people, if you go out and commit fornication, you are going to do
irreparable damage to your life, irreparable damage to your testimony.
Those who would commit an even worse sin of going out and committing adultery, you're
doing irreparable damage to your life.
If you commit murder, if you commit other horrible sins or horrible crimes, you are
going to face consequences for those things, but don't ever get to the place where you
feel that God has nothing for you.
Now if you are saved, if you are a child of God and you are still on this earth breathing
air, then God still has something for you to do, otherwise he would just take you home.
As long as you are on this earth and as long as you are breathing, then God has something
for you to do.
Now, are there people out there that are unsaved that get to a point where God is through with
them, you know, and they are just reprobate unto him?
Of course, but we as God's children, we believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.
He has promised us I will never leave thee nor forsake thee and he has told us that nothing
can separate us from the love of God.
Nothing is able to separate us and that we always have work that he has for us to do
and even if it's not his first choice, he has a plan B for our lives where we can continue
to serve him in a different capacity perhaps, but we can continue to serve him all the time.
Even a guy like Samson, and we'll get to Psalm 51 in a moment, but even a guy like Samson,
I mean here's a guy who really messed up his life.
I mean here's a guy who is raised by godly parents.
God gives him this great gift where he has this supernatural strength and he's supposed
to use it to defeat the Philistines and to judge the children of Israel and to free them
from their oppressors and what does he end up doing with his life?
Well he ends up basically just chasing skirts and just keeps giving into the flesh and going
after fornication and he's with a prostitute here and he's fornicating here and he ends
up breaking God's law, he eats that which is unclean, he eats honey out of a dead body
when he was specifically told to stay away from that and eventually by being with this
whorish woman, Delilah, he ends up getting his hair cut off which he was not supposed
to cut off and he ends up just completely ruining his life.
I mean to the point where you wonder, is there anything left for this guy?
I mean they actually punch out his eyes to where he's completely blinded.
He's enslaved by the Philistines and he's actually just used to make a mockery of the
children of Israel and the God of Israel and they're praising their god Dagon and they're
making a mockery of this man of God, Samson, who was a great man of God, a spirit filled
man of God at one time but had ruined his life through fornication and now he's just
a complete fool, a complete laughing stock, a complete loser but yet the Bible says that
the hair of his head began to grow again and the symbolism there is that God still had
something for him.
God's given him another shot and he ends up doing in the end what his whole life was intended
to do.
That's what life intended to do in the first place.
He was there to deliver the children of Israel from the Philistines and he ends up delivering
the children of Israel from the Philistines even in his blinded, humiliated, chained up
condition because of course God gives him supernatural strength to push out the pillars
and bring down the whole palace upon himself and upon all the lords of the Philistines
and he actually slew more of the enemy in his death than he had done in his whole life.
Now that's not ideally how it would have happened.
I mean if I were Samson, I'd rather defeat the Philistines in battle and then ride the
victory parade home and rule over the children of Israel and grow to be old and gray-headed
and have my wife and my children and my grandchildren and judge Israel until I'm 100 years old and
then die in peace and be buried in a grave.
You know, that would be ideal, wouldn't it?
But Samson missed out on that by sinning.
It's not that there isn't consequence for our sin but that there is a plan B for our
lives and you know what?
I believe that it meant a lot to Samson to be able to fulfill the purpose of his life
in the end.
Even if he messed up his own life, you know, he got to do the thing that he was on this
earth to do, to free his people from the Philistines.
And so God had a plan B for his life.
Look at Psalm 51.
The Bible says in verse 1, this is David after he had sinned with Bathsheba and been confronted
by Nathan the prophet.
He says, Have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy lovingkindness, according unto the
multitude of thy tender mercies.
Blot out my transgressions, wash me thoroughly from mine iniquity and cleanse me from my
sin, for I acknowledge my transgressions and my sin is ever before me.
Against thee, thee only have I sinned and done this evil in thy sight, that thou mightest
be justified when thou speakest and be clear when thou judgest.
Behold I was shapen in iniquity and in sin did my mother conceive me.
Behold thou desirous truth in the inward parts and in the hidden part thou shalt make me
to know wisdom.
Purge me with hyssop and I shall be clean.
Wash me and I shall be whiter than snow.
Make me to hear joy and gladness that the bones which thou has broken may rejoice.
Hide thy face from my sins and blot out all my iniquities.
Hide in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.
Cast me not away from thy presence and take not thy Holy Spirit from me.
Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation and uphold me with thy free spirit.
Then will I teach transgressors thy ways and sinners shall be converted unto thee.
So David here, he's not making excuses for himself.
He's sorry.
He's confessing his sin.
He's taking all the responsibility and he says, God, I want to continue to serve you.
I want to continue to be used by you.
Now of course David did not lose his salvation and was never in danger of losing his salvation
because our salvation is eternal and no one can lose their salvation because once you're
saved you're always saved because, you know, the Bible teaches that we have eternal life
and that we're not saved by our works but we're saved by grace.
Even in the Old Testament they're saved by grace.
Man has always been saved by grace.
That's the only way any man would ever be saved in the first place is if it were a free
gift because if God would mark iniquities no one would be able to stand.
But in this passage when he says, take not thy Holy Spirit from me.
This is not the New Testament indwelling of the Holy Spirit.
That was not given until Jesus rose from the dead but rather this is the power of God on
his life.
If you remember the Spirit of God departed from Saul.
He did not have the Spirit of Lord upon him anymore and the power of God to rule and reign
and to do the work of God.
The Spirit of Lord departed from Saul and rested on David and David did not want that
to happen.
He did not want to go through the rest of his life not serving God, not being used by
God, not having the power of God.
So he asked God to please renew a right spirit within him, not to cast him away from his
presence or take his Holy Spirit from him and not to restore the salvation because he
never lost the salvation.
He said, restore to me the joy of thy salvation.
You see when we go into sin we don't lose our salvation but we lose the joy of our salvation.
Sin does not bring joy.
Sin robs the joy out of our lives and depresses us and makes us sad because the Bible says
in 1 John for example chapter 1 it says, these things write we unto you that your joy may
be full and then just a few verses later at the beginning of chapter 2 he says my little
children these things write I unto you that you sin not.
Now that tells me that sinning not leads to fullness of joy.
The more we sin the less joy we're going to have.
The less we sin the more joy we're going to have in our lives because sin robs us of our
joy and so he says restore unto me the joy of thy salvation and uphold me with thy free
spirit but I love verse 13.
He's not done.
He's not done serving God.
He's not done working for God.
He wants to be used by God.
He said then will I teach transgressors thy ways and sinners shall be converted unto thee.
He's saying you know what I'm going to continue to win people to the Lord.
I'm going to continue to preach the word of God and people will be saved as a result of
the word that I preach.
I mean isn't that great that God has a plan B here for the life of David where even after
he's committed these horrible sins he can still do something great for God.
Now was there irreparable damage to his life?
Of course.
You know we know the story of what happened with Absalom, what happened with Amnon and
what happened with Adonijah and we know what happened with the baby that was born from
this adulterous union.
The four children that David lost as a result of this sin but yet was his life over?
Should he just throw in the towel or should he just say well you know I've committed such
a big sin.
I might as well just go all the way into a life of sin and just start worshiping other
gods or committing adultery all over the place.
No he realized that there's still hope to confess, forsake that sin and continue to
live a life that would please God and not be a complete loser for the rest of your life.
Just because you've messed up in the past, just because you've blown it majorly it doesn't
mean that you have to be a loser for the rest of your life.
You can start right now, you can start today and get on God's plan B for your life and
head for the Red Sea.
And even if you messed up repeatedly like the children of Israel are told, go into the
Promised Land, they won't go, then he has to punish them.
Then he says okay you're not going to go in the Promised Land.
They say oh okay well now we're going.
He punishes them again.
And then he says now go to the Red Sea.
And they still had the opportunity to get back in the will of God.
You know God's direction in their lives, God's leading, God's will was represented by that
cloudy pillar by day and the pillar of fire by night that would lead them.
God's presence in the camp showing them where to go.
And that cloudy pillar and that fire by night was still there even after they'd disobeyed
God and it led them to the Red Sea, it led them around Mount Seir, it led them to wander
in the wilderness for 40 years.
And they learned the lessons and they taught their children and their children grew up
and were a generation that believed God and took the Promised Land.
And we read all the great victories in the book of Joshua.
Maybe you've messed up your life but your children could still rise up and do great
things for God.
You could still raise godly children.
And maybe some of the things that you could have done with your life that you're not going
to be able to do anymore, maybe they could grow up and do it.
And then your life still has great purpose and value because you're being used by God
to raise up that next preacher or that next godly soul winner, whatever the case may be.
Now let me give you another example of this in John chapter 21.
John chapter number 21, of course we know the story of Peter denying the Lord Jesus
Christ three times in his hour of need.
And the Bible talks about how as a result of denying the Lord, when Jesus looks on him
and he realizes what he's done and it really registers with him that he's denied Christ
three times, the Bible says in Luke 22, 62, and Peter went out and wept bitterly.
He wept bitterly at the fact that he had denied Christ.
And he feels that it's over for him.
He's ready to quit.
He's ready to throw in the towel.
Now if you remember when Jesus found Peter, he was a fisherman.
And he'd been told by Jesus from henceforth, thou shall catch men.
He said, follow me and I'll make you fishers of men.
And he forsook the net.
He forsook the ship.
And he gave up the life of fishermen in order to follow Jesus Christ and be with him day
and night because that was what was expected of the apostles.
They had to drop everything and just follow Jesus for those three and a half years.
And they had to give up their former jobs, their former lives.
Jesus wasn't going to wait around for them and work around their schedule.
They had to get on his program, if you recall.
And that's why there were only a few that followed him in that way.
And so Peter in John chapter 21 verse 1 is discouraged and down.
He's denied the Lord.
He's wept bitterly.
And he feels that he's failed.
He feels that it's over for him.
Look at verse 1.
After these things, Jesus showed himself again to the disciples of the Sea of Tiberias.
And on this wise showed he himself.
There were together Simon Peter and Thomas called Didymus and Nathaniel of Cana and Galilee
and the sons of Zebedee and two other of his disciples.
Simon Peter saith unto them, I go a-fishing.
Now what he should have been saying is, let's go soul winning.
But instead he said, I go a-fishing.
They say unto him, we also go with thee.
They went forth and entered into a ship immediately, and that night they caught nothing.
So there's so much that we can learn just from these first few verses.
Number 1, when you quit on God, you end up taking other people with you.
Because Peter is the one that blew it.
Peter is the one that's discouraged.
But when he says, I'm going fishing, he takes half the disciples with him.
Yeah, we're going too.
I go too with you.
And he ends up dragging other people away from the will of God as well.
So remember that even though your life may be messed up, you've got to think about your
children and you've got to think about your brothers and sisters in Christ and what a
discouragement it will be to them when you fully quit and throw in the towel.
And it says also that when they went forth and entered into a ship immediately and that
night they caught nothing.
Another thing that you see is that after you've served God, after you've been used greatly
by God, and then you decide to go back to the old life and you get backslidden and quit
on God.
When you go back to the old life, it's not the way that you remember it.
You know, you go back and there's nothing there for you anymore.
It's empty.
You know, you think you're going to enjoy it, but you're not.
Because it's not going to have the same appeal once you've tasted, you know, what the Lord
has for you and then you go back to the world's garbage.
It's just not what it used to be to you.
Verse 4, But when the morning was now come, Jesus stood on the shore, but the disciples
knew not that it was Jesus.
Then Jesus saith unto them, Children, have ye any meat?
They answered him, No.
And he said unto them, Cast the net on the right side of the ship, and ye shall find.
They cast therefore, and now they were not able to draw it in for the multitude of fishes.
For that disciple whom Jesus loved saith unto Peter, It is the Lord.
Now when Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he girt his fisher's coat unto him,
for he was naked, and he cast himself into the sea.
And the other disciples came in a little ship, for they were not far from land, but as it
were two hundred cubits dragging the net with fishes.
Now the significance of this is that when Jesus first called Peter, a story almost just
like this happened, where Peter had toiled all night and caught nothing.
Jesus tells him to cast the net on the other side, he casts the net, he brings in the fishes.
Why is Jesus doing this?
He's trying to tell Peter that we can push a reset button here.
You can start over.
Now think about this with the children of Israel.
Where does he tell them to go?
The Red Sea.
What's he doing?
He's bringing them back and saying, Let's start over.
Let's do this again.
Let's go back to square one.
I'm giving you another chance.
It's plan B for your life.
And here we see the same thing.
He's bringing Peter back to the initial calling and he's showing Peter that he still has something
for him.
It says in verse 9, as soon as they were come to land, they saw a fire of coals there and
fish laid thereon and bred.
Jesus saith unto them, Bring of the fish which you've now caught.
Simon Peter went up and drew the net to land, full of great fishes, one hundred and fifty-three,
and for all that there were so many, yet was not the net broken.
Jesus saith unto them, Come and dine.
And none of the disciples durst ask him, Who art thou?
Knowing that it was the Lord.
So they dared not ask.
They were nervous.
They were kind of uncomfortable.
Probably because they'd been caught doing that which they were not supposed to be doing.
And so they feel a little bit embarrassed.
Peter was literally caught with his pants down, you know, according to the story there
in verse number seven.
But the Bible says in verse number 13, Jesus then cometh and taketh bread and giveth them
and fish likewise.
This is now the third time that Jesus showed himself to his disciples after that he was
risen from the dead.
So when they had dined, Jesus saith to Simon Peter, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me
more than these?
He saith unto them, Yea, Lord, thou knowest that I love thee.
He saith unto him, Feed my lambs.
He saith to them again the second time, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me?
He saith unto him, Yea, Lord, thou knowest that I love thee.
He saith unto him, Feed my sheep.
He saith unto him the third time, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me?
Peter was grieved because he said unto him the third time, lovest thou me?
And he said unto him, Lord, thou knowest all things.
Thou knowest that I love thee.
Jesus saith unto him, Feed my sheep.
Verily, verily, I say unto thee, when thou was young, thou girdest thyself, and walkest
whither thou wouldest.
But when thou shalt be old, thou shalt stretch forth thine hands, and another shalt gird
thee, and carry thee whither thou wouldest not.
This spake he signifying by what death he should glorify God.
And when he had spoken this, he saith unto him, Follow me.
So here, Jesus tells Peter that he's going to go somewhere that he doesn't want to go.
He's going to face a death that he doesn't want to face.
He's going to go through punishments and tribulations that he doesn't want to endure
because of his disobedience to God as a consequence, because there are consequences to our sins.
But he still says, follow me.
You know, there's still something for you.
We can still start over.
And of course, we know that Peter was greatly used by God after this.
Just look at the book of Acts.
Look at the day of Pentecost.
Look at him in the temple preaching and boldly in front of the Jews and the Sanhedrin and
all the great works for God and the book of 1 Peter and the book of 2 Peter and all the
amazing things.
I mean, if he would have thrown in the towel at this point, he would not have even done
his greatest works, not even close.
But he says to him, follow me.
He's giving him another chance.
He's reinstated.
The Bible says in verse 20, then Peter, turning about, seeth the disciple whom Jesus loved
following, which also leaned on his breast at supper and said, Lord, which is he that
betrayeth thee?
Peter seeing him sayeth to Jesus, Lord, what shall this man do?
Jesus sayeth unto him, if I will, that he tarry till I come, what is that to thee?
Follow thou me.
What basically Peter is asking is, well, what's the difference between what you have for my
life and what you have for the guy who's done it all right?
And I'm not saying John was a perfect person, but he was the one who did it right.
You know, he's the one who stays with Jesus.
He follows Jesus in with them.
He doesn't deny Christ.
He stays right with.
He's at the cross.
Jesus is hanging on the cross.
John's right there, you know, when everybody's fleeing and people are saying they don't know
him.
You know, John was the one who goes with him into the, you know, into the court or he's
there the whole process.
And he'd done it all right as it were.
Not saying he's perfect, but he had done things right more than any of the other disciples.
You know, and in that sense, you could look at it and say he's the best one, you know,
in the sense that he was the most faithful, obedient, and so forth.
And so he asked the question, you know, well, what shall this man do?
And Jesus basically just says, well, you know, that's none of your business.
It doesn't really matter.
I mean, if he tarries until I come, what is that to thee?
You know, and then of course he explains how there became a misunderstanding where people
thought that he's just never going to die.
But in reality, Jesus was just saying that as a figure of speech.
Well, if I will, that he tarried until I come, what is that to thee?
You follow me.
And so the lesson here is that if we've messed up our lives, we shouldn't focus on what we've
missed out on and, oh, man, this is what I could have done and just keep saying, you
know, well, look what that guy's doing and that could have been me.
I could have been doing that.
But instead I'm just doing this.
You know, we need to just be thankful that God still has a place for us and be thankful
that God's ready to restore us, that Jesus still wants us to follow him, that there are
great works for us to do, that we can be used greatly by God.
Instead of worrying about what we've lost, the Bible says, forgetting those things which
are behind and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark
for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.
You know, John, I mean, John got to write the book of John, you know, arguably the greatest
book in the Bible, the book that's to tell you how to be saved, the book that's been
translated into more languages than any book of the Bible, the book of John.
I mean, if people just translate one book into some tribal language, it's usually the
Gospel of John.
I mean, that's the book that they usually start with.
I mean, he got to pin down the greatest Bible verse, John 3.16, that virtually everyone
in the world has heard.
You know, of course, Peter got to write first and second Peter, but John got to write first,
second and third John.
But you know, and I'm kidding, of course, but the point is that God has something for
you as a plan B for your life and we are not envy other people and lament the fact that
we didn't get to go to the Promised Land and we didn't get to defeat the Canaanites.
All we got to do was defeat Og, you know, and Sihon, the kings of Bashan.
That's all we got to do and, you know, we didn't really get to do as much as that guy.
Who cares?
You know, live your own life.
The Bible says that if we compare ourselves amongst ourselves, we're not wise.
And so just realize that God's grace is sufficient for you, that if you're under the sound of
my voice and you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ as your savior and you're a born again
child of God, that your life is not over until you are dead.
And you always have something else that God can use you to do and you need to stay in
the battle, stay on course, don't go back to the world, don't get backslidden and don't
get this foolish idea that while all sins equal, so if I, you know, if I committed this
sin I might as well just go all the way.
No, because number one, all sins not equal, number one.
And number two, just because you've committed one sin, if you commit another sin, you're
compounding the punishment, it's just going to go worse.
For example, Samson, when he ate out of the lion carcass, he's already broken the vow
of the Nazarite that he was supposed to do from the cradle to the grave, he was supposed
to be a Nazarite unto the Lord.
So he violated that by eating out of the lion's carcass.
So at that point, he could have just said, oh, well, I've failed, I've blown it, I might
as well just go all the way.
But here's the thing, when he'd eaten out of the lion carcass, God looked the other
way and didn't take away his strength.
It was only when he had gone a step further and not only eaten that which was unclean,
but also had his hair cut off that God took away his strength, that God took away his
power.
And even then, there was still more for Samson.
So the point is, just because you've committed adultery, don't add murder to it, David.
Just because you've eaten out of the dirty lion carcass, don't add the haircut to that.
You know, I mean, don't just go further in it.
But this is what people tend to do in the Bible, and this is what people tend to do
in our lives, where they commit a sin and they just say, oh, I've blown it.
Like for example, let's say you're an alcoholic, right?
And then you quit drinking.
Actually, I'm sorry, not an alcoholic, you're a drunk, okay?
So let's say you're a drunk, and then you get cleaned up of alcohol, right?
And then let's say you fall off the wagon and drink a beer.
Would you at that point say, well, I just blew it, I'd been totally clean for X amount
of months, and now I drunk a beer.
So since I just blew it, I might as well just go out and just get completely drunk, right?
Or wouldn't it be better to just say, okay, I drank one beer, not the end of the world,
let's pick it up tomorrow and start over and continue being sober.
But people have this all or nothing mentality where they commit a sin and then they just
throw in the towel instead of being the just man who falls seven times and rises up again.
You know, it reminds me of Brother Paul and his Starbucks addiction, okay?
Because like, you know, he'd been clean of Starbucks for like six weeks, all right?
And then, you know, he fell off the wagon.
I don't know, I think he was having a real stressful, I think I was stressing him out
or something, we were traveling or doing something.
And you know, he just needed a Starbucks, right?
But then after he fell into that temptation of Starbucks, and I'm kidding, of course,
because I'm not saying there's anything wrong with drinking coffee, I'm joking.
But then it was like, but he wanted to quit drinking the coffee.
Then after like six weeks of being clean of Starbucks coffee, then all of a sudden, he's
just drinking like three, four a day and it's just like, whoa, buddy, get back on the wagon.
But I'm telling you, that's the mentality, and I'm just teasing, I'm just joking, obviously.
But isn't that human nature though?
I mean, you could use illustrations about anything with that, you know, and the coffee
thing is a silly illustration, of course.
But like, for example, you know, I had this thing where I was gonna run every single day
and I was on this running streak where I had to run at least one mile every single day.
And you know, I did it for like 94 days straight.
You know, I ran at least one mile, some days I ran way more than that.
But I ran at least one mile every day, even on my day off of training, run one mile, one
mile, one mile.
And I did that for like 94 days straight, but then I got like the flu or something.
And I was really sick and I was just like, I'm gonna go run the mile anyway.
And so I go out there and I'm like, you know, it's like, I can do it, you know.
So I get to where I just finished my mile and you know, you know what they say, it only
hurts when you stop.
As soon as I stopped running, I just dropped my knees, you know, in someone else's, in
front of somebody else's house and just threw up in the gutter repeatedly.
And I was just on my hands and knees just puking my guts out, you know.
And you know, I got up and just stumbled back to my house, I was just like, wow, I shouldn't
have done that.
And then, you know, the next day I didn't run again, you know, so I missed like two
days.
And then I was like, okay, let's get back after it.
But you know what, I just couldn't get back into it because it was just like, I failed.
I broke the running streak, you know, and it was just depressing to be a day one or
day two or day three.
But you know what, that's a foolish mentality.
You know, so what, I mean, in the scheme of things, if you ran 360 days that year because
you got the flu and missed a few days, I mean, that's still a lot of running, right.
I mean, you're still doing a lot of running.
And it probably wouldn't affect your fitness whatsoever if you missed three days of running
or something.
I mean, it's not going to affect anything.
I mean, drinking that one Starbucks probably isn't affecting anything if you think about
it in the scheme of things, okay.
But the point is, sometimes it's hard for us when we fail to get back on the horse.
But you know what, we have to get this thing down of repenting and being restored and getting
back up again after we fall.
Because you know what, you're going to fall.
And God forbid you ever fall as hard as some of these Bible characters fail.
You know, God forbid you would, I'm not saying, yeah, everybody's going to commit adultery
and murder and you know, no, no, no.
But what I'm saying is, you know, God forbid you fall that hard.
But when you fall, not if you fall, when you fall, and hopefully it's a much more minor
fall than that.
But when you fall, you have to know to get back up again.
And you have to know that God's mercies are new every morning.
You know, the running streak can start again any morning.
You know, the coffee abstinence, you know, I'm just kidding.
I don't want people to, people are going to be like, wow, Pastor Anderson thinks coffee
is a sin.
I don't.
I'm not a Seventh-day Adventist or a Mormon, okay.
I don't think coffee is a sin.
But I'm just using that as an illustration.
And the point is, we need to realize that there's always a plan B for our lives.
And that it's never too late to start over.
Why don't you start over tonight?
Why don't you wake up tomorrow morning and realize, you know what, no matter what stupid
things you've been doing, no matter what sins you've been doing, no matter how you've been
failing, why don't you just start over tomorrow morning and just say, you know what, I'm going
to do it right today.
I'm going to get in God's will now.
Maybe I didn't head for the Red Sea yesterday like I was supposed to, but you know what,
today I'm heading for the Red Sea.
Today I'm going out soul winning.
Today I'm going to do it right.
Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer.
Father, we thank you so much for your word, Lord, and we thank you for the second chances
and third chances that you give us, Lord.
Of course, help us never to get this attitude that there's no consequence when we do wrong,
Lord.
Of course, there are major consequences, but help us to always realize that there's a plan
B for our lives, Lord.
And help us never to get so discouraged that we just get swallowed up of over much sorrow
and just throw in the towel, Lord.
Help us to keep on going, and in Jesus' name we pray, amen.