Transcription
It's easy to be confident. Let me say this: as long as God is doing what we expect, it's only when God begins to do something, something begins to happen that we don't expect, that our confidence is [Music] [Applause] shaken.
Hey everybody, welcome to lesson seven of Breaking Intimidation. And we are going to talk about the root of intimidation on this one. Let's read our scripture: "For God has not given us the spirit of intimidation, but of power," which we talked about in the last lesson, "of love, and of a sound mind."
Now, let's focus on the love part. Having a positive mental attitude will not overcome intimidation. We must understand this. Freedom has nothing to do with being an extrovert, okay? I've seen extroverted people that don't have a lot of depth as far as having a spirit of love. And I've seen quiet people who have a tremendous depth. Sometimes an outgoing demeanor can actually be a cover-up for timidity. I have seen that if not once, probably over a hundred times.
So, let me ask some questions. Do you ever feel the need to overcompensate for your fears and insecurities? Have you ever felt like you had to fake confidence or conjure up confidence? Do you feel the need to impress others?
Let's talk about Simon Peter, all right? It appeared that he was fearless, and he was bold. I mean, after all, come on, this is Simon Peter, the outspoken one. "You're the Christ." Well, a lot of people when they read the Gospels and they look at what Simon Peter did, they say, "Oh, he was really a chicken. He was really all talk." Can I say this? You know, this is where people dismiss, you know, Peter denying Jesus. He's all talk. He's chicken. I don't know too many chickens who, when he's facing a fully armed dispatch of soldiers, will take a sword, and which he's with a bunch of fishermen and tax collectors, and he will take one of two swords that they have and attack the leader of that army's servant. I don't know a lot of chickens that will do that. So, let's be really honest. We can't easily dismiss him denying Jesus as just being all talk or chicken, okay? So, let's settle that right now.
All right, Peter defended Jesus against those troops. And I'm going to read this. I want you to hear this: "Then Judas, having received a detachment of troops and officers from the chief priests and Pharisees, came there with lanterns, torches, and weapons." And that's when Peter takes that sword and cuts and attacks that leader of that army's right ear.
Now, the next question we're going to ask is, if he's so bold, why does he deny Jesus in front of a servant girl? He is literally intimidated by a servant girl that night. So, there's a lot more at play here than just what you see at the surface. And I want to go through this carefully because this lesson is so important to understand. To, we're going to have to, to answer why he's intimidated by a servant girl. Here's a guy who attacks with a sword an army, and then he's intimidated by a servant girl.
To understand why this happens, we got to go earlier in the evening. At the Last Supper, Jesus makes this statement in Matthew: "All of you will be made to stumble because of me this night." Now, that's a heavy statement. He's looking at his 12 closest followers and he says, "All of you are going to be made to stumble." Well, Peter's the first one. He's always the outspoken one. He's the guy that walks on the water. He's the guy that says, "You're the Christ." Peter says, "Even if all of these guys are made to stumble because of you, I will never, never be made to stumble." Jesus says, "Oh yeah, Peter, before the rooster crows, you're going to deny me three times." Peter doesn't back down. Peter says to Jesus, "Hey, even if I have to die with you, I will not deny you."
Now, looks like he's got boldness, but what is fueling his boldness? Okay, remember, he's walking on the water. He's bold enough to get out of the boat, but yet he starts sinking. There's something here with Peter that we've got to understand at this point, okay? Motives can be different than our appearances. And we all know that on the surface, it appears that Peter had great courage and pure motives. But on closer inspection, we find something other than the love of God motivating him.
Because in Luke's account of this very same situation, Jesus makes the statement in Luke 22:21: "One of you was going to betray me." Now, I love Luke's account because he gives a little bit more insight to what happens after that statement. That's verse 21. The very next verse, the disciples are looking at each other going, "Who could do such a thing?" Well, now, let's stop and think about this, all right? They're questioning, "Who could do such a thing?" But you know what the very next verse says? Verse 24: "It says, 'Now there was a dispute among them as to which of them should be considered the greatest.'" So, they start out the conversation, "Who could, who among us could ever do this?" Well, I'm sure that this led to, "Who was the greatest disciple?" And you have to remember, Peter's the most outspoken. He is the one that walked on the water. He did go to the Trans-Mountain of Transfiguration. He is the one that said, "You're the Christ, the Son of the Living God." He is the most outspoken of all of them. And I'm sure he's reminding all of them that it could never be him that betrays Jesus because of this, because of, "I'm the one that knows He's the Christ. I'm the closest. I'm in the inner three." All these things, right? So, we can see that there's probably a little pride at work here, right? And this is why Jesus said, "Hey, Peter, Satan desires to sift you as wheat."
And so, they leave that dinner and they go right to the Garden of Gethsemane. Now, Gethsemane literally means oil press. So, in other words, when you have an olive, you can't get olive oil out of it until you press it. That's what the word Gethsemane means. And we go, go to Gethsemane, and Jesus is surrendering to the will of the Father. This is the first time in all the Gospels that we see the will of Jesus and the will of Father, the will of the Father, as two separate things. Because Jesus makes the statement, "Oh, my Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me. Nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will." In all the other accounts of the Gospels, Jesus said the will of the Father and my will are synonymous. You can never tell the difference. But here, actually says, "Father, if there's another way this can happen, please let it happen. But not my will, but yours be done."
At the very same time, he tells Peter, James, and John to pray. Because, you see, Jesus' soul is deeply sorrowful. He's in a battle. Is he going to allow self-preservation to win, or is he going to allow the love for his Father to win? The disciples are going through the same battle. Are they going to allow self-preservation to win, or are they going to allow the love for Jesus to win? Jesus battles this for an hour and comes back and finds them sleeping because the Bible says they were sleeping from sorrow.
So, what's going on here? Jesus is motivated by the love of his Father. But what's worth finding out in this oil press is what's really motivating these guys. It's self-preservation. They can't even stay awake to battle and contend in the hour of temptation. So, three hours Jesus prays and battles through. Three hours these guys sleep. And what we find out is Peter thought he loved Jesus more than his own life. But the oil press of Gethsemane exposed his motives and his self-preservation. Peter's boldness was drawn from his desire of the approval of others.
It's easy to be confident. Let me say this: as long as God is doing what we expect, it's only when God begins to do something, something begins to happen that we don't expect, that our confidence is shaken. Think about it. Jesus is there in the water. Peter says, "Let me walk on the water," because he knows Jesus is going to bail him out if he starts sinking. Peter's in the same situation. When that army comes out, he says, "I'm going to attack this army," because I know Jesus will bail me out, just like he's always done before. But you know what happens? Jesus gets arrested. This is something that none of those disciples expected. Even though Jesus said over and over, "I'm going to be betrayed into the hands of sin. I'm going to be crucified and raised on the third day." They were, they were deaf to hearing that. And so, they're fully expecting Jesus to somehow deliver them from this situation like he has always done before. But when Jesus gets arrested and brought to the high priest, everything's changed.
Hey, the other, now, now let's talk about it. Judas is gone, so we got 11. John and Peter follow Jesus to that trial. The other nine disciples run for their lives. So, Peter got further than any of those other nine. At least Peter and John follow Jesus to that trial. Now, everything's different. And now God is not moving the way Peter expects him to move. And the little servant girl looks at Peter and says, "You're one of them." And Peter immediately denies Jesus. Why? He's preserving his life. You see, it got exposed in the Garden of Gethsemane. Jesus fought to lay down his life. Peter slept. And therefore, even though he said he would die, he couldn't lay down his life.
It's so important that we understand this. And so, 1 John 4:17 makes this statement: "Love has been perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness." Listen to the word boldness. Remember, it's a spirit of love, a spirit of power, and a spirit of a sound mind that produces boldness in us to break the spirit of intimidation. "That we may have boldness. There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves torment." Torment always says, "What's going to happen to me?" Fear is rooted in self-preservation.
I will never forget the day I was, uh, in a hotel room. I had just gotten done, uh, with a service, and fear hit my life about my sons. I started thinking about a minister who he lost his son to electrocution. Another couple ministers lost their kids to car wrecks. Another minister lost his son to a drowning. Another minister lost his his son to a disease. And I started getting fearful for my, my sons. And I'll never forget, God spoke to me and he said, "Son, any area of your life that you have fear in is an area of your life you have not submitted to me. You haven't put it on under the cross." And I was riveted by that statement. And I remember jumping up. I, I was actually taking my shoes off when he said that to me. I jumped up from the bed and I screamed, "Austin is not mine. He belongs to you, God." I said, "Austin is not mine. He belongs to you, God." And I started systematically shouting out the names of our sons and saying, "They don't belong to me. They belong to God." I said, "God, I'm a steward. You've made me a dad of what belongs to you." I said, "You can do whatever you want with those boys." I said, "If you want to take them halfway around the world, that's fine with me." I said, "But devil, you're never killing him." And you know, since that night in that hotel, I've never fought the fear of losing my sons. Why? Because in love, I submitted them to God. I said, "They belong to you." I will not fear. Torment was the torment was, "Your son's going to get electrocuted. Your son's going to die in a car wreck. Your son's going to do..." And I screamed that night and I said, "I'm giving those boys to God because I know God loves them perfectly, and I know he loves me perfectly. And so, I don't own them anymore."
You know, when you don't own your own life, but you love God, because "greater love has this than no one, that he lays down his life," when you lay down your life for Jesus, fear leaves your life. Do you want to know why so many people in churches battle fear? It's because they truly, just like Peter thought he could die for Jesus, but he really couldn't. They truly, truly haven't fully laid down their life.
Let me tell you, Peter, after the resurrection, Jesus said, "Do you love me, Peter?" And Peter was like, "Yes, I love you. Feed my sheep." And he goes through it three times. But this is what's interesting. Jesus tells Peter how he's going to leave this earth. He said, "When you were young, you wanted to go wherever you wanted to go. But when you're old, somebody's going to take you and bind you and take you to a place you don't want to go." Thus signifying the death. And Peter, historically, was crucified just like Jesus. Except Peter said, "I'm not going to be crucified like my Lord master." So, they turned his cross upside down. Peter was brave. He had that boldness. He was able to lay his life down for Jesus. God gave him a chance to face what he failed at again. And this time, he didn't fail.
But you know what's interesting is Peter looked at Jesus and said, "Well, what about John?" And Jesus said, "What about John? Quit comparing yourself with everybody else. You follow me." And when Peter was filled with the love of God on the day of Pentecost, when he was filled with the Spirit, he had the ability to face what he failed at and he succeeded. Let me tell you something, perfect love produces a boldness. Hey, I don't know too many people that could look at a bunch of soldiers and say, "I'm not going to die like my Lord," and they turn him upside down. I'm telling you, that is magnificent when you think about it.
There is a statement that I, I want to read here at the very end of this book. So, Andrew, the brother of Peter, he was one of the ones that, remember, that fled as soon as they arrested Jesus. Andrew preached in Ethiopia and he refused to worship the Roman idols, and they sentenced him to death. I want you to listen to what he says as he's walking towards the cross. Andrew, going towards the place of execution and seeing the cross waiting for him, never changed his expression, neither did he fail in speech. His body fainted not, nor did his reason fail him, as often happens to men about to die. He said this is what came out of the mouth of Andrew: "Oh, cross, most welcome and long for, with a willing mind, joyful and desirously, I come to you, being a scholar of him which did hang on you, because I have always been your lover and yearned to embrace you." That is what he said to the cross as they marched him towards his execution.
I think it's magnificent that God gives us an opportunity to succeed in an area that might have intimidated us and caused us to fail in the past. I'm telling you, when you think about the grace of God, it is amazing. So, don't be fearful. Don't be intimidated. God's not given you a spirit of fear, but he's given you a spirit of power, a spirit of love, and a spirit of a sound mind. In the next lesson, we'll talk about a sound mind and how that gives us the ability to not cower in fear. [Music] Yeah.