Find Your Faith! | Steve Henderson

Good morning, my brothers and sisters. Hallelujah. Can we give God some praise he's worthy of this morning? Bless him. Bless him. We get a chance to let him speak to us. This is his word. You believe this? Yes. Amen.

So we're praying. Would you pray with me? Father, thank you. Thank you that your word has all power. You say that your word and you declare that it's sharper than any two edged sword, that it cuts going in and coming out. God, it takes surgery on us. The places that are broken, God, you fix. The places that need to be broken, you break and repair. So we just thank you God that you are the God that speaks to us. You've declared that your word shall not return to you void but that it shall accomplish what you've sent forth forward to do. So speak to us now, would you? By your spirit. You said it's not by might, it's not by power, but it's about my spirit, saith the Lord. So speak to us individually and collectively as your people. Help us to listen, and then help us to apply your word to our lives. We love you God, and we thank you in Jesus' name. Amen.

Can we praise him again? Hallelujah. I tell people when they come to church, you're at the right place for praise. If you come here for any other reason but to praise the Lord, there's several doors. But when you come here, the right place is for praise and for worship. Amen? And for his word that he might speak to us.

Simon Peter's Great Moments

So let's open up his word. I want to share with us today about a gentleman that's known as Simon. Sometimes they call him Simeon. We know him best as Simon Peter. Simon Peter and his brother Nathaniel were disciples of Jesus, and Simon Peter was kind of the outspoken one. But Simon Peter had some great moments. So let's look at some of those great moments right now in Matthew chapter 16 verse 13 through 18.

Now when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, "Who do people say that the Son of Man is?" And they said, "Some say John the Baptist, others say Elijah, and others, Jeremiah, or one of the prophets." He said to them, "But who do you say that I am?" Simon Peter replied, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God." And Jesus answered, "Blessed are you Simon Bar Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven. And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it." — Matthew 16:13-18

Simon declares here by the power of the Holy Spirit that Jesus was the Christ, the Messiah. And Jesus lets him know that flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven. The Holy Spirit gives this to Simon Peter. A great moment for Simon Peter. Can you say that? A great moment? A great moment for Simon Peter.

And Jesus does this. He says, no longer shall your name be called Simon Bar Jonah, but I'm giving you a new name. Jesus says his new name is gonna be called Cephas, an Aramaic term of the Greek name which means Peter or Petros, meaning little rock. Petros, the little rock, but that little rock means stability, stable. So he gives Simon a new name. Man, that's great. You know what? We got new names too. If you've accepted Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, you're no longer a sinner, but you're a saint. Somebody shout hallelujah for that. We've got new names.

So here, Peter has a great moment and the Holy Spirit speaks to him and he declares that Jesus is the Christ, the Messiah, the anointed one. And then he takes his new name, but then here's another great moment. Here's another great moment.

In Matthew fourteen, twenty-two through thirty-two:

Immediately he made the disciples get into the boat and go before him to the other side while he dismissed the crowds. And after he dismissed the crowds, he went up on the mountain by himself. When evening came, he was there alone. But the boat by this time was a long way from land, beaten by the waves for the wind was against them. — Matthew 14:22-25

This is Jesus. Let me tell you who would not have been on that boat in the middle of the water. Some of us, we go to the beach and we're looking, we take our little binoculars and we watch the dolphins and all of that, and then we watch the guys that come fishing on the sea, the shrimp boats. Yeah. And man, they're out on the ocean and people call them dinghies. That's a whole lot of water to be out on that little boat.

But these guys, these disciples had been out on the water trying to get to the other side just as Jesus had instructed them, but the winds and the waves were beating against them. They were still trying to make it. And verse 25 says, in the fourth watch of the night, he came to them.

Between three and six in the morning, Jesus comes and scripture says he came walking on the sea. But when the disciples saw him walking on the sea, they were terrified and they said, "It's a ghost." And they cried out in fear, but immediately Jesus spoke to them saying, "Take heart. It is I. Do not be afraid."

And Peter answered him, "Lord, if it's you, command me to come to you out on the water." Did y'all hear that? Peter said, "Lord, if it's you, command me to come to you on the water." And Jesus said, "Come." So Peter got out of the boat and walked on the water and came to Jesus.

I wish I could say end of story, but that's not the end. Most of you know, as scripture mentions, when he saw the wind, he was afraid and beginning to sink. He cried out, "Lord, save me." Jesus immediately reached out his hand and took hold of him saying to him, "Oh, you of little faith, why did you doubt?" And when they got back into the boat, the wind ceased.

I still declare to you all, this is a great moment. None of us can say we walked on water. None of the other disciples—there were twelve of them in the boat. Scripture doesn't say anything about John saying "Lord, if it's you," or James saying "Lord, if it's you." Peter was the only one that found his faith and said, "Lord, if it's you, call me to come." He got out of the boat and laid his testimony on the line. When we get to heaven and we see Peter, he's gonna say, "You see what they wrote about me? I walked on water. You saw that, right?" Peter is the only one that has that testimony. A great moment for Peter, but now not so great a moment.

When Tests Come

Simon, Simon, behold, Satan has asked for you, that he may sift you as wheat. But I have prayed for you that your faith should not fail. And when you have returned to me, strengthen your brethren. — Luke 22:31-34

Peter said to him, "Lord, I am ready to go with you both to prison and to death." Then he said, "I tell you, Peter, the rooster shall not crow this day before you will deny three times that you know me." — Luke 22:33-34

What struck me in this passage is Jesus addresses Peter not as Cephas, not as Petros—the rock, the one with stability. He says, "Simon, Simon, Satan has desired to sift you as wheat." This indicates that Jesus knew that when this test came knocking on Peter's door, he was not gonna answer the door by faith, but he was gonna answer the door by flesh. He called him Simon, Simon—by his old name. And Simon does just that. He answers the door in his flesh, and he fails the test.

Let me just ask you a couple of questions. When tests and trials come knocking on your door, who answers the door? Your flesh or your faith? When tests come knocking on your door, do you run in fear or do you stand in faith? When the test and the trials come to you, do you look at what you can offer—your resources and your power? Or do you bow on your knee saying, "Lord, I can't do this without you. There's no way I can do this without you. Sure, I have all of this money. I have all of these resources, but I can do nothing without you"? How do you handle the test?

That's what Peter is gonna ask us today. And he's gonna give us some instruction on how we should handle these tests. But notice this: Jesus does not address Peter this way because he tells him, "Satan has desired to sift you as wheat, but I've prayed for you that your faith doesn't fail." He didn't pray that Satan wouldn't sift him. He didn't pray that Peter wouldn't go through the test.

So I submit to you: Could it be possible that tests might be beneficial for us? Could it be possible that the tests come to see if our faith is real? Could it be possible that Jesus wants to know if you really trust him?

Let me tell you, there's been some tests in my life that, when I look back on my life, it hurts me so bad to know some of the things that I've done against my God, the lifestyle that I lived. But to have come through the test, I can now tell you that cocaine does not have to take your life. I can now tell you that marijuana does not—you don't have to wake up to it every day. I can tell you that the street life is not satisfying. But through the test, God strengthens our faith, and God meets you. Let me tell you, God pursued me. He came running after this bald-headed boy who had hair at the moment.

But through the test, could it be possible that tests come to strengthen our faith? Could tests be beneficial? Should we learn from our tests? Yes, we should learn from our test.

So Peter, as he's broken, as he denies Jesus, he's broken and he's hurt. If I had time, I'd tell you all of these things that Peter went through, but I just don't have but two hours. So I just want to share with you a few things. When Peter was broken, Jesus comes and he restores Peter. He restores him and he has a conversation with him. Oh, man. There's so much I want to tell you. But he has a conversation with him and he asks him, "Do you love me?" That word "love me" has different meanings, so I won't go deep in all of that, but he ends up restoring Peter to himself.

I'm so glad he's a restorer. I'm so glad he doesn't throw us away. He's not the God that throws us away. He's the God that gives us chance after chance after chance after chance after chance. Even when we fail him, he still picks us up. He still loves us. He still wraps us in his arms. Thank you, Jesus. That's unconditional love.

So he restores Peter, and we see Peter on the day of Pentecost preaching the word of God, and the word declares that over about 3,000 souls were saved. Peter now wants to come back and he wants to talk to his brothers and sisters at church about the Holy Spirit. Y'all listening? Y'all listening? Okay. Just wanted to make sure.

So what Peter wants to tell us is found in First Peter chapter five, verses eight and nine. Peter wants us to find our faith because he struggled with his. He struggled with his, but he didn't lose it. That's what Jesus prayed. Jesus prayed, "I am praying that your faith fails not." God bless you.

Peter says this:

Be sober minded. Be watchful. Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour. Resist him. Firm in your faith knowing that the same kinds of suffering are being experienced by your brotherhood throughout the world. — 1 Peter 5:8-9

Peter tells us now from experience. He says, "I've been where you are. Because guess what? All of us are going to go through tests and trials. I've been where you are, and I want to sit with you and tell you: you need to be sober minded when the tests and the trials come."

And "sober minded" implies two things. The first thing that it implies is for us to be mentally alert—and that's not actually mentally alert, it's actually spiritually alert. In other words, having the mind of Christ. Scripture speaks about the mind of Christ in Philippians chapter two, verses five through eight:

Let this mind be in you that was also in Christ Jesus. — Philippians 2:5

The mind of Christ, the character of Christ, was to be humble. The mindset of Christ was to not think less of himself, but to think of himself less. In other words, when we see how Christ lived out his life, he thought about others first. He cared about people when they hurt. He cared about people that were demon possessed. He cared about people that were in sin, and he met them right where they were.

So when Peter is saying from experience, "I need you to be sober minded, I need you to have a spiritual mind," he not only says that, but he also tells them that they need to have self control. And not the self control that comes from this world, but the self control that comes from the fruit of the Spirit. The fruit of the Spirit is self control. He gives one of those characteristics and Peter says, "You need to have some self control. The Holy Spirit—you need to be yielding to the Holy Spirit."

Yielding to the Holy Spirit

Now, let me tell you about this yielding. It was my issue right here. We've got yield signs, right? Yield signs. I was taught in driver's ed that when you come to a yield sign, you yield to the traffic that's going in front of you. If there's traffic there, the next thing you do is stop. People don't stop anymore. They run over that yield sign. I mean, I'm already in the road and I'm just traveling around and these people are coming to the yield sign now. They're coming into three lanes of traffic. The yield sign means if there's three lanes of traffic flowing, you are supposed to stop. They don't stop anymore.

So that's my issue with yielding. I said all of that to say this: we need to yield to the Holy Spirit. We need to yield to the Holy Spirit. It's not about whether we have the Holy Spirit. The question is: Does the Holy Spirit have you? That's the question. Peter says, "I need you to be sober minded. I need you to be spiritually minded."

He says, I need you to be self-control, yielding to the Holy Spirit's power. And not only does he say that, he says this: I want you to be vigilant. He instructs us to be vigilant, and vigilant implies being watchful or awake, not careless. Not careless. In other words, not secure in your own strength. And who can better tell us that than Peter? Who can better say that than Peter when Jesus came to him and he said, "Peter, Satan's desire is to sift you like wheat." Peter's thinking, you can't be talking about me. I'm not gonna deny you. James might deny you. John might deny you. Nathaniel might deny you. Those other guys might deny you, but I'm not. Don't you know all those great moments that I've been through? Don't you know I walked on the water? Don't you remember I called you Jesus the Christ, the Messiah?

You can imagine Peter, the outspoken one saying, "You know what, God? I am not going to deny you. Brian, Barbara, Steve—they might deny you, but I'm not."

How many times have I denied him, y'all? Let me tell you how I have. Just the simplest of things. I've been at grocery stores. I've been pumping gas in the car, and I heard the little small voice of the Holy Spirit say, "Tell them about me. Ask them, do they know Jesus?" And I'm like, no. Not gonna do that. And I miss the move of the Holy Spirit.

Now, did I deny Jesus in some form? Yes, I did. But there's been other times that I've been in those moments and I spoke up. Hallelujah. I spoke up. Couple of times I've done it, didn't do what I was supposed to do, had to circle back on the block, come back, and do it again. So grateful he's a God of another chance.

But do we deny Jesus? There's some forms in our life that we just simply do. And we're not strong in our own strength. But he tells us, be sober minded. Let the spirit of the Lord give you self-control. Don't be secure in your own self, in your own strength—that's what Peter says.

And then he tells us this last thing. He says, resist Satan by being steadfast or firm in your faith. And a Greek word for steadfast is stereos, and it means to be stable—stable and sure about the God that you trust, about the God that you sing about, about the God that we say we love. Be stable and secure in the faith and the God that you said that you love, because he loves you.

Walking by Faith, Not by Sight

What Satan has been doing to us for this last year and a half through this pandemic is turning scripture around, and we're no longer walking by faith. He says,

We don't walk by sight, but we walk by faith. — 2 Corinthians 5:7

Satan is causing us to walk by sight and not by faith. I've been guilty. I don't know about you, but I've been guilty of walking by sight and not by faith.

God is asking us today through the scriptures, through Peter's experience to find your faith. Find your faith in the midst of the storm. In the midst of the test, find your faith. And this God that you say you trust—because he said he'll never leave us. I believe that. I believe his word says he's gonna be with us every day. I believe that he says he numbers our days. And if he numbers our days, nothing can take us out before his time for us to go home. I believe that. He tells us, find your faith.

Be spiritually minded. When the test comes knocking and they will come—Satan, your enemy, Satan devours. He seeks to devour you. He's seeking to devour you. He's making plans and strategies. And sometimes those plans and strategies start real small and then they just develop and they develop and they develop. We have to watch his moves.

We're not ignorant of his devices.

We've got to know that even in his plans, God still stands for us.

Now, the scripture about Peter sinking on the water—he walked on the water and then when he saw the waves and the storm around him, it said that he began to sink. And he cried out to the Lord. And the Lord reached and took hold of his hand and brought him up out of the water. But what scripture doesn't say is how they got back to the boat. Did they swim back to the boat? Did Jesus pick him up out of the water and put him in his arms and walk back to the boat?

Let me hypothesize this right quick with my little imagination. I just wondered, could this possibly be a physical analogy, a physical experience, a physical example of a spiritual reality?

Take this, walk with me. Jesus gets Peter up out of the water as he's sinking. He gets him up. He gets on this storm. Remember the water was stormy, the winds were blowing, and Jesus grabs him by his hand, and they walk back to the boat hand in hand.

That declares to us that even in the midst of any storm that you go through, if you will find the hand of Jesus, if you will put your hand, your life in Jesus' hand, he's gonna get you through the storm. He's gonna take you through the test. Whatever it is, find the hand of Jesus and he'll walk with you.

Peter says, brothers and sisters at church of the Holy Spirit, please find your faith. Please find the hand of Jesus. He loves you. He loves you. He loves you.

Prayer

Would you pray with me?

Father, we thank you for your word. We do thank you, God, that you've placed faith in our hearts, faith in our spirits, faith in our souls, and this word continues to give us strength. It continues to grow our faith.

Your word tells us that faith comes by hearing and by hearing your word.

So we've heard your word today, and help us now that our faith might grow even in the midst of tests. We know tests are beneficial for our faith to grow. Help us, God, not to fail the test, but to pass the test and to live for you.

Bless my brothers and my sisters now. Meet them where they are now. Continue to speak to them. We love you and we thank you in Jesus' name.

If, God, if there's any here today that have not been saved, we're praying salvation over them today in Jesus' name. Amen.