What If Your Biggest Failure Isn't the End?

Everyone fails.

The question isn't whether we'll make mistakes—it's whether those mistakes will define us.

In Part 4 of the Life on the Vine series, Steve Stevenson explores the fruit of the Spirit known as patience through one of the most powerful restoration stories in Scripture. After Peter denies Jesus three times, Jesus doesn't discard him or shame him. Instead, He patiently restores him, rewrites his story, and calls him forward into his purpose.

Along the way, Steve shares personal stories about family, fatherhood, and answered prayers, illustrating how God's patience continues to transform lives across generations. He also examines the biblical meaning of patience, not as passive waiting, but as steadfast, love-driven endurance that reflects the very character of God.

Whether you're wrestling with regret, waiting for someone you love to change, or wondering if God has given up on you, this message offers a hopeful reminder: Jesus is patient with us, and His grace is often greater than our greatest failures.

Chapters

00:00 Father's Day Welcome

03:39 Patience as Fruit of the Spirit

05:19 Why Patience Is Difficult

08:06 Everyday Stories of Patience

13:17 Jesus Is Patient With Us

14:42 Peter Denies Jesus

23:43 Jesus Restores Peter

27:24 Rewriting Our Story

33:17 A Daughter's Return to Faith

34:41 Father's Day Challenge

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OC Church of Christ

Happy Father's Day

2

I said happy Father's Day.

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Happy Father's Day.

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I know we got a lot of Father's Day.

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I know we got a lot of fathers in here.

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And so, uh, I guess it's

already there twice now.

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So it's, I guess they're three times.

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All right.

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Well, I am a father, and so I wanted

to just have a few pictures of my kids.

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Uh, this just happened last month.

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My, uh, daughter married her husband,

and that's John, Jonathan Acue, and this

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was in the botanical gardens in Hawaii.

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Okay?

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Whoo.

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So it's pretty awesome,

pretty encouraging.

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So, uh, my daughter's here, and I'll

talk a little bit more about her

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later, but I'm super encouraged, uh,

to have both of my kids here today.

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My son will be coming out

to read in a little bit.

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Um, this is my son.

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He got married back in August.

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This was his wedding in San Clemente.

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Uh, his wife is not here because

she's finishing up her time in the

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military, six years in the Army Reserve.

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Whoa.

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And so she's flying in to, uh,

John, John Wayne, and my son will

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be leaving early to pick her up.

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But, uh, super encouraging just, uh,

being a father to these two amazing kids.

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Uh, and then I also am a son to a father.

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Uh, this is my dad.

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I- and, uh, this is, uh, Soren and my dad.

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We went…

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We chartered a boat, and we

went fishing in Lake Mille Lacs.

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My son caught a big walleye.

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It's beautiful.

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Uh, I didn't have room for the picture.

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But, uh, you'll just have to believe me,

and I know fish, I know fish stories.

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I know.

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I know fish stories are a real thing.

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Yeah.

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But it was a big one.

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And, uh, anyways, I'd like to say

that the fish I caught were bigger,

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but they were absolutely not.

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Okay?

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Uh, so…

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And then this is new for me.

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Happy Grandfather's Day.

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Our grandson was born May 15th,

and, uh, his name is Daniel

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La'akea, which means sacred light

in Hawaiian, uh, 'cause his father's

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Hawaiian, and, uh, last name is Aku.

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And so it's super encouraging.

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I, I don't know, I've…

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Maybe I've neglected in the past to

say Happy Grandfather's Day 'cause

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it just wasn't part of my experience,

and I wasn't thinking that way.

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So I wanna apologize to

all the grandfathers.

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If I've never said that before,

this is my repentance, okay?

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Now I'm part of the cool grandpa club.

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And so now when I come up here, I will

always say Happy Grandfather's Day.

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Amen?

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Amen.

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All right.

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Now, I did wanna just say something.

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This is just a little free plug.

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Every Friday morning at 6:00 AM-

Whoo … a bunch of brothers and I get

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together, and we pray for our kids, okay?

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And we've kinda kept it to a small

group, but we decided, you know what?

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We're seeing God do a lot of

amazing things in our families.

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We're seeing God work in our kids'

hearts, and we wanna open this

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up for any fathers that would

actually want to be a part of it.

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So, you know, it's, uh, it's been an

amazing experience for me, and we've been

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doing this for years and years and years.

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Amen?

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So again, today's, uh, series,

we're continuing on with

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the series Life on the Vine.

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You know, when you're living life

on the vine, you're feeling fine.

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I'm starting to sound like Marcel.

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So anyway, today we are like,

uh, we're gonna dig into a new

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fruit of the spirit, patience.

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And so I'm gonna be talking

about Jesus is patient with us.

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That's right.

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That's our only point, okay?

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Yeah.

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And that really is the point . Yeah.

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Is that Jesus is patient with

us, and we'll do a little

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bit of a, uh, study on this.

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Now patience, the Greek

word is makrothymia.

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This Greek word, excuse me,

describes the grace to bear

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with people in their weakness.

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The fruit of patience comes from

God as we remain in the vine and

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walk in step with the Holy Spirit.

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And we gotta walk in step

with the Spirit, don't we?

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Yeah.

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We have got to walk in

step with the Holy Spirit.

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Biblical patience is not

passive, but it's active.

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It's a love-driven fruit of the

Spirit, and it means long tempered.

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Long tempered, the word combines two Greek

words, macros, long, and thymos, temper.

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So it's long tempered, the

exact opposite of a short fuse.

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Wow.

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The exact opposite.

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Now-

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Dads, I'm not gonna try to

make you feel guilty, okay?

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But this is a s- the, this

short-fused, this not being patient.

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Rusty's laughing probably 'cause,

uh … Anyway, I won't say.

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But, uh, but it's, it's one

of these things where men,

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we can struggle with anger.

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Why?

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Because anger is the least vulnerable

emotion, and sometimes when we

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don't know how to be vulnerable

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Thank you for two waters.

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I appreciate that

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Sometimes when we don't know how to

express our emotions, we don't know

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how to be vulnerable, 'cause men

aren't good at that, we just express

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it in anger 'cause it's easier.

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For me, I get angry when

I don't know what to do.

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I get angry when I don't know how

to express what I'm really feeling.

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Uh, I get angry when I feel, like

I said, just hurt by, by someone.

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And so I have to really

be in touch with that.

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So I don't know if it was just the Holy

Spirit that was like, "You're preaching

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on patience, because you need it."

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And you know what?

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I do.

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And whenever you find out you're preaching

about something, I'm sure most people

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who preach know this, somehow you get

tested all week long leading up to it.

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Yeah.

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Somehow you get tested all

week long leading up to it.

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But I wanna just read our

passage in Galatians 5, but I do

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wanna read a little bit before.

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The Bible says in Galatians 5:13,

"You, my brothers and sisters,

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you were called to be free."

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I love that all of us

were called to be free.

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It says, "But do not use your

freedom to indulge in the flesh.

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Rather, serve one another humbly in love."

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Skips down to verse 16, "So I say,

walk by the Spirit, and you will not

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gratify the desires of the flesh."

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Then he goes into all the different

fleshly desires, and he talks

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about, hey, these are in conflict

with what God desires for you.

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And so he says, "The acts of the

sinful nature, the flesh, they're

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obvious," goes through it, but then

he skips down to verse 22 and he says,

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"But the fruit of the Spirit," "The

fruit of the Spirit is love, joy,

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peace, forbearance," talking about

patience, talking about long-suffering.

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You know, I love that we serve

a God that is patient with us.

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Yeah.

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I love that.

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That fires me up when I think about it.

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It makes me feel secure in

my relationship with God.

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But what comes to mind

when you think of patience?

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I'm not gonna have you answer for the

sake of time, but in your head, what

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comes to mind when you think of patience?

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I'm gonna share with you what comes

to mind when I think of patience.

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Okay.

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She said, "Please wait in the truck.

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I'll only be in the

store for five minutes."

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Okay.

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This, this is where God has had

to work on me in my patience.

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My wife will be like, "I'm

just gonna run in Costco."

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"I'm just gonna run in Target.

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I'm just gonna run in Walgreens.

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I'm just gonna run into

the store real quick.

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I'll be back in five minutes."

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And man, whoo, there was a time where I'd

be like, "I'm putting her on the clock."

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"And if she comes back late,

I'm gonna let her know."

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And let's just say that didn't go so well.

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Let's just say that didn't

work for the marriage.

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Let's just say that didn't work

for God as someone who's calling

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me to be a person with patience.

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And so, you know, patience, what I

have found is that it's very powerful

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But why?

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Why is patience so powerful?

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You know, I believe

that it calms conflicts

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Proverbs 15:18 tells us that

patience calms quarrels,

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while a hot-tempered

person stirs up conflict.

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See, when I would get upset, when I

would get angry, whether it's with

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my wife taking longer than five

minutes, or whether it's with my

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kids doing something that I would

prefer maybe that they didn't do

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I would get angry.

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And God's like, "No, that's

not the fruit of the Spirit.

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If you're gonna walk in step with

the Spirit, that has to change.

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If you're going to live the free life that

I want you to live, this has to change."

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Amen.

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The other thing about that

makes it so powerful is that

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it reflects the life of Jesus.

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Amen.

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People see a patience in

you that's really different.

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When they see that you're different than

other people, it makes a huge difference.

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In fact, it reflects the life of Jesus.

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The ultimate model of this

fruit of the Spirit is Jesus.

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Amen.

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He maintained his composure, and

he dealt gently with the doubts

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and betrayal by his disciples.

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His patience provides healing for

those who are willing to be healed

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You know, we're gonna talk a little

bit about Jesus and his patience today.

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Kinda do a character study

of Peter specifically, okay?

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But we coulda done it about Thomas,

because Thomas was constantly doubting,

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and Jesus was patient with him.

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He would say, "Why you doubt?"

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But then he would go,

"Here, l- let me help you."

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He goes, "Touch my, touch my side.

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Look at my hands."

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He was very patient with him.

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You think about Paul, the Apostle Paul,

he was persecuting and killing Christians,

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and yet Jesus was patient with him.

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And if you read Paul's writings, he

talks a lot about the patience of Jesus

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But Peter is the one I

wanna talk about today

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Because when we focus on patience and

the spirit of patience and living in this

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way, it allows you to partner with God

to either write or rewrite your story

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If you are patient, you can

change the trajectory of your life

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You can change your family.

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You can change your impact

in your neighborhood.

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You can change your impact at work

if you have a sh- if you have a

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long fuse instead of a short fuse.

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We all know someone with

a short fuse, don't we?

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Don't say any names.

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But we all know somebody, don't we?

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And we're like, "Man, this

person, they just, ugh."

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But the reality is it's just so inspiring.

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It's such a fruit of the

Spirit when we're patient.

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Amen?

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Amen.

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2 Peter 3:8-9.

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It says, "But do not forget this one

thing, dear friends: With the Lord

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a day is like a thousand years, and

a thousand years are like a day."

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That verse alone should

tell you God's patient.

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Yeah.

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You're going, "Oh, this

is taking a whole day."

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It's like, if it took

1,000 years, it wouldn't…

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You know?

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That's just, He- God is not time.

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He's not restricted by time.

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Yeah.

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It's often time that makes us

impatient, because we put time limits.

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If I start to go too long in this lesson-

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It's gonna test your patience.

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Now, I'm not, I'm gonna try

not to test your patience.

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Amen?

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But you never know what

the Holy Spirit's gonna do.

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But it says, "But the Lord is

not slow in keeping His promise

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as some understand slowness.

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Instead…"

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This is Peter's view of Jesus.

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"Instead, He is patient with you."

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Not wanting anyone to perish, but

everyone to come to repentance.

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Now, because of my voice,

you probably haven't noticed-

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because you're so patient.

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But because of my voice, I asked my son,

since he ended up getting to come after

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all today, uh, to read these scriptures.

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Okay?

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So the thing I wanna ask you is

why do you think Peter chose the

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word patience to describe Jesus'

interaction with him or with us?

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Okay.

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So this is my son, Soren.

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He's, he serves as a campus minister

at Cal State San Marcos in the

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San Diego church, he and his wife.

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So he's gonna go ahead and

read these verses for me, and

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then I'll comment in between.

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So

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Soaren Stevenson: Awesome.

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Steve Stevenson: Go ahead.

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Soaren Stevenson: All right.

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John 18- John 18 … 15 through 18,

and then I'm gonna read 25 through 27.

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That's a little bit of a typo.

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All right, John 18:15 through 18.

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"Simon Peter and another

disciple were following Jesus.

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Because this disciple was known to

the high priest, he went with Jesus

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into the high priest's courtyard.

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But Peter had to wait outside at the door.

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The other disciple, who was known to

the high priest, came back, spoke to the

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girl on duty there, and brought Peter in.

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'You are not one of his

disciples, are you?'

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the girl at the door asked Peter.

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He replied, 'I'm not.'

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It was cold, and the servants

and officials stood around a fire

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that they had made to keep warm.

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Peter also was standing

with them, warming himself."

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Steve Stevenson: Thank

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Soaren Stevenson: you.

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25 through 27.

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"As Simon Peter stood warning him-

warming himself, he was asked, 'You

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are not one of his disciples, are you?'

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He denied it again, saying, 'I'm not.'

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One of the high priest's servants,

a relative of the man whose ear

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Peter had cut off, challenged him.

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'Didn't I see you with

him in the olive grove?'

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Again, Peter denied it, and at that

moment a rooster began to crow."

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Steve Stevenson: Hmm.

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How do you think Peter's

feeling right there?

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He's hurting, right?

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He's in a situation where, if we

read the next verse, he said he

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would never be in this situation.

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He said that it would never happen.

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And yet here he is sitting around a

campfire, and he's basically denying

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that he even knows Jesus, which is

just shocking because everything

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we know about Peter up to this

point, nothing prepared us for this.

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Because sometimes we find ourself doing

things that we never thought we would do.

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Mm.

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But the amazing thing about

God is that even if we blow it,

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even if we make mistakes, those

mistakes do not have to define us.

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Amen?

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Amen.

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Go ahead and go to the next verse.

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Soaren Stevenson: Matthew 26:33 through 35

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Peter replied, "Even if all fall away

on account of you, I never will."

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"I tell you the truth," Jesus answered,

"this very night before the rooster

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crows, you will disown me three times."

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But Peter declared, "Even if I have to

die with you, I will never disown you."

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And all the other disciples said the same.

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And then verse 75

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Then Peter remembered the word Jesus

had spoken: "Before the rooster crows,

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you will disown me three times."

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And he went outside and wept bitterly

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Steve Stevenson: Here's Peter, and

he's literally weeping bitterly

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over mistakes that he made.

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He's denied his best friend.

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He's feeling the guilt.

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He's feeling the shame.

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And probably if things were to

have been left in that situation,

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every time he would sit around

a campfire, he would be reminded

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I denied Jesus around a campfire.

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And in that culture, he was gonna

sit around a lot of campfires.

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And it was gonna be really, really

difficult for him to ever process

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and reframe this in a way that would

be healing in any way for his life.

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And so you can imagine

the guilt, the shame.

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The Bible says that he ended

up weeping bitterly over this.

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Have you ever wept bitterly over

things, mistakes that you've made?

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I think about times where I

have hurt my kids or hurt my

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wife, and I just wept bitterly.

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Like, "God, why?

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Why did I get angry?"

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Or, "God, why did I do this?"

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I remember early on in, in our marriage,

there was a time where my wife would

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always say, like … 'Cause I'd always

say, "Hey, if we get into conflict,

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we have to resolve it right now."

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And she'd be like, "I need time.

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I can't resolve it right now."

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And I'd be like, "No, right now."

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Very impatient.

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And I remember one time I just

kept pushing her, kept pushing

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her, kept pushing her, and then

she just broke down, crying.

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And I remember sitting

there looking at her going

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And I'm not saying you should

do this unless you mean it.

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But I sat there and I watched her,

and I felt helpless to help her.

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And I said, "God, if I ever do

this again to my wife, kill me."

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'Cause I don't ever wanna treat

my wife like that ever again.

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I wanna be patient with her when

she's in these situations where she's

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not ready to talk about something.

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I wanna give her her space.

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I don't wanna push her to a place

where it hurts her, where she's not

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ready, where she needs to be able

to process the things she's feeling.

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I don't wanna do that to her

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Just a couple days ago, I was with

my daughter, and we were talking

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about things, and my daughter was

being incredibly patient with me.

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Again, they just moved here from Hawaii,

and they're living with us for a period

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of time that's-- We don't know the

exact amount of time, but I'm patient

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because I know that God's in control.

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Amen?

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Yes.

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But we had this amazing talk, and

she was sharing things with me.

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She was being incredibly patient,

sharing different experiences that

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she had in our relationship, and she

made a decision roughly nine or ten

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years ago that she was no longer gonna

be part of the church, and she wanted

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to explore a different lifestyle,

um, outside of, you know, the church.

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And I-- And amen, we all have free will.

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All of us do.

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So she went on her journey, and I

would pray every day, "God, I know my

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daughter's building an amazing testimony.

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I know she's building

an amazing testimony."

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Um, but as we're having this talk, all

of a sudden, just nine years of dreaming

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and being so, like, wounded in a sense

in the relationship, ways I've hurt her

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It weighs…

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I mean, we hurt each other.

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Amen.

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And I just broke down weeping.

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Wow.

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And I was like, because I

see God working in her heart,

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which also works in my heart.

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Amen.

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And I'm just like, "God,

you are so patient.

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You are so patient."

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Just like God was patient with

me when I studied the Bible,

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God was patient with me.

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He would not let…

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He would not treat me as my sins deserved.

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Yes.

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He would not do it, and

he won't do it for…

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He won't treat any of

us as our sins deserve.

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Praise God, right?

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Yes.

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And so I just wept, and then my

daughter came over and she comforted me.

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And we need that time sometimes to

just get in touch with what we're

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feeling, and what we're going through,

and the challenges that we're facing.

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It was an incredibly healing time for me.

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I believe it was for her as well.

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But the truth is, is Peter was feeling

a lot because he had done something

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he said he would never do, just as,

you know, I had hurt my daughter and

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had said things that I never should

have said, and was grateful by her

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willing to for- willingness to forgive.

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Let's keep moving because…

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But amen.

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Praise God it wasn't left

there with Peter, okay?

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Hallelujah.

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There's a second act to the story here,

and I believe it's a divine reversal

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of God saying, "Let me take something

that seems impossible to change,

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and let me completely transform it."

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And so here we are.

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The scene is another fire.

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Amen.

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Another fire, okay?

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Let's go.

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Soaren Stevenson: Okay.

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John 21:1-8.

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"Afterward Jesus appeared again to

his disciples, by the Sea of Tiberias.

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It happened this way: Simon Peter,

Thomas, Nathaniel from Cana in

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Galilee, the sons of Zebedee, and

two other disciples were together.

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'I'm going out to fish,' Simon Peter told

them, and they said, 'We'll go with you.'

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So they went out and got into the boat.

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But that night they caught nothing.

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Early in the morning, Jesus stood

on the shore, but the disciples

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did not realize that it was Jesus.

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He called out to them,

'Friends, haven't you any fish?'

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'No,' they answered.

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He said, 'Throw your net on the right

side of the boat and you will find some.'

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When they did, they were unable

to haul the net in because

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of the large number of fish.

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Then the disciple whom Jesus loved

said to Peter, 'It is the Lord.'

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As soon as Simon Peter heard him say, 'It

is the Lord,' he wrapped his outer garment

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around him and jumped into the water.

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The other disciples followed in the boat,

towing the net full of fish, for they

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were not far from shore, about 100 yards."

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Steve Stevenson: Read first.

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Soaren Stevenson: When they landed,

they saw a fire of burning coals

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there with fish on it and some bread

430

Steve Stevenson: Okay,

so here's the scene.

431

Remember, Jesus had

betrayed, even knowing Jesus.

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Now, Jesus is sitting on the shore,

he's resurrected, and the disciples

433

are now seeing him again, but they're

not even sure that it's him on shore.

434

But they can't catch any fish, and Jesus

yells from the shore, you know, kinda

435

like sometimes Rusty can't catch fish.

436

But

437

But which, you know, sometimes

I can't either, okay?

438

Um, but, but the reality is this.

439

They throw the net on the other

side, which makes zero sense.

440

If I was Peter, I would be impatient.

441

Look, I fish every day.

442

You're trying to tell me to cast

the net on the other side as though

443

that is actually a way to fish?

444

He could have been really impatient,

but he's like, "Hey, let's do it."

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So he does it.

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He catches so many fish, about 153

fish, and then he sees this guy

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in this, on the shore, and I think

instinctively he knew, "It's Jesus.

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It's Jesus."

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And so I love that he came to meet with

Jesus, and let's read this last part

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Soaren Stevenson: Verse 15.

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"When they had finished eating, Jesus

said to Simon Peter, 'Simon, son of John,

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do you truly love me more than these?'

453

'Yes, Lord,' he said, 'You

know that I love you.'

454

Jesus said, 'Feed my lambs.'

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Again, Jesus said, 'Simon, son

of John, do you truly love me?'

456

He answered, 'Yes, Lord.

457

You know that I love you.'

458

Jesus said, 'Take care of my sheep.'

459

The third time he said to him,

'Simon, son of John, do you love me?'

460

Peter was hurt because Jesus asked

him the third time, 'Do you love me?'

461

He said, 'Lord, you know all things.

462

You know that I love you.'

463

Jesus said, 'Feed my sheep.

464

I tell you the truth.

465

When you were younger, you dressed

yourself and went where you wanted, but

466

when you're old, you will stretch out your

hands and someone else will dress you and

467

lead you where you do not want to go.'

468

Jesus said to th- Jesus said this

to indicate the kind of death by

469

which Peter would glorify God.

470

Then he said to him, 'Follow me.'"

471

Steve Stevenson: Good.

472

All right.

473

So I love this, I love this tension

being resolved right here by the fire.

474

Now Jesus is restoring

him back to fellowship.

475

He's reinstating him, and

he's saying, "Look…"

476

Actually, my son's gotta go, right?

477

Yeah.

478

All right.

479

Gotta go.

480

Love you, man.

481

Love you.

482

Thanks.

483

See you guys.

484

He's gotta, he's gotta

go get his wife, okay?

485

Yeah, he's been away from

his wife for two weeks.

486

I would rush out as well

487

But here, here we are.

488

Jesus is saying, "Let

me resolve this tension.

489

It was a fire where he, Peter denied me.

490

I can't let Peter live with this.

491

We've gotta change the narrative.

492

It's gotta be something different.

493

Let's, let's figure out how we can

change his view of this experience

494

for the rest of his life."

495

So, He comes, He sits at a fire, and now

three times he had denied Him at a fire.

496

Now three times he reasserts

his love for Jesus.

497

And then Jesus restores him

and says, "Hey, come follow me.

498

Peter, come.

499

Come follow me."

500

And we know that this is transformational

for Peter, because everything we

501

see about Peter after this is that

Peter is like, "Let's go, baby.

502

Let's go help people.

503

Let's change the world."

504

He had this desire to make a difference.

505

Peter, although had been afraid,

even with the little girl, saying,

506

"Hey, I think you're one of them."

507

Even with the little girl, he got scared.

508

But now Peter would go up against

all the different people that

509

he had denied Christ before.

510

In Acts 2 we see that

he preaches the word.

511

3,000 people are saved because

of his message when he called

512

people to repent and be baptized.

513

And I go, "Wow, God's amazing."

514

Yeah.

515

God isn't going to let

our mistakes define us.

516

No, no.

517

If we're willing to take

responsibility and look inside,

518

God can change the narrative.

519

God can change your experience.

520

I don't know ways that maybe

you've been hurt or different

521

experiences that you've had.

522

I don't know the way some of

us may have spoke to our kids.

523

Or spoke to our parents.

524

But God wants us to change the narrative.

525

Amen.

526

God wants us to have a great

experience around our fire.

527

You know what I'm saying?

528

Yeah.

529

We don't have to be defined by the

mistakes of the past - No … but

530

we can be refined by them-

Yes … through the fires of challenge.

531

Does that make sense?

532

Yeah.

533

Come on.

534

Patience helps us to

be refined in that way.

535

Peter appreciates and grasps that

patience, and I'll go back to this

536

verse, "So do not forget this one

thing, dear friends: With the Lord

537

a day is like a thousand years,

a thousand years are like a day.

538

The Lord is not slow in keeping his

promise, as some understand slowness.

539

Instead he is patient with you."

540

Yeah.

541

Peter could say this from experience

because Jesus had been patient with him.

542

And you know what?

543

Jesus wants to be patient with you.

544

Yeah.

545

He wants to help you.

546

He wants to strengthen you.

547

He wants to help you resolve issues

maybe that were hurtful in the past.

548

He wants you to work through things

in a way that will help you to

549

even continue to mature and grow

beyond what you ever imagined.

550

This was years later when

Peter is saying this.

551

It's years later, as an elder, and he's

communicating to the, the importance of

552

understanding that he is patient with you.

553

He wants everyone to perish.

554

He do- excuse me, with you,

not wanting anyone to perish.

555

Excuse me.

556

Woo, almost messed that up.

557

That was some twisted

scripture right there, man.

558

Okay.

559

Come on.

560

Instead, he's patient with you, not

wanting anyone to perish- Yeah … but

561

everyone to come to repentance.

562

You see, it's God's

heart that we all repent.

563

Repentance is a good thing.

564

Amen.

565

You know, when I was a young

minister, our evangelist used

566

to say, "Hey, repentance is fun.

567

Are we having fun yet?"

568

And I would go, "Yeah,

I'm having fun, man.

569

I'm repenting."

570

Bible says, "Repentance brings

times of refreshing from the Lord."

571

Repentance is for everyone, not just

non-Christians, but for Christians.

572

And we can turn, we can turn away

from whatever experience it was in

573

the past, and we can turn toward God.

574

That's what repentance is.

575

And we can do what's

right in the eyes of God.

576

We can change.

577

We can grow.

578

We can become all that

God wants us to become.

579

Jesus had a huge vision for Peter.

580

Yeah.

581

But it wasn't that he would sit around a

campfire and be reminded of his failures.

582

It was that he would be forgiven and

that he would experience the victory,

583

and he would know that Jesus wanted

to change the narrative of his story.

584

Amen?

585

I just wanna share here, I told you that

my daughter had left the church for a

586

few years On Friday night at 11:00 PM she

made a decision to repent and be baptized.

587

Amen?

588

She's right here.

589

You wanna…

590

Can you…

591

No, you wanna stand up?

592

Okay.

593

She doesn't wanna stand up.

594

Okay.

595

She's the one there in the

middle with the towel okay?

596

She's got the towel right there.

597

She just got baptized.

598

I- it's…

599

Guys I love that God loves my daughter

600

My God, I, I love that God isn't going to

let her be defined by her past, but that

601

He wants to give her a hopeful future.

602

And I'm thankful for the women who

were involved in the Bible study.

603

I'm thankful for the opportunity to have

watched God do miracles in her life.

604

It helped build my faith.

605

It helped me to understand how patient

God is, wanting all people to be saved.

606

So I just wanna encourage you,

never give up on your kids.

607

Fathers, never give up on your kids.

608

Kids, never give up on your fathers.

609

Never give up on your

mothers either, okay?

610

But it's Father's Day.

611

It's Father's Day, okay?

612

So give us one day, all right?

613

Give us one day

614

So as we close it out, I just want…

615

I'm not gonna give you any to-dos today

'cause it's Father's Day, all right?

616

I do wanna give a few statements.

617

What is the Father's Day takeaway?

618

What is the Father's Day takeaway?

619

Jesus is able to reframe our pain.

620

Our past does not define us,

and Jesus is patient with us.

621

Amen.