Would you take your Bible please and open to the book of Luke chapter 22 this morning. Luke chapter 22. Do you ever think that when someone stands before you and says that they appreciate the opportunity to preach here that they're just reading from a script? You ever wonder that? Rather not, at least nobody gave me a script, but I really do appreciate the opportunity to be here. When I was getting started in evangelism, those early years, I would go for a long time with no meetings. And the Lord provided for all of my financial needs, but I had no place to preach. And that about drove me nuts. So I knew about when Brother Ogle would get into the office. So I would get up and I would go in to the pulpit there at Emmanuel, five o'clock in the morning. I knew he wouldn't be there quite yet. So, and I would preach. I would preach just as energetically as I ever do. And I would take notes on myself, critique myself with my laptop right there on the pulpit. I learned that if there's one or two people in the congregation, it makes it a whole lot easier to preach. So I'm really glad to see you here. And I say that everywhere I go, and I'm not just saying it. It really means a lot when there's anybody sitting there to whom I can preach. I want to be a blessing and help to you, and I want to direct your attention this morning to Luke chapter 22 and verse 31. If you're able, would you stand with me, please, as we read from the scriptures today? And the Lord said, Simon, Simon, behold, Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat. But I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not. And when thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren. And he said unto him, Lord, I am ready to go with thee, both into prison and to death. And he said, I tell thee, Peter, the cock shall not crow this day before that thou shalt thrice deny that thou knowest me. Father, I pray that you would use this message this morning. I pray that you would speak to every heart. Help us to understand exactly what you would have for us. And Father, just as you were about to mold Simon, Simon Peter into a man that would be greatly used of you, help us to recognize when that same molding process takes place in our own lives. We pray now that you'd bless this chapel time. We ask it in Jesus' name. Amen. Thank you so much. You may be seated. Young people, as you're here in this place, There should be within every one of your hearts a desire to go from this place and get to where God would have you to be. There was certainly a desire in Peter's heart to take a stand for his Lord. But Peter is about to, according to the prophecy of the Lord Jesus, go through the most difficult refining process of his life. Now, Peter was one who was not a stranger to refining processes and embarrassing moments. But he's about to go through what I believe would be the most emotionally draining and humiliating time of his life. And really, we could say it was the climax of this refining process before God would use him on the day of Pentecost. But here's really what I want to communicate to you this morning. You must submit to the process of God's refining in order to be useful as a servant of God. I want us to look at exactly what's going on here in Luke chapter 22. I want you to notice, first of all, Satan's desire. It's laid out for us very clearly here. Where the Lord says, that is the Lord Jesus, the Lord said, Simon, Simon, behold, Satan hath desired to have you. that he may sift you as wheat." Now, young person, Satan's desire is not limited to Simon Peter. Let me tell you why. In your King James Bible, you have the word, you, there. Alright? Now, a little bit of a grammar lesson for you that you may not have gotten in Mrs. Rosenau or whoever's class. The word, you, in the King James Bible and the word, thee, are two different words. Pastors, you would do well to educate your people that they don't mean the same thing. Okay? Don't say to your people that thee means you because in your King James Bible it does not. The word you in your King James Bible, if I can translate it into Southern, it means y'all. Okay? It's plural. It's plural. You means y'all. So, Jesus is doing something a little bit unusual here. He's saying, Simon, Simon. Now, you would expect, if I were to go and say, Dr. Cummins, we would expect that what I'm about to say is uniquely directed to him. But in fact, what Jesus is doing, though He uses a direct address of Simon's name, He's telling Simon a truth that applies to the entire group that's there. He's saying, Simon, Simon, Satan hath desired to have all y'all, if you'll permit me, okay? He desires to have all of you, that he may sift all of you as wheat. And you understand, it applied to all of the disciples and Satan's desire applies to you as well. Now, my grandpa was a farmer. But the sifting process, I didn't know anything about it. So I had to do a little bit of study. Today, we have a machine known as a combine. That is, it combines several processes. It combines the cutting process with the threshing process and And all kinds of processes, one machine combines them all together and hands its name. But back in Jesus' day, the sifting process of wheat and the process by which wheat was prepared of taking it from the field and bringing it to the table, that was a pretty involved process. We're told that there is, first of all, the cutting process of wheat. You know, when Satan desires to have us, that he may sift us as wheat, we're going to find that God allows Satan to do some of the things that he wants to do. And when you were getting wheat ready for human consumption, you first of all had to cut it. Well, that wheat had grown in its natural environment from a seed throughout the growing process, but it was not useful until you cut that wheat from its natural source of strength. That is, the ground and the plant that nourish that wheat seed, the wheat seed had to be taken away from that natural source of strength before you could ever use it as a food. And you know, when God wants to use one of His servants, He takes us from our natural source of strength. where we were accustomed to depending perhaps on our own abilities. We were accustomed to depending upon maybe our parents and our natural environment. It is often that God takes us from that natural environment. Many of you, when you came to the dormitories, you experienced that kind of thing. You married students, when you uprooted your family and moved to Lattimore, North Carolina, which has been described by other married students before you as the backside of the desert, when you came to that kind of an environment, you were being removed from your natural source of strength and God was teaching you to depend on him. It's all part of the process. But once that process is done, you have not yet, you're not yet ready. to be used the way God wants you to. For the wheat was cut, and then the wheat had to be beaten. Now, some of you have been beaten. You have been beaten financially. You have been bombarded with all kinds of family difficulties. You've been bombarded with academics. All those things are important. But you know what? The wheat process was not ready for human consumption until you beat it. Because there were parts of the wheat that were worthless. They had to be removed. before you could eat the wheat. They would beat the wheat and then they would take the wheat and they would throw it up in the air. That's what Gideon was doing. Now, he was doing it in the wrong place because of the Midianites. You don't thresh wheat in a wine press, but that's what he was doing because of the Midianites. But you would throw that thing up in the air. Some of you feel tossed around. You feel like, man, you've just been beaten back and forth. You've been thrown around. But all of that is not without its purpose. And some people, when they get into this refining process, they want to say, wait a minute, wait a minute. God, what is God doing to me? They want to rebel against the process. But do you understand? All of those difficulties are coming into your life so that God can make you useful for Him. So Satan's desire is to sift you as wheat. The wheat is thrown up into the air and that unusable chaff is blown away. You know, every one of us comes to the table when we surrender to serve God, we come with some unusable chaff. We come with some things that the God of heaven is going to have to take off in order for us to be used of Him. And you know what? The process of taking those things off, off of our life that is, is not an easy process for us. If you were the wheat, if you can imagine that, if you were the wheat, you have been beaten, you have been removed from your natural setting, things have been rough for you. But all of that process is necessary. Then they would take it and they would shift it. They would get it in this thing and shake it back and forth and more of the impurities that still clung to the wheat, that the wind had not yet blown away, they would stay there in the sieve and the rest of the wheat would fall down. All of that was important to the process. That's why the Bible says in James 1 in verse 4, My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into divers temptations, knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience. That's why Timothy was told in 2 Timothy chapter 3 in verse 12, Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. God put the clamps down on Job and allowed Satan to do it. The Bible says in Job 23 and verse 12, but he knoweth the way that I take. When he hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold. And Solomon observed in Proverbs 25 and verse 4, take away the dross from the silver and there shall come forth a vessel to the finer. Young person, you are in school right now and God is in a process of allowing Satan at times to put the clamps on you so that the draws and the unusable parts of your life will be taken off through a very difficult process. I'm telling you, don't rebel against the process. Because Satan wants to sift you exactly the way he wanted to sift the disciples. He wants to sift you. He wants to allow, God is going to allow Satan to bring some things into your life and understand from 1 Corinthians 10 and verse 13, it will never be more than you can handle, but it will teach you no longer to rely upon yourself, but to rely upon the Lord. So Satan's desire is that he may sift you as wheat. I want you to notice the Savior's defense. It's not what I would think. I would think that when Satan has a desire for me, and when Satan wants to destroy me, he wants to get in and really mess me up, that Jesus would step in and say, no, I'm not going to allow him to do that. But you know, that's not what the Savior's defense for Simon was. Notice what the Bible says in verse 32. Jesus says, but I have prayed for thee. Glory, hallelujah, Jesus is praying for me. Now notice, notice once again the pronoun there. Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat. But I have prayed for, what's the next word? Thee. Thee is singular. So Satan wants everybody, but Jesus is calling Peter's name out in prayer to God. I'm going to tell you what, that's a wonderful thing. That's a wonderful thing that my Savior goes to the God of heaven, the Father, and names my name in prayer. He says, Satan wants all of you. But he says, Simon, I want you to know, I prayed for you. I have named your name before God in prayer. I have prayed for thee. Well, what's he praying for? Surely he's going to pray that God would reign in the power of Satan, but that's not what it says. Notice he says, I have prayed for thee that thy faith fail not. You know, if you were to come to me and ask me to pray for something because you were in a trial, you would probably have in your mind, I want my pastor, I want this person or whoever it may be, I want them to pray that God would change my circumstances. so that I will no longer have to go through this difficult time. That's the way we normally think. And so when we get the news, Jesus Christ is praying for us, man, that's wonderful. Maybe my circumstances are now going to change. But that's not Jesus' request. The Savior's defense is to pray. But the request is that thy faith fail not. You understand that's the greatest danger in your trial? It's also the greatest thing God's endeavoring to build is faith. The longer I live, the more I'm convinced that our failures in the Christian life are failures of faith. I believe that's why the writer of Hebrews refers to a lack of faith as the sin that doth so easily beset us. After talking through all of these heroes in Hebrews 11, He says it's time to lay aside the sin of unbelief that does so easily beset us. It besets all of us. Because when I fall into sin, the Bible says every time I'm tempted, there's a way of escape. And I have failed to have the faith to see it and to claim God's victory that He's provided. It's a failure of faith. So when the trial comes into my life, Jesus is saying, Lord, strengthen His faith. Strengthen his faith. I will pray for thee, he says, that thy faith fail not. And then I want you to notice something else. He says, and when thou art converted. Well, that's an interesting word. When thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren. You mean to tell me Peter's unsaved? Is that what's going on here? Pastor Camp, is Peter not even saved here? I don't believe that's what he's saying. I believe Peter is saved because of what Jesus said when he gave the great confession. You remember the story. Whom do men say that I am? Well, some say you're Jeremiah, some say you're Elijah, one of the prophets. Whom do ye say that I am? Peter pipes up and he says, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God, according to Matthew chapter 16. Jesus says back, he says, Behold, thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build thy church. First of all, he says, Blessed art thou, Simon, son of Jonah, flesh and blood hath not revealed this unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven." I believe at this point Peter is a saved man. So why the language that when thou art converted? This is my explanation for it. I believe that by the time this trial was done and by the time Satan was doing the sifting that God was allowing him to do, that Peter would become so unrecognizable that the difference could be rightly called a conversion. You understand, here was a self-centered Peter, still, after falling into the sea of Galilee and having to have the Savior pull him up. After all that he's been through, after all of this difficulty, Simon Peter is still a self-centered man. And he's still relying upon his own strength. And so the God of heaven, Jesus Christ, comes to him and says, listen, you're going to be converted. You're going to be radically changed from what you are now. into something different. And Peter, when that happens, don't continue to have an inward focus, but strengthen thy brethren. Strengthen thy brethren. In Savior's defense, he said, I will pray that thy faith fail not. I don't want to bore you with all of the details, but when I was in college, One of the things that I was really interested in was finding a wife. Right? Whoso findeth a wife, findeth a good thing, and obtaineth favor from the Lord. What did a man say about his wife? He said, the Bible says, no good thing will the Lord uphold from him that walketh uprightly. Ladies and gentlemen, this is my wife, my no good thing. Anyway. One of the things that I was interested in, I wanted to find a wife. Well, man, by the time Thanksgiving came around in my freshman year, I thought I'd found it. Thought I'd found the Lord's will for my life. But you know what? It took her dad a while to come to that conclusion from the Lord. You know? And as a matter of fact, by the time I was a junior, he still wasn't convinced. And part of that was my own fool fault. But he, uh, I, I talked to the man and I said, you know, I, I'm really, I'm really interested in dating your daughter. I, well, this was when I was a freshman, he looked at me and at the time, Dr. Surratt was the Dean of students. Okay. And at the time, Dr. Surratt is Dean of students had written a letter home to my parents. And he said, Paul's not a rebel. But he's in big trouble because of his demerit record. Now, I personally think I was being framed. I really do think I was being framed. I think that I was really doing my dorm job of taking out the trash or whatever. And I had a roommate that came along because he didn't have classes as early as I did and trashed it before inspection, which happened right after chapel. I think I got framed, but at any rate, My future father-in-law looked at my demerit record and said, uh-huh, you want to date my daughter? He also checked my grade point average. He also ran an FBI check and a police report. No, he didn't do that, but he checked up on me. And he told me, he said, well, you need to work on this demerit thing. And at the time I really was clueless that I had accrued so many demerits. So I checked out. I mean, clueless is a pretty good word to describe me when I arrived as a freshman. And when I left as a senior, it had gotten a little bit better, but not a whole lot. But, uh, I, I heard what the man had to say. And this, this is what he ended up saying to me. He said, if you're interested in dating my daughter, you come back as a junior or senior. And you ask me. I thought, well, hey, that saves me a lot of grief. I mean, I can just go play basketball. Everybody else is dating, and I don't have to worry about it. I'll just come back as a junior or senior. We'll be good to go. That's what I thought. And then he said something to me that no father should ever say to a young man interested in his daughter. He said, but you can just be friends. Brother Cummins, it takes a dream team of LA lawyers to figure out what that's all about. What does that mean? Well, I had no idea that God was going to use that conversation over the next few years to make me into the man that He wanted me to be. Not that I've arrived, please understand that. But as a grain of wheat needed refining, so I as a man needed refining. partly because of my own fault, and partly because of his misunderstanding of some things, and mostly because the God of heaven wanted it to be so. By the time I was a junior, I was not allowed to speak to the woman who is now my wife. As you go perpendicular to this building, right out there is an old railroad. It's probably covered in nettles now. It was getting that way back when I was in school. But the further you go down that railroad, the rails are gone and the ties are gone, but the gravel road is still there, an elevated road that goes straight north. And I would walk down that railroad. The farther down you go, the higher the banks become. And there were many, many days when I watered the weeds with my tears, praying that God would change the circumstances. At the time I was a junior, many of my friends were now engaged. Some of them were already married. I was traveling with the school at the time, and when everyone heard that I was a junior, they would always get this stupid look on their face. They'd say, so, you got anybody you're interested in? I hated to answer that question. I mean, how do you say, yeah, I believe I found the Lord's will for my life and I'm not allowed to speak to her? They'd say, oh, OK, sure you found the Lord's will. Yeah, I hope it works out. I hated to answer that question. But God was bringing me to a place where I would have my faith built. I remember Brother Dwight Smith and I and the Scovels were traveling out west. Some of that trip out west is still classified, but There was a time when we were staying in Washington State, and he had gone to a family reunion, so I was alone in the motel. And the one thing that was bothering me was the fact that I wasn't allowed to write to this girl. I believed that this was the girl that the Lord would have me to marry. But things just weren't working out. And so I prayed, I said, Lord, I need something from you today. I don't know what it is. But I need something from you today. I'm just struggling in this thing. I mean, what do I do? My college, the end of my college experience is in sight. The end of her college experience is in sight. What am I supposed to be doing here? I need something from you. And so I went out and ran about a mile, as was my custom back then, and came back in, opened my Bible to Jeremiah chapter 32. And God brought Jeremiah 32, the struggles that Jeremiah was going through, brought him just right down to where I live. Jeremiah's in the prison God came to him said hey I want you to buy the field of Hannah meal and I want you to subscribe the evidence kind of like a modern-day receipt said I want you to seal up those evidences because he said thus saith the Lord houses and lands are gonna be bought and sold here again and Jeremiah doesn't mean to be a smart Alec, but he says Lord the Chaldeans have surrounded the city and You have told me and I have told the people that they're gonna break up the city. I And in fact, they would do that. And Jeremiah is kind of saying, Lord, you've built, you've made the worlds, you've done all of these wonderful things. You brought us up out of Egypt into this place. But now, Lord, you're saying to us that houses and lands are going to be bought and sold again. Lord, what is going on? What is it that you, why do you want me to take these evidences and do it all this way? It's almost as if he's saying, Lord, are you sure? God came to him in Jeremiah 32 in verse 27. He said, I am the Lord. the God of all flesh, is there anything too hard for me? Keep reading. Jeremiah is still in prison. God comes to him and says, call unto me, and I'll answer thee, and show thee great and mighty things which thou knowest not. I looked at circumstances regarding getting the wife that I believe the Lord wanted for me, and I tell you, it was just absolutely, it had gone from okay to bad to worse to horrible. And yet God said, I can do anything. I'm not going to give you all of the details of how the Lord worked everything out, but it's absolutely astounding when you look at it. And I can tell you this regarding the matter of getting a wife. You always honor your parents, whether or not they seem honorable. And you let God, who holds the king's heart in His hand, change the heart of your parents if that's what He wants. And as I look back, I am so thankful that God allowed Satan to come in and just sift me a little bit. so that my faith could be built. My faith is not where it needs to be today. But it is far stronger because of Jesus' intercessory prayers through the sifting process that Satan had to take me through than it would ever have been had I never been through that. So Jesus prays, I prayed for thee that thy faith fail not. I want you to notice, thirdly, Simon's declaration. Notice verse 33. And he said unto him, Lord, I am ready. Oh, isn't that profound? I am ready to go with thee both into prison and to death. Simon's declaration, I am ready. You know, the truth is I'm preaching to some people today that you are assuming in your mind, I'm ready. I'm ready. Lord, just let me at Him. Just let me go out. But the truth is, you're not ready, because you have not yet gone through that process. And in your life, there is a tendency to depend on self. Jesus knows it. God knows it. And He's going to allow Satan to come in with the sieve to sift you as wheat. He's going to allow that to happen. Understand, while that happens, Jesus is still praying for you. But understand something passing a few tests does not mean you're ready to graduate, right? Freshmen winning a few battles does not mean the war is done. And patiently enduring a few trials does not mean the purging is complete. You see, Peter had already been through some things. I mean, he was there when he had to fall at Jesus' knees and say, depart from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man. Jesus Christ had done a miraculous thing and he had caught fish when he had been toiling all the night and had caught nothing. And so he falls at Jesus' knees, he says, depart from me, I'm a sinful man. That's Luke chapter 5. You go on further, and Matthew chapter 14 records the time when Peter says, Lord, if it be Thou bid me come unto Thee on the water. Jesus simply said, come. So there's Peter walking on the water. It's an amazing thing. He's looking at Jesus, looking at Jesus, and all of a sudden, he begins to notice, wait a minute, I am doing what is scientifically impossible. I mean, it's windy out here, and these are waves. I'm not ice fishing here. He says, and he begins to see the wind boisterous around him, and the Bible says, and when he saw that, he began to sink, and the Lord reached out his hand and grabbed him and said, O thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt? He's already learned some things. He's already weathered some trials. He's already been out and been used of God in a measure. As the Lord Jesus sends the 70 out, they come back and say, wow, Lord, even the devils are subject unto us. God has used him in a measure, but he's not ready for Pentecost yet. Although he thinks he is. It astounds me as I hear faculty members talk about the pride of some students. That astounds me. You know, Brother Hankey and I. When I was a freshman and he was a sophomore, we traveled in the same quartet. You know, one of the things we used to do. We used to vie, we didn't literally fight because that wasn't what you did, but we would vie and we would try to get as close to the pastor of that church as we possibly could. You know why? We wanted to hear anything and everything he had to say. I mean, if it was a good joke, we wanted to hear it. If it was some nugget about being in the ministry, we wanted to hear it. We wanted to be there. I mean, we would have contests and whoever got the furthest from the pastor was disappointed that day and was formulating his strategy as to how he could get closer on the next meal at the next church. Do you know what I saw? As I traveled for the school, I saw that attitude dissipate. where at one time, when I started, we wanted to get close to the pastor and hear anything he might have to say, just so that we could learn anything. I saw to where we got to the place where we were just kind of talking amongst ourselves, and there wasn't that attitude of, Pastor, teach me anything! Teach me something! And it used to bother me. I should go in prayer to the Lord and say, Lord, is it my fault? Have I somehow dropped the ball? Am I no longer passing on what to me was a very important aspect of traveling and representing the school? Have I failed somehow? I used to really bother myself with that. But the truth of the matter is we're seeing more and more students who want to be teachers when they come here. That astounds me. I mean, as if you're going to tell this man how to pastor a church. Not that he can't be taught, you understand, but he started before you were born. You understand that? I mean, you want to sit in Brother Ogle's youth ministry class. You were not even in diapers when he started being a youth pastor. And yet people want to come and teach him. You know, the problem with that is it's just another symptom of arrogance and pride. Here it is in Peter's life. Peter says, Hey, Lord, I passed the test. I've got the diploma. I'm ready. Was he ready? No, he wasn't ready to understand something. We're going to have to have that pride purged. And the purging process is a difficult one. But Jesus reminds us in John 15 and verse 2, every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, and may bring forth more fruit. You ever noticed a pruned tree? Have you ever driven by Gaffney and seen those peach trees? Nobody decorates their yard with peach trees. You know why? They're ugly. They're hideously ugly. But you know what they're real good at? Producing fruit. They produce a lot of fruit. Those ugly, nasty trees that have been cut off, they look angular, they look squatty, but they produce a lot of fruit. You know, some of us want to be the beautiful tree, but Jesus Christ wants us to be the fruit-bearing tree. I want you to notice, finally, Peter's denial. and he, that is Jesus, verse 34, and he said, I tell thee, Peter, the cock shall not crow this day before that thou shalt thrice deny that thou knowest me. Peter says, I'm ready. Jesus said, no, you're not. It revealed his deficiency. He was relying on the flesh. John 6, 63, it is the spirit that quickeneth, the flesh profiteth nothing. The words that I speak unto you, they are spirit and they are life. And it revealed his dependency as well, for Peter was relying on himself. He said, Lord, I've got what it takes. I'm ready. I'm ready to do this, Lord. I've got what it takes. And the Lord Jesus said, No, you're not. You're not relying on God. You're relying on self. And, young person, until we can get to the place where we are totally relying on Him, we're not going to be people who bear much fruit. When I rely on myself, I will fall flat on my face every single time. You can mark it down. But now the Son of God is coming to Peter and says, listen, you're about to deny me. Isn't that exactly what happened? Oh, they come into the Garden of Gethsemane. They apprehend the Son of God. He's been praying. They come and they grab Him. They've got staves. They've got swords, as if to come and take a common criminal. He asks Him. He says, Whom seek ye? They answer haughtily, Jesus of Nazareth. I am He. And with that, they fell backward. That happened three times. Finally, they grabbed him, and they hauled him off in the court, and all the disciples forsook him and fled. I mean, they ran every which way. You mean the Romans are going to take the master, this master who could do anything? Well, somehow, we don't know what's happened. He's going to overthrow the Roman government, and now he's submitting to the Roman government, and they're taking him off. They didn't understand, and so they forsook him and fled. But Peter followed afar off. He watches as this one that He has known and loved for three and a half years is taken before the Sanhedrin and the chief priests. They begin to, having hired false witnesses, they begin to hear the testimony of these wicked men. Even the hired false witnesses could not agree amongst themselves. They had to, for according to the Jewish law, in the mouth of two or three witnesses shall every word be established. But they couldn't agree. Finally, Jesus claims to be the Son of God yet again, this time in the hearing of the high priest. They smite him on the cheek and they say, what further need have we of witnesses? We've heard his blasphemy. And so off to the Roman guard he goes. The Romans hear him, and they begin to question him, and Jesus stands before Pilate. Peter is now far off. Now he's sitting in the courtyard. You remember the story. It's cold. It's cold that night, and so he's warming himself by the fire. Somebody's built a fire out of common courtesy to those who are standing by, and Peter can hear and he can see what's going on. Evidently, it was in some kind of a raised court, and in the courtyard at ground level was Peter. Up on an upper story was the Lord Jesus, and His trial was taking place. They're asking him all these questions about his life and ministry, and everything within Peter wants to rise up and say, Yes! He is the King of the Jews! Yes! He is the Son of God! That's who He is! That's who He claimed to be! That's who He is! I've seen the blind be made to see! I've seen the dead be raised! I've seen the lame who walked! He is who He claims He is! But Peter says nothing. Concerned and... warming himself at the fire, wishing he could be at the Savior's side, but somehow afraid of what consequences might come. Not long before somebody comes, a maid comes, and the Bible says she, she earnestly looked upon him. Peter's nervous. What's she looking at? Why is she looking at me? Finally, she reveals, thou wast also with Jesus of Nazareth. And it comes out of Peter's mouth. I know not what thou sayest. Could it be? I'm ready to go with thee to prison and to death, but could it be that those words just came out of his mouth? I know not what thou sayest. Before long, a man saw him. Oh, yeah, you're also one of them. Man, I know not what thou sayest. Someone else has recognized him. And yet again, those words have come from his mouth. Could it be that he who was ready to go to prison and even to death, could it be that he has just uttered those words not once, but twice? Finally, another fellow goes up and says, You are one of those. Because your speech agreeth thereto. You're a Galilean. Speech. He was a Galilean. The speech that had come out of his mouth had identified him as being one of Jesus of Nazareth's followers, so he would use that same speech to deny that he was a follower. And he began to curse, and to swear, and to say, I know not the man. And immediately he hears the cock crowing, and he remembers the prophecy of the Savior. The Bible says Peter went out and wept bitterly. I submit to you that wasn't just a couple of hours. That happened for days. He was days on end troubled by what had happened there. I'm ready Lord! But no, in the end he had denied his Lord and Savior. Days stretched on and on. After three days he had risen from the dead and Peter runs to the sepulcher hoping to see him once again. And he goes in and The Master's not there. Some would say that He's gone. He's risen from the dead. But He doesn't know. He hasn't seen anything. He doesn't really believe what's been going on. He's troubled by it all. He's trying to put it all together. And I know not the man. It rings in His ears. And it torments Him night and day. And so Jesus comes to another of the disciples and says, Go tell my disciples and Peter. But I go into Galilee, and there I'll see Him. You see, because during that time, Satan is battering Him with guilt. Satan is taking that sieve and he is sifting ever harder, ever harder. And Jesus the Savior is going to the Father and saying, Father, there's Peter. Don't let his faith fail. There's Peter. Don't let his faith fail. So finally, Jesus is claimed to be risen, but Peter hasn't really seen him. So the eleven are meeting together and he says, well, I don't know. I guess I'll just go back to what I used to do before I met Jesus. I go fishing. Well, we also go with thee, they say. And so down to the sea they go, and all night they toil. But even fishing isn't the same. All night, the best spots where the fish should be in their night time feeding grounds. And the nets are taken and they're dragged through the water time and again, but nothing comes up. They toil all night long and come back with nothing. And Peter wonders to himself, can I not even do what I used to do before Jesus found me? The sifting is still going on. So finally, A voice calls from land. Children! Have ye any meat? We've toiled all the night and we've caught nothing. Cast on the other side! Peter doesn't know which end is up. It doesn't make any sense to cast on the other side. I mean, they've gone back and forth through this all night long. That casting... What? Oh well, guess I'll try it. So he throws the net over there and the boat begins to sink for the multitude of fish. John chimes in. It's the Lord. It's the Master. It's the Lord. And so Peter realizes that the Bible says he throws a coat about him, he casts himself into the sea and he goes and there Jesus has some fish prepared. He's already cooked them. He says, come and die. So they begin, as good Baptists, they begin to eat once again. And the master comes to Peter, he says, Simon, lovest thou me more than these? Lord, thou knowest that I love thee. Feed my sheep. Simon, Lovest thou me? Did he have to ask again? Lord, thou knowest that I love thee? Feed my sheep. Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me? Peter was grieved that he said the third time, lovest thou me? I said, Lord, thou knowest all things. Thou knowest that I love thee. Feed my lambs, Peter. Peter, when you were young, you went wherever you wanted to go. But when you're old, somebody else is going to lead you around. What he's saying is, Peter, your dependence on self must be a thing of the past. Peter is now a broken man. Three times he's denied his Savior. Three times he's been asked of the Savior, do you really love me? He's a different man. But then, the day of Pentecost comes. That man, emptied of himself, stands before a crowd that's accusing him of being a drunkard and says, men and brethren, these are not drunken, as he supposed, seeing it is but the third hour of the day. And then he opens to them the scriptures, quoting from Joel chapter 2, and he begins to preach unto them Jesus and 3,000 are converted. What happened to Peter? Where is this brash, self-serving Peter who always has what it takes of his own strength? Well, he is gone. That Peter is gone. Those rough edges have been sifted by Satan himself. They've fallen through the cracks and now this is a different man. A usable man in the hands of the Master when filled with the Holy Spirit. I'll tell you something, young person. God wants to do the same for you. Will you let him? Will you let him? You must submit to the purifying process in order to be used of God. Father, thank you for Peter. Thank you for these young people. Lord, the things that they go through are all activities of faith, exercises of faith to strengthen them. And regardless of what they go through, their name is being called before the Father in prayer. And I pray, Father, that there would be people in this room who would not rebel in the purifying process, but who would submit so that they might be used of you. We ask it in Jesus name. Amen.