This transcript was generated by whisper.ai.

I want to welcome you to our fourth day of looking through Matthew chapter 16,
and let me begin by reading verses 21 to 23. From that time on, Jesus began to
explain to his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things at
the hands of the elders, chief priests, and teachers of the law, and that he
must be killed and on the third day be raised to life. Peter took him aside and
began to rebuke him.

"Never, Lord," he said, "this shall never happen to you. " Jesus turned and said
to Peter, "Get behind me, Satan. You are a stumbling block to me.

You do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men. " Wow. Peter,
in the space of just a few verses in this chapter, goes from "Blessed are you,
Simon, to get behind me, Satan.

" That's quite a turnaround. In just a few verses, he goes from "This was not
revealed to you by man, but by God," to "You have in mind not the things of God,
but the things of man. " Now, it shows us the reality of our humanness, how
quickly we can flip-flop from thinking about God to thinking about ourselves.

Jesus says to Peter, "Who do you say that I am? You're Christ, you're the Son of
the living God. " You were right, Peter.

That didn't come from human wisdom. It seems like just a few seconds later, it's
just a few verses later, I'm going to die, and I'm going to go to Jerusalem, I'm
going to die on the third day rise again. I don't think Peter heard that last
part, third day rise again.

"Wait, you don't want to do that," Peter says, "You can't do that. " That idea,
Jesus says, "That's from the devil, so get behind me. " In just the space of a
few verses, we see Peter getting an impression from God and expressing faith,
and then he gets an impression from Satan and expresses doubt or selfishness.

This happens to you and I, too. One minute you're listening to yourself, you're
listening to Satan, the next minute you're listening to God. As you look at
Peter here and the ups and downs he has in just to these few verses, it's an
example to me of what real faith looks like.

Peter was a man of faith, and when you and I think about living a life of faith,
sometimes we think about living some life of perfection, and it's just not that
way. As you look at all the people of faith in the Old Testament, all the people
of faith in the New Testament, they struggled with faith. They struggled to have
the kind of faith by which they serve God.

The key is that you're struggling with it. Jesus' first followers were all
refreshing because of the real faith that they displayed in their lives. I want
to take a look at some of the things that real faith includes that we've already
seen in Peter's life as we've begun walking through the book of Matthew and that
culminate really in what happens in these couple of verses.

This is sort of a part one. We'll probably come to a part two as we come to the
end of the book of Matthew because there's more in Peter's life as we study
through this book about what real faith looks like. What does real faith
include?

Number one, it includes feeling unworthy of God's presence. If you think, if
you're a real person of faith, you want to feel close to God all the time, you
miss what happened in Simon Peter's life. At the very beginning of Jesus' call,
Jesus says, "I'm calling you.

" And Peter says, "Get away from me, Lord. I'm a sinful man. " This great
miracle of the catching of the fish at the very beginning.

And Peter's thinking, "I don't deserve this. I can't be anywhere near this. " If
you ever feel like you don't deserve to be in God's presence, you're in good
company.

Moses felt that way. Isaiah felt that way. Peter felt that way.

In fact, in one way, it's a healthy feeling. You don't have any grandiose ideas
about yourself, that's for sure. It's a healthy feeling as long as you fall at
your knees before God because of it rather than run away from him.

Many people, because they feel unworthy, they want to run away from those
feelings of unworthiness. And you can't run away from that. What you do is you
bow before the one who is worthy.

Admit you're unworthy. It's okay. Yes, I am unworthy.

And I bow before the one who is worthy. Real faith includes feeling unworthy.
Real faith includes doubt at the moment of triumph.

At the very moment when you're doing the best, you feel sometimes the greatest
doubt. When God's using you in the greatest way, you feel overwhelmed by doubt.
It happened with Peter.

We looked at it just a few weeks ago. He walks on water, great triumph. He sees
the wind and the waves and he sinks.

Doubt at the moment of greatest triumph. Sometimes you have the faith that'll
get you out of the boat. But then all of a sudden you have this doubt at the
moment of triumph.

In fact, I think it happens almost every time. Because all of a sudden we look
around us and we think, "What are we doing? What am I doing?

I'm not the person of faith that could walk on water. I'm not the person of
faith that could do this kind of ministry. I'm not the person of faith that
could teach this many people.

I'm not the person of faith who could launch out in this kind of way. " We've
got this every second choice. Is it going to be trust in God or doubt?

And we know what it is to doubt when things aren't going well and to trust God.
But sometimes I don't realize that it can be more difficult to trust God because
of the doubts that come when things are going well. We're overwhelmed with these
feelings of inadequacy.

I can't do this. That's not the Hollywood story of Peter and of faith. The fake
story of faith is Peter running wind sprints on Lake Galilee with Jesus, playing
football out there, walking on water, getting the other disciples involved.

Doubt would not be in the script, but it's the reality of faith. The reality of
faith is sometimes the waves catch your attention and you sink at that moment of
triumph and you trust in Him again. What do you do when you sink?

We talked about it a couple weeks ago. You cry out. Don't be afraid to cry out
to God.

That's what real faith looks like. What does real faith look like? Third thing
it looks like is what we're looking at right here.

Stupid statements that sound spiritual. Sometimes because I have real faith, I
say things that sound really spiritual, but it's not of God at all. Peter says,
"Never, Lord.

We would never let this happen to you, that you somehow would have to face
death. " It sounded so spiritual. It sounded so passionate, and it was so wrong.

As someone who speaks often, I am very aware of my ability to say the most
spiritual sounding things that on second look are looking after man's interests,
not God's interests. There's a lot of examples of that today. You can see it in
common statements today.

God helps those who help themselves, which by the way isn't from the Bible.
That's Ben Franklin who wrote that. It's a spiritual sounding statement that
leads me to trust myself and not trust God.

Or statements like, "Whatever the mind can believe, man can achieve. " That's
spiritual sounding, but it's ridiculous. It's hogwash.

Whatever God can achieve, I can achieve. It's not a matter of my belief. It's a
matter of God, who am I believing in?

Or statements like, "If you only have enough faith, God will heal you. " I can't
tell you how many people have been hurt by that statement, because healing
doesn't happen. They feel like it must be a matter of my faith.

I don't love the Lord enough. The truth is, you can look at people like the
Apostle Paul and see that they weren't healed even though they had enough faith.
Sometimes God is working in ways above and beyond our understanding.

When I talk about these stupid statements that sound spiritual, part of you
might think, "Well, you shouldn't admit that because now you're teaching me and
maybe you're saying something stupid that sounds spiritual that I shouldn't
believe in. " It's a good place for me to remind you, check everything I'm
saying or any other teacher is saying by scripture. Always go back and check it
by scripture.

What does the scripture have to say about it? Does it fit with scripture? But
it's also a good reminder to us personally as I walk through this, that
sometimes you're going to say things that when you look back at it, you think,
"That's not the right way to say that at all.

" So you go back and you correct it. You go back and you begin to live it a
different way. It's part of what faith includes in Peter's life and our lives
too.

What does real faith include? It includes a fourth thing. It's what we looked at
a couple of days ago.

It includes simple words that change the world. "You are the Christ," Peter
says. Simple words that change the world.

In Acts chapter 2, the Bible says that Peter preached the first sermon and at
the end of that sermon, a very simple sermon about who Jesus is and why he came,
those who accepted his message, Acts 2, 41, were baptized and about 3,000 were
added to their number that day. When you look at Peter's simple faith and his
ability to express that and see this explosive growth, first in the affirmation
of Jesus and then in the commitment of this new church, you realize how God uses
our simple words. We don't always know when, by the way, that simple word is
going to be spoken that's going to change a life, that's going to change the
world.

What I'd like is this spiritual neon sign that's above the moments of life that
says like a day, two days in advance, "Big moment coming. Big opportunity
coming. Share your words in advance.

" That's what I would like to have, but that's not how life works. No, life just
comes at us and all of a sudden the moment comes and you have an opportunity to
express faith. When you take that opportunity, God puts a thought in your mind.

When you say it, when you express faith, God uses that moment to change
everything. Now, I've got to admit something to you. I just did these last two
out of order.

The simple statements that change the world and the stupid statements that sound
spiritual. Peter actually, as we just studied this week, he said the simple
statement first and then the very next thing he did is he said the other thing.
Maybe he got prideful.

Maybe he thought because Jesus affirmed him so much that now he had a corner on
the truth. Now he would always speak with faith. There's this humility moment to
realize the only way to speak with faith is to speak in the moment about what
God's put into my heart.

Not what I want, but what God wants. Sometimes I'm going to get it wrong. When I
get it wrong, I go back and I get it right.

I start trusting in him again. That is real faith. Let's take a minute to pray
together.

Our Father, we want to live a life of real faith. Not some phony faith that you
put on a TV show or in a movie. Not some phony faith that's written in a script.

The reality of life is we do stumble sometimes. We do make mistakes sometimes,
but you're with us through it all. So help us to see that even though we're not
perfect, even though we're not a star, that we're your son, we're your daughter,
and you want to work in our lives.

We want to walk this life of faith. So help us to stumble, help us to struggle
towards all that you want us to be. Pray this in Jesus' name, amen.