Time To Rise & Shine | Larry Brey

Hey, this is Stephen Ferdick.

I'm the pastor of Elevation Church and this is our podcast. I wanted to thank you for joining us today. Hope this inspires you. Hope it builds your faith. Hope it gives your perspective to see God as moving in your life.

Enjoy the message.

Hey, welcome to Elevation Church. My name is Larry Brye. I'm one of the pastors here at Elevation and everybody calls me LB. So in the chat if you want to call me LB, we'll be friends. I love it and my wife and had the privilege of being one of the original eight families that sold their homes and quit their jobs nineteen years ago to start.

Elevation Church and.

Surely one of the biggest honors of our lives to have a front row seat. But every time I get up in the pulpit, there's a couple things that I'm.

Always encouraged by.

One is Pastor Stephen, you do this every week, My goodness, thank you for standing in the pulpit every week faith inly preaching the word of God. I honor you, we love you.

And it makes me grateful for our church.

Nineteen years ago we had eight families, and now we've got nineteen physical locations.

Come on balancein.

Let's welcome all the other locations joining us today. It's amazing, Ronoke, I love you. And then our very first Sunday, we had one hundred and twenty one people joining us for church. Now today, the team told me, on this a weekend like this, an average weekend, there'll be one hundred and eighty countries watching elevation chirts.

So let's welcome everybody.

Joining us from countries all around the world, Denmark and Sweden, Kenya, the country of California, the country of Texas City, and well, gratefully you joined in today because we believe God's got a word for you. Let me give you one versus scripture to set off where we want to go today. This is an Acts, chapter four, Verse fourteen says, Then Peter stood up with the eleven raised his voice. Let me say it again, then Peter, he stood up, and

I love it dark.

I'd be curled up in my blankets and my mom would walk in with all authority of Heaven and she would throw all open the windows and the light would flood in, and she says, time to rise and shine. Larry, that's the title I got for our message today.

Time to rise and shine.

How about your look at your neighbor, tell him to rise and shine. Worship Team, thank you for leading us today. You guys can have a seat. This text that were jumping into this character Peter in Acts two fourteen. It's the day of Pentecost. It's kind of the birth of the church. The promise of the Holy Spirit had showed up, and they started to do profound things that were filled with the spirit. And it spills out of a little

The Holy Spirit.

Saint Peter, you were prepared for this moment. Stand up, lift your voice, and I'll speak something over these people. And he got up out of something. But we don't appreciate Peter standing up as much if we don't actually know where he sat down, because if you only see the second half of the movie, you don't appreciate as much if you don't understand where it began. So as you look at our character Peter, some of us are going to identify.

I love Peter. I so relate to Peter, and so do you.

Because Peter's the guy who would always say some dumb things at the wrong time.

Just call me Peter. That's that's me.

But if we rewind just a couple months, in fact, fifty three days, just flip over a couple chapters in Luke twenty two, verses thirty one to thirty four, it says, and Simon, this is the moment at the Last Supper that Jesus is going to have with his disciples before he goes to do what he was created to do. And he's got this moment with Peter. Pastor Stephen actually preached on this a couple of weeks ago in a sermon called the Prayer that Repairs.

Go back and watch that.

That is so good, Jesus says Simon, Simon, Satan has asked to sift you as we but I prayed for you, Simon, that your faith will may not fail. And when you turn back strengthen your brothers. But he replied, Lord, I'm ready to go to to go to you. I'm ready to go with you to prison and to death. Peter's loud, He's like, I'll take a stand for you.

Will.

I will take a stand in front of everybody. And Jesus like, yeah, surely you will, because he's he says, I tell you, Peter, before the rooster crows today, he will deny three times that you know me. And so at the last Supper, Jesus gives this parting word to Peter, and then they go out to the garden, and Jesus know about what's gonna happen. After that moment, the disciples had heard Jesus talk about three times you'll be crucified.

Like, well, just a little bit of distance.

I don't know if I want all that. I signed up to follow you, Jesus, but maybe just not quite that close. And sometimes we don't understand what we sign up for until we see it in.

Front of us. And like, I don't know if I signed up from eh.

But before we beat Peter up, I think we need to celebrate him a little bit. Because Judas he betrayed Jesus. Where are the other ten apostles?

They left?

They deserted Jesus. Peter might be following out a distance, but praise God for Peter, he's at least following. Can we celebrate Peter just a little bit. He's at a distance because there's somebody watching this sermon right now, and you're afraid that your parents might hear it. So you got the tone, you got the volume way down. You're following Jesus. It might be at a distance. And we have brothers and sisters around the world that if this sermon were to be played in public, they would be

God, you're following at a distance.

For every one of you that had everything you could do just to get in the car to get the church today, Praise God. You're following at a distance. But Jesus said, you'll deny me three times. But Peter doesn't realize the denial has already started. Because the destination of denial starts with just a little bit of distance. The devil doesn't need much space to work in your life. I wonder where you've got some distance in your life. You just got a little bit of distance from the

Gone in a couple of weeks.

A little bit of distance from your small group, a little bit of distance at work. Maybe the path you would normally take to get your desk at work, you're going just a little bit of a longer way because the person, the guy at work, gave you a little bit of a tension, and he noticed your haircut, and your husband didn't and now you're just adding a little bit of distance, trying to fulfill something that God wants to feel, just not that way, just a little bit of distance. And then.

And when some there had.

Kindled a fire in the middle of the courtyard and had sat down, Peter sat down with them.

Two in the morning.

Peter's been following at a distance. I want to be right close with you, Jesus, but I don't know.

I don't know.

When he's dismayed and he's discouraged, and he sees them making a fire in the middle of the courtyard, and it says, and he sat down, we love talking about Acts two fourteen. He stole up, he stood up, and he preached boldly. But he sat down fifty three days earlier in this situation.

He doesn't know that he's gonna deny Jesus.

He said, I will never And now he sits down in something that in a sane moment, he would have never gone close to. Why did he sit down in that moment? What's two in the morning. Temperatures would have been in the high thirties. It's a fire, he's cold. He just the guy he's been following for three years, just got to arrest and he's like, I don't even know what's happening around me. And sometimes you get punched in the face and you sit down in something that you wouldn't have picked, but it's.

Just there, and he sat down in it.

And what I want you to understand, the denial is already in motion. It started with a little bit of distance and then he sat down. We live in North Carolina now, and I didn't see the ocean till I was twenty five. I was born and raised in Minnesota, and I had all these images in my head of what the ocean's going to be like, in the surf and the oh. And then I went there and I hate it. I hate the ocean. I hate all of it.

Gosh. I hated it.

And then when the kids are little, you got to take all.

This stuff out there. Oh painful.

And then the kids are out playing in the water and the waves are coming in, but the waves come in a little bit of an angle. They don't come straight into the shore. So they'll go out and they'll play in it, and then the waves will push them up shore just a little bit. And then they go back out and play and having their fun in the boogie born and the surface pushing in and the waves are just pushes them up shore just a little bit of distance, and then they go back.

You're just having a grand old time.

Twenty thirty forty minutes, and now they're way upshore and they look up and they go, how did I get.

Here?

No one of these movements is significant, but when you add them all together, it creates a significant distance from where you started. And what I want you to understand, denial is a drift, because the drift wants to push you away from the purposes of God. It is so subtle, it's so slippery, and you're just out there having fun.

And the enemy wants to drown you here because you don't.

Feel like there's any way I could ever get back to there.

That's what denial wants you. But it's a drift. It starts as just a little bit of distance.

Holy Spirits, show us where we've allowed a little bit of distance, a little bit of distance in our relationships, a little bit of our distance in our relationship with you and others and meaningful relationships. And he says, he sat down. I wonder what did you sit down in? Holy Spirit, show us where we sat down in situations we would have normally avoided.

Where did you sit down?

Why did you sit down in that because you were cold and it was a warm body. Why did you sit down in that? Not because you wanted it. You were led to it, or you were lied about it. Maybe it was fun or it was familiar. As the story will unfold with Peter, you'll see him go back to the very fishing ship that he said he was going to leave to follow Jesus. Why would he go back to it because it was familiar? Some of you

And then he sat down.

And then Matthew Chapter twenty six, verse sixty nine, it says, now Peter sat outside.

In the courtyard.

A servant girl came to him, saying, you also were with Jesus of Galilee, weren't you? She comes up, and she asked Peter a question.

Don't you know him?

Don't you you're one of his guys. You're from Galilee, aren't you? In verse seventy. But he denied it before them, saying, I don't know what you're saying. Here's what he did. He deflected, girl, you crazy. You'll know what you're talking about is somebody in your life who loves God is trying to get you back into alignment, but you are deflecting and blaming them. You see what happens when somebody tries to call you out of the slippery slope of denial.

It says, hey, weren't you don't you go to elevation?

Oh?

You crazy? Arms you're talking about?

You see how he's gaslighting her because the shame is starting to seep up inside of him. That's a projection of the shame that he's carrying because he's unaware of the distance that has been created between him and Jesus. And at nine pm, I will never deny you. It's about two am. Now look how much distance has been driven there. And then the story continues, and when he had gone out to the gateway, another girl saw him and said to those who were there, this fellow also

He's now defending it with an oath.

Wow. Wow, the first time he was just deflecting. Are you aware of your drifts?

Are you aware of when you.

Start deflecting things that God's trying to bring into your life?

And now you start.

Defending your things with an oath on my mama's grave. So a serving girl turns to the crowd. Isn't it funny how we're so easily swayed by the crowd. We love the applause, but then when the criticism comes, the crowd is very fickle. But what you see is the start of a servant girl asking him a question. Now it's another girl talking to the crowd. And here's the third time a little later those who stood by, This is gonna be at.

Like five thirty in the morning. You see.

He sat down at the fire at two and now the third denials at about five thirty or six m because that's when the sun comes up, and that's when.

The rooster crows.

And a little later of those who stood by came up and said to Peter, Now, this is the crowd that are all murmuring with each other like that guy, oh yeah, yeah, yeah. And Peter's trying to escape it. He's just trying to find a safe place to stay warm. He should have gotten out of the courtyard a little there. Those who stood by came up and said to Peter, surely you were one of them for your speech, but trays you see, you're from Galilee, that's up north. We're

Do I buy the pop.

And this woman looked at me. She's like, boy, you ain't from around here, are you. I said, no, ma'am. She says, do you know do you know what we call you Northerners?

I said no. She goes, we call you Yankees?

And then she says, do you know what we call you yankees that move to the south, Those darn Yankees. That's because shame was rising as the pressure was mounting, and something's leaking out of Peter. That's betraying who he really wants to be, And it says verse seventy four. Then he began to say, those darn Yankees. He began to curse and swear. The first denial was a deflection, The second one was a defense. Now the third one is a disgust, he said, disgust in himself, he says.

Then he began to curse and swear. I don't know the man.

And immediately the rooster crowed for seventy five, and Peter remembered the words that Jesus said said to him, it was only nine hours earlier.

How quickly we forget? Just nine hours?

He forgot what Jesus said to him, but he remembered the words before the rooster crows, you will deny me three times.

So he went out and he wept bitterly.

I think he sat down at this point and said, how did I get.

You?

See what Shane wants to do.

He wants to get you so far away from purpose. You feel like the only way out is to do what Judas did. And for some of you, your speech betrays you.

You kiss your mama with that mouth. You're acting like you don't belong.

To Jesus, because here's the reality. You'll drift far enough that his tongue will become a Judas and betray the allegiance to CHRISTO, Why are you acting like that? Why are you behaving like that? It's not because you love Jesus. I've just drifted so far away. And that's what happens. And that's what the enemy wants to is to get you to drift so far away. And Peter doesn't realize it until he remembers what Jesus said, and he says,

The shame, the.

Way, I believe he felt like the complete and utter failure. And I often thought about that story, and I would always assume, of course Peter fail. Look at what he did, that's what an ultimate failure like. It's easy to see his failure in that one. But did he really fail? And it went back to the text, And this is the part that God really showed me in this sermon. If we go back to the encounter with Christ at nineteen Luke twenty two to thirty one says Simon, Simon, Satan's as.

The shifty as weak.

But I have prayed for you, Simon, that your faith may not fail. I so skipped over that because I like to focus on the dysfunction of man. I so identify with the denial. I couldn't even consider Christ's prayer. I wonder what Jesus was praying. I wonder what it sounded like. I wonder if he prayed out loud right in front of him, or said I prayed in back and I got all prayed up and then I came out to you. But Jesus prayed for Peter, And what

Who gave you your definition of success?

Who are you trying to impress that isn't even watching, Who spoke a word over you that you have been trying to prove them wrong and they can't even remember they said it, but you'll never forget it.

Who gave you that definition for success?

Because when I don't define success correctly, I will always feel like a failure. And when I look at Peter sitting in that place of weeping bitterly. He felt like such a failure, But did he really fail? It all depends on your definition of success. Because Jesus would leave that moment at the last supper, and Peter would.

Get it, would would.

Go through this thing till six am, and then he denied Jesus at six am, and then at nine am the next day, on Friday, is when Jesus would be kneeled to the cross. And as the story continues to unfold, to Luke chapter twenty three, it says this in verse forty four is about noon, and darkness came over the whole land until three in the afternoon. And what that darkness reprisen is the wrath of God being placed upon

And for three.

Hours Jesus sat underneath that not just for three hours until he died physically, but for three days he sat in a grave, underneath the weight of that condemnation that should have been placed upon us, and that this represents the shame and it's coming on the world. And it's interesting because the scripture says this. It says until three in the afternoon, verse forty five, for the sun stopped shining.

This was not an eclipse. This is a movement of God and.

It represents the shame of the world. The sun was created to do something. Hey, when Jesus said I prayed for you that your faith would not fail, the word failed. There is only used a couple times in the Bible. One of the places where it's used is right here. So when it says the sun stopped shining, it means the sun failed. It did not operate according to its original design. It failed to glorify, it failed to illuminate, it failed to shine. And here's what I'm taking from text.

Oh, you didn't catch it.

So when Jesus said I prayed that your faith would not fail, I created you, Peter because I picked you. I chose you. I knew you were gonna deny me, and yet I still picked you. I knew you were going to do all that stuff, and yet I still picked you.

I knew you were going to have all.

These questions, and yet I still picked you. And my picking of you is not based upon your behavior. It's based upon me, because I know the world is going to try to make you drift, and the waves of anxiety and the chaos, of the current of chaos will try to push you away from the promises of God. But when I think Jesus prayed for Peter, here's what I pictures that boat out on the lake being tossed about by the way, and then Jesus says, I just

Rope on it.

And when the rope gets to the end of it and the anchor does what it does, that boat will go no further. Jesus says, I know you're gonna drift, but I have set by my grace how far you will drift, because I am in control of the boat, Peter. I'm in control of it. I know it feels like the anxiety is sweeping you away, but I am an anchor for your soul. And the faith that Jesus is talking about is not Peter's faith to Jesus. It's Jesus faith to Peter. So that faith I prayed that would

And I think when.

I look at that story of Peter and the failure.

And the success and all those things.

He says, Peter, when you're sitting down in shame, you're not standing up giving me glory, and so.

To me, failure.

Is to say seated when God gave you the opportunity to stand up. A couple of years ago, my son was doing a video shoot. His name is Corbin, and he was doing a video shoot for our youth. I'm watching him do the video shoot and I'm like, oh, oh, I'm so proud of Him'm just beaming with excitement God. And then we got in the car and he sat down after we finished, and you could see in his face he was defeated and dejected. And he says to me, all right, Dad, give me some constructive criticism.

And my heart broke and I'm like, son, I'm sorry.

I need to apologize because you got that definition of success from your dad, and because he had the bad definition of success, he felt like a failure and he could not share his father's pleasure. You see what sitting down in shame does. It robs you of sharing in your father's pleasure. And he's not making you aware of where you sat down to rub your nose in it like a puppy, to throw you in the closet because

Because Peter, I know you're gonna deny me, but.

Jesus says, when you are faithless, I will remain faithful. So when you have no faith, I've got enough for both of us, is what Jesus was saying to Peter. And so when you read themout and he stood up, yeah, we like that, and often will preach a message of you just got to stand up, meaning I'm just going to do it my own strength, my own power, in my own way, and I will give you about six hours, but after that I'll forget because I grow tired and

Some of you.

The reason you're talking like that is you're so disgusted with yourself that rather than the recognize how far you've drifted, you blame everybody else around you. What have you sat down in? What have you settled for? That? The grace of God is saying, but I have prayed for you that your faith would not fail. So success, success isn't dependent upon my behavior. Success is my recognition that Jesus still holds.

On to me.

And if he is still holding onto me, I'm successful. That's what it means. I wonder if your definition of success even includes Jesus. And so what I want you to hear at this point is all of us are going to sit in things, because that's the natural flow of humanity. But the grace of God is another wave, wave after wave after wave of grace. And to truly stand up, to truly get up, it's not you doing it better, trying hard, Gosh darn it, New Year's resolution.

I'm gonna do it.

I'm not talking about that. I'm talking about a real faith. And you need two people to help you stand up. There are two key people in this whole story, because the last scene we had of Peter was him sitting weeping bitterly, and in one of the other gospel accounts, it says he saw Jesus in that moment, the one he just denied. He saw face and he wept bitterly. And that represents Peter moving forward. As some of you have been sitting in this place for twenty two years.

No, he's coming to you. Because if this were.

The end of the story, how depressing would that be. But the great God that we served, Jesus shows up. Jesus comes back for him. Jesus remembers, oh, I am tied to his boat. He's not died to me. And so Jesus is resurrected from the grave. Because you need three people, he need two people to help you get up. We believe in a God that's a trinity, Father, son, and spirit. Each one is full of God. God the Father always has been in you, as will be. God the Son always has been in you as will be.

And the sin that.

Should have been placed on us was placed on him. And he gave up his life, and he went into a grave, and he sat down for three days.

And after three days.

The Father looked at the son and said, son, I created you for something.

It's time for you to rise and shine.

And Jesus heard the voice of his father calling him from the darkness he had sat in for three days.

And because Jesus sat.

Down in it for three days, you and I don't have to settle for sitting.

Down in it.

And that same Jesus, that same Jesus now shows up three days after he's resurrected. And who's the first disciple he appears to? Who's the first apostle he appears to Peter? And when Jesus shows up on the shore, he looks out, and where does he see Peter sitting in a boat? I thought you left that boat to follow me. Jesus, I thought you left that to come after me. And why did Peter go sit back down in it? He didn't know what else to do, and it was familiar.

It in my own strength.

So the Father looks at the sun and says, Jesus, it's time to rise and shine, and Jesus kicks the end out of a borrow to him because he was made to glorify the Father. And then Jesus shows up and he sees Peter out on the boat that he was supposed to walk away from, and he says, hey, you come back yet. So Peter makes his way back into the shore, going through the same waves of chaos that he was drifted away by. Isn't that funny how

Do you love me? Do you love me? One for each of those.

Denials, because God's love is always greater than your denial, and he needed Peter to hear that for every one of those denials, I've got something greater. I've got something greater, I've got something right because I picked you for a purpose. I picked you to show my love, to receive and reflect my love. We were made to glorify God. But when I sit in shame underneath the space here, I don't bring him glory.

So when you go to work tomorrow.

Are you sitting down in something old or are you hearing the voice of God saying stand up and glorify?

So in Acts two.

Fourteen, then Peter stood up. I wonder if he remembered the bitter tears he wept when he denied Jesus. I wonder if that was the soundtrack playing in the back of his mind on some level, going Okay, maybe this time I'll get it right, but maybe I won't.

I wonder. Peter was dealing with some doubt and like, could you really use me? God?

But something about it, the voice of God, the Holy Spirit resonating in him, made him stand up, and he spoke loudly and clearly, and he said, let me explain the goodness of God to you.

And who better to explain the.

Goodness of God than a man who had just disappointed and denied Jesus fifty three days earlier. He didn't need to go to a class, need to go to a twelve step program. Those are good, but he said, all I need is Jesus on one side and then the Holy Spirit on the other. So in Acts, here's the way it begins. Here's the second person. Acts two, Verses one through four. So that day that Peter gets up and speaks, that day that he boldly proclaims Jesus, here's

To wash over you and clean you and make you a new creation.

And when you come into relationship with Jesus, when you place your faith in him, it says, when you believe in your heart that he was raised from the dead, and you confess with your mouth that he is Lord, the Holy Spirit, the person of God comes to live inside of you. This Holy Spirit's not a power or an energy. It's not a viber of feeling. It's a person. And the Holy Spirit desires to lead you so to get up out of that grave. It's hearing the voice

The Holy Spirit is a gentleman.

He's not gonna kick down the door, but he's gonna knock and say, I'm still here.

I've not left you. I'm right in this thing with you.

Would you respond to that voice, just as that voice was so tender with Peter saying come here, Peter, get out of that boat. I know you were sitting down feeling disqualified, and you feel like you've got nothing to say. But to rise and shine is to hear the Holy Spirit saying, come forth.

To respond to that.

Now, the waves are going to be loud, the waves of disappointment and doubt and discuss.

They're just crashing, they're crashing rush.

But the voice I'm talking about, it's a whisper, Simon, Simon, it's a Hebrew term of intimacy.

Because I'm close.

And the Holy Spirit's inside of you, and he's whispering to you, rise and shine. I put you in that job to give me glory. I put you in that school to give me glory. And when you sit in shame, you don't operate according to what you were created for the sun stopped shining. It was created to shine because of the shame that was in the world. You were created to glorify God. Don't let the shame rob you

And what I wanted you to hear today.

Is of a good God who sees you sitting down in something that he says, I still picked you, I love you, and I'm here.

Will you respond to it?

Will you come out of the grave and say, I need to give him glory? Will you receive the gift of salvation that's found in him? The Bible says if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, and you believe in your heart that He was raised from the dead, you will be saved.

Would you buy your heads?

Would you close your eyes at all over locations, in everybody online, And if you need to place your faith in Jesus, this is your prayer. I'm not talking about a commitment to try harder or do better. I'm not talking about a resolution to say I'm just going to give it one more chance. Now I'm talking about confessing you are dead in your sins and you cannot save yourself.

That is why Jesus had to die.

And if that's you, I want to lead you in this prayer in the church family. I want us to say this prayer together out loud for the benefit of somebody who's making this decision to follow in Jesus. Pray this with me, Church family. I believe that Jesus Christ is the son of God who died on the cross and rose from the grave.

So forgive me of my sins.

I give you my life, I give you my sin, I give you my shame. Forgive me, and I'll spend my life following you with your head still about in your lives still close. If you just place your faith in Jesus for the first time and you're recognizing I need to be forgiven. If that's you, I'm going to count to three, and when I get through without hesitation, I want you to boldly.

Shoot your hand into the air.

One, two, three, shoots your hand up all across the sauditorum.

Come on, Church family, no, let's celebrate.

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