Hour 2: Bible Teaching: The Restoration of Peter

water was just gorgeous. There were the weather was perfect and we traveled from site to site. After enjoying wonderful dinners and spending the night in beautiful cabins, even going out on deck in the evening and looking at the stars and the sails hoisted. It was just beautiful. But then during the day we'd land, and when we got to land, we'd go to various sites from site to site, and we saw marvellous places related to the journeys of Paul,

the ministry of Paul, his missionary journeys. Here's some of the places we went to. We went to Athens, Corinth, Ephesus, Philippi, Thessalonica, Berea. We also saw sites from the Book of Revelation related to the ministry of the Apostle John. We went to Patmos, where John received his vision. We also went to Pergamum, saw ancient Pergamum, which was one of the letters that the Lord Jesus gave to the church at Pergamum. And

we got to see that site. Well, what was unique about this trip is that each site, one of our Bible teachers from Moody Bible Institute, would open the word of God at that site, relating what was in the text about those places to what we were seeing. It was remarkable. So doctor Mark Jobe taught at places. Doctor Lori Norris, the dean of faculty at Moody, taught Doctor Joe Stoll, the former president of Moody was there, and he taught as well. I had the privilege of opening

the word as well in various places. One of my favorite places was standing at the Bema Seat and in Corinth, and teaching about the Bema Seat that Paul alludes to in Second Corinthians five. What a what a fantastic time that was. We were studying the Bible on site and and that was just great. The people who were on the trip, 160 of my closest friends or so, uh, they,

they loved it. And what amazed me more, and I think this is true, so many of these people were open line listeners and Open line listeners love the Word of God. And as a result, as much as we were studying the scriptures everywhere, they kept asking for more. They were saying, oh, can't we have more Bible study? I'm like, wow. I mean, when we were on the ship on Sunday morning, we gathered for worship. Uh, Lori,

our our dean of faculty, played the keyboards. And Bruce Everhart from Moody Bible Institute, one of our senior vice presidents, uh, led worship with her. And doctor Mark Jobe opened the word. It was terrific. And people said, can we have more of that? We knew that we were going to Rome after we, uh, got off the ship. We were going to do some other sites along the way and then go to Rome. So I thought, well, why don't we have a special Bible study on our last morning on

board as we were getting ready to leave. And so I announced we're going to have a special on deck Bible study. It was optional. You don't have to come. But if people wanted more Bible, that's what we're going to do. An amazing me and amazing everyone on deck. Virtually everyone showed up. I think about 155 people showed up on deck for this special Bible study. It was about the restoration of Peter. It was titled How to Become a Hopeful Failure. It's based on John 21. Remember

what happened? Peter denied the Lord three times and he goes back to where he was most comfortable. He thinks God can't use me anymore. And he goes back to fishing. And there the Lord goes to meet Peter and asks him three times, do you love me? Peter responds three times with his love for the Lord, and that's what this Bible study was about. But can't we all relate to Peter? You know we fail the Lord from time to time, maybe more than we ever would ever dream

we could. And then we think, God's done with me. He can't possibly use me. I am a hopeless failure. And then we study the example of Peter and see that even when we flee and we don't think God can use us, he comes. The Lord Jesus pursues us, gets a hold of us, and says, I absolutely can use you still. And that's what this Bible study is about. Okay. I want to tell you about an experience I had in high school. There I was, standing in front of

the entire Hebrew club. That was a afternoon post-class co-curricular activity. They had brought in a Columbia University graduate student to speak on why Jewish people shouldn't believe in Jesus. He was a youth leader in a synagogue And there was a girl in our high school who was very upset about a bunch of Jewish believers in our high school. And so she brought in her youth leader to speak to the Hebrew Club. I had gone to our principal, uh, Solomon Levine, and asked him if I could get a

messianic Jewish Bible teacher to respond. And he said, no, it's Hebrew club. They can have whoever they want, you know. So I thought, well, I'm part of the Hebrew club. I'll go and I'll respond. This guy was a genius. And now I wasn't afraid, because I had gone with my friends who had become believers to their their parents to go to the rabbi. And I'd gone to the rabbi when I became a believer, my dad brought rabbis to meet with me. And, you know, it had gone

pretty well. So I thought, well, I can handle this guy. I don't know if you ever heard of the term flop sweat. That that comedians get when they're telling jokes and no one's laughing. Well, I was giving answers and no one was. I mean, it was terrible. He did a great talk on the the history of Christian anti-Semitism as the reason. And I stood up in the Q&;A time and I said, listen, I understand that and I

agree with you that it was terrible. However, the issue is not what Christians did in the name of Jesus, but what does the Bible say about who the Messiah is? And I started with messianic prophecy. So I started with Genesis 315 About crushing the Messiah, crushing the head of the serpent, seed of the woman, crushing the head of

the serpent. He said, don't be ridiculous. That is a verse that teaches that humanity will always want to stomp on snakes heads, and snakes will always want to bite humanity. It's just the perpetual enmity between snakes and humanity. Everyone in the room went, yeah, yeah. I said, well, how about this verse? And I started working my way through the Hebrew Bible. And for every verse he had a good, rational explanation about why it wasn't a supernatural prediction of

the Messiah. By the time I'm getting to the Book of Numbers and Deuteronomy, I'm sweating because I had no answers for him. When I got into the prophets, it was worse. It was the worst experience of my life. I had been so overconfident. Dare I say, cocky? Unpaid. Didn't pray. I just maybe prayed a little bit, but not enough. Didn't study enough. Didn't prep enough. I knew what I was going to do, and I stood in front of people, and I felt like I had let

down the Lord. There I was, in front of all these Jewish classmates and students in my high school, and I was just a hopeless failure. And I thought he would never, ever, ever. And he should never, ever, ever let me speak publicly for him again. What a loser. I don't know if you've ever felt like a failure, But I suspect we all do. It may be, you know, the marriage that didn't turn out the way you expected it to, or child that you thought maybe you didn't

raise in the way that you ought to have. It may be a relationship that you had with a parent, or a neighbor or a sibling that blew up on you. It may be any number of situations at work where you may have felt like you didn't represent the Lord well. And each time something like that happens, what do we think? God's through with me. And so today, what I'd like to do is answer this question. How can we we

become hopeful failures instead of hopeless failures? Now, the truth of it is, I think every one of us can look at something in our lives and say I am a failure. But can we have hope? I think so. So if you have a Bible, turn to John chapter 21. It says in John 21. Now this is after the resurrection. It's after the resurrection. And this shows what our failures do to us. It's the story of Peter. It says after this. Verse one Jesus revealed himself again to the

his disciples by the sea of Tiberius. Let's imagine that's the Sea of Tiberius instead of it's the Aegean, okay? It's the Sea of Galilee. He revealed himself in this way. Simon. Peter. Thomas called the twin Nathanael from Cana of Galilee. Zebedee's sons and two others of his disciples were together. I'm going fishing. Simon Peter said to them, we're coming with you. They told him they went out and got into the boat, but that night they caught nothing. Mm. Here's what I

think about this verse. Remember, this is after Peter had denied the Lord three times and he felt awful. Remember how he went out and wept? Our failures, like Peter, make us want to quit. Our failures make us want to retreat. What was Peter doing here? He was going back to what he always did before. Remember what he was before he was called to be a fisher of men. He was a fisherman. He said, I'm going back to Galilee. I'm going to get in the boat, because obviously I'm

washed up as one of these disciples. I'm done. I'm finished. And so he's ready to quit. I have to say, there are times when you when we all make mistakes and we think, ha! God will never use me again. I have let the Lord Jesus down. And we want to go back to where we were before. There are times in my life I have to say this. I thought, why in the world am I teaching at Moody Bible Institute? I could go teach in a high school and make a lot more money, but it's only when I felt

that I had let the Lord down. You're listening to a special pre-recorded open line Bible study on the deck of the Star Clipper from the Moody Journeys of Paul or stay with us. We'll be back with more in just a moment. Sometimes we want to read the Bible but don't know how to get the most out of it. My friend, Moody Professor Doctor Jim Coakley, has written 14 Fresh Ways to Enjoy the Bible, a book that helps us understand the full riches of Scripture by giving 14

practical principles to bring them to life. Request your copy today with a gift of any amount to open line. Call (888) 644-7122 or visit Open Line radio.org. Each weekend on Open Line with me, Doctor Michael Radonich, we study the scriptures around our radio kitchen table. You can become a kitchen table partner through your monthly support of Open Line. Your gifts help me to provide biblical answers to questions that many believers have about the Savior, the scriptures, and

the spiritual life, along with other partners. You're helping people receive guidance from God's Word. Become a kitchen table partner today. Call (888) 644-7122 or go to Open Line radio.org. And we're back. So glad you're listening today because we're going back to the deck of the Star Clipper to hear more of our Bible study on how to become a hopeful failure. I felt that I had let the Lord down, that I wanted to do something like that, or it just was.

The ministry can be a little hard, and I want to do that, you know? But there are times where we just want to go back. We want to quit. Well, uh, it's after failure that we want to retreat, but. What I think is really the important part, what I really want to focus on is what Jesus response. How Yeshua Jesus. That's the Jewish way to say Jesus Yeshua. Uh, how he responds. He responds completely with restoration. That's what he does. He doesn't want us to retreat. He wants to restore

us when we fail him. And here's what it looks like. It says when daybreak came, Jesus stood on the shore. However, the disciples didn't know it was Jesus. But there he is, ready to restore them. And the first aspect of his restoration when we have failed him, is he finds ways to review our calling. He does something to remember every you say. Wait a minute, Michael. You're called. I'm not. No, we're all called. We are all called to be his servants.

All called to serve him. And sometimes we forget that, especially when we fail, we go backwards and he reviews our calling. Look what he does with the disciples men Jesus called to them. You don't have any fish, do you? No, they answered. Cast the net on the right side of the boat, he told them, and you'll find some. So they did, and they were unable to haul it in because of the large number of fish. Therefore, the disciple, the one Jesus loved, that's John. That's how he talks

about himself. Hey guys, I'm the one Jesus loved. In case you were wondering, he loved me more than you guys. Peter says Jesus always liked you best. He said to Peter, it is the Lord. When Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord. He tied his outer garment round him, for he was stripped. He didn't have his shirt. His outer garment on and plunged into the sea. But since they were not far from land, about 100 yards away, the other disciples came in the boat, dragging the net

full of fish. When they got out on land, they saw a charcoal fire there with fish lying on it. And bread. Bring some fish you've just caught, Jesus told them. So Simon Peter got up and hauled the net ashore full of large fish, 153 of them. I think that's counted. They're just to say this is not some just so story. This is not some fable. We counted the fish. It's 153 of them. Even though there were so many, the net was not torn. Come and have breakfast, Jesus told them.

None of the disciples dared ask him, who are you? Because they knew it was the Lord. Jesus came and took took the bread, gave it to them, and he did the same with the fish. This was now the third time Jesus appeared to the disciples after he was raised from the dead. Okay, he said, what is the significance of this? Well, do you remember how it was that the Lord Jesus called the disciples Peter, James, and John at the outset? Luke five. These were the worst

fishermen in the history of fishermen. Think about them. They were always mending nets, never fishing. And they better mend those nets because they can't catch anything with them. They were always not able to catch anything. And so in Luke five, the story is that he tossed the net in. And remember, the nets were full and breaking. This time it didn't break, but Jesus did the miracle for them. They were out on the Sea of Galilee. They couldn't

catch anything. They were terrible fishermen. They used to throw it out there and they catch the fish. And then he says, follow me. I will make you fishers of men. Right? That was how he called them. And what does he do now? He reminds them, Peter, especially of his calling. And that's something so often when we feel like hopeless failures, what does he do? He says, I called you and you are mine. And by the way, I knew you

were going to fail me when I called you. And I will find some way for you to serve me. And he he reminds us of that calling. I felt really a clear calling of God as a high school student. And yet after that day I thought, I'm done. But you know what? He kept throwing me time and time again into situations like that. And I had to say, well, he still wants to use me. Why? I don't know, but he does. Uh, that's, uh, one of the the most amazing stories. Uh, what's his name again? Gary. Uh,

I can't believe he just lost it. Uh, he ran for president Gary Hart. That was an amazing story of Gary Hart. Uh, that there was a young woman, uh, named Donna who? Remember the scandal? Yeah. Right. And. But what happened to her after the scandal and the shame and all that? The Lord reminded her of her calling because she was a follower of Jesus, and she became an outstanding proponent of protection of children against pornography. Uh, so you just never know what the Lord is going

to do. He reminds us of our calling because he doesn't want us to consider our life, only to be measured by our failures. Okay, so he reviews our calling. The second way he restores is he renews our commitment. It says in verse 15, when they had eaten breakfast, Jesus asked Simon Peter, Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these? More. A lot of people think that the Lord Jesus is saying, do you love me more than these other disciples? No, I don't believe

that's what he would ask. Remember, even in Narnia. Aslan only talks to each child about himself or herself. It doesn't talk about others. I can just see what the Lord Jesus is saying here and it fits. He pointed at the nets, the boat, all the accoutrements of fishing and said, Simon Peter, do you love me more than these? Do you want to go back to being a fisherman? Really? Or do you love me more than being a fisherman? Personally, I would love the Lord Jesus more than being a

fisherman any day of the week. But you could see what he's saying. Do you love me more than these? And of course, Peter's answer is, you know that I love you. Yes, Lord, you know that I love you. Then a second time he asked him, Simon, son of John, do you love me? Yes, Lord. He said to him, you know that I love you. Then in verse 17 he asked him the third time, Simon, son of John, do you love me? Peter was grieved that he asked him the third time, do you love me? He said, Lord,

you know everything. You know everything. You know that I love you. Three times Peter affirms his love for the Lord. He renews his commitment. Now, I know a lot of people have heard. Tell me if you've heard this, that the Lord Jesus is asking, do you agapao unconditionally love me in the finest, strongest way? And Peter answers each time saying, I phileo you. I love you. I friend you. You're my friend. How many have heard that? And then after three times the Lord gives up on Peter. Apparently,

he doesn't get it. Okay, let's move on. I don't think that's right. I don't think that's a good interpretation of that verse. Because by the time you come to first century Koine Greek, the words agapao or agape and phileo mean exactly the same thing. There's no difference. No difference whatsoever. So what's going on here? Think about it. How many times did Peter deny the Lord? How many

times does he reaffirm his commitment of love? Three. He allows him to renew his commitment to start all over again. To undo the denials. That's what he does with us. I think one of the most important issues when we failed the Lord, we need to come back to him and reaffirm that commitment. He invites us to do that, to say, yes, Lord, I love you more than all

these other things in my life. You're listening to a special pre-recorded open line Bible study on the deck of the Star Clipper from the Moody Journeys of Paul tour. Stay with us.

He reaffirms our commission to serve him after we renew our commitment. He reaffirms our commission. You're still called. Go do this. Look what he does each time after Peter says I love you. What does he say back to him? He says, feed my lambs. Verse 15. Then he says in verse 16, Shepherd my sheep. And then in verse 17 he says, feed my sheep. You know what he's telling Peter? Peter, you're not going to be a fisherman anymore. You're not even going to be a fisher of men.

Now you're going to be a shepherd of the flock. Such an interesting thing because Peter in first Peter five talks about when the chief Shepherd appears, how we shepherds will have to give an account, and he tells the elders that he's writing to shepherd the flock of God among you. Peter took this to heart. He didn't say, go catch fish. He said, Shepherd the flock of God among you. And when the chief shepherd appears, he will have to give an account, and he'll give us a

reward for faithful shepherding. He got it, and he became the leader of the first congregation. Remember in Pentecost you think, how could anyone follow this guy? I mean, what a loser. He always says the wrong thing. Does it three times. You know, he's the one that. Oh, you're the Messiah, the son of the living God. And he says, the Lord Jesus says he's going to go to Jerusalem. He's going to be crucified. Oh no no, no, no, you haven't read those messianic texts. Lord, you don't understand what

you're supposed to do. I'll straighten you out. Good grief. But he's reaffirmed here in his commission to serve God. Okay, so I was serving with Chosen People Ministries, and I was there summer training and evangelism program director, and we had applications. People would come and they would come and study and serve for the summer, about eight weeks with Chosen People ministries. And, uh, this is a true story. I get a phone call from a guy, oh, I

got an application and it was sent from prison. He said he was getting out just before the program, and he wanted to be part of our program. I thought, that's highly unusual. You know, we hardly ever get people out of federal prisons and put them in our training program. So I called him at the prison. He's a Jewish believer. And I said, okay, tell me your story. Well, he was in prison for white collar crime on Wall Street, and he went to a minimum security prison and there.

And I won't use his name, but he was a famous scandal ridden televangelist also in that minimum security prison. And this guy who. If I said your name, you'd think. Ah. Good night. What a loser. No, God couldn't possibly use that scandal ridden televangelist again. Well, while he was in prison, he said that he was wrong. He confessed all the wrong things he did. And there were many financial, sexual,

all sorts of terrible things. He did. He renewed his commitment to the Lord, and the Lord reaffirmed it that wherever you're at, you can represent me. And he started a Bible study. They were so upset with him for starting a Bible study that they kept trying to get him to stop teaching the Bible. They put him in solitary, let him out of solitary Bible study. He found out this Jewish guy was there, said, oh, God has a special plan for Jewish people. He has a real concern

for Jewish people. Let me show you Messiah. In the Old Testament, the televangelist goes to this disgraced Wall Street criminal and shows him messianic prophecy. I said, how did you feel? He said, wow. I thought if God could forgive that guy, he could forgive me too. And that's how he came to the Lord. I'm just shocked because I thought yes, God was through with that guy may not be through with me, but he's definitely through with that guy. But he reaffirmed his commission to be a

prison Bible teacher and evangelist rather than on TV. He was in prison. If God can do that with him and Peter, can't he do it with you? With me? I think so. He could use us still. Well, how does Yeshua restore? He reviews our calling. He renews our commitment. He reaffirms our commission. And then, fourthly, he restores our confidence. Because, you know, when we fail, we lose it. We think I'll always fail. I'm a perpetual loser. I am a

hopeless failure. Look what he says after he tells them. Uh, after he tells Peter to feed the sheep. Feed the lambs, write verse 18. I assure you, when you were young, you would tie your belt and walk wherever you wanted. But when you grow old, you will stretch out your hands, and someone else will tie you and carry you where you don't want to go. He said this to signify by what kind of death he would glorify God. After saying this, he told him, follow me. Now that seems

like a bummer, doesn't it? By the way, used to be free. You went wherever you wanted. But there's going to come a time where you're going to be bound up. They're going to take you where you don't want to go. And by tradition, we know that Peter was crucified upside down, feeling unworthy to be crucified in the same manner as his Lord. So he was crucified upside down, and he he died a martyr's death. And the Lord predicted this here.

I don't know how that restores his confidence. Think about it. Oh, well, that's good news. I feed your sheep and you tell me I'm going to die a brutal death. Here's how it is. What did Peter do? He was afraid of dying. And he denied the Lord. And here's what the Lord's saying to him. You'll have other opportunities to take a stand for me. And I guarantee you you won't fail me next time. You indeed will stand for me and die a martyr's His death. But nevertheless, you follow me.

What a way to restore confidence. It's just amazing. And Peter did that. He becomes the leader of the. Continues to be the leader of the apostles. He preaches at Pentecost. He. He's released from prison in acts 12, you know, after being thrown in. But in the end, he's martyred and he followed the Lord to the end. I think it's essential that we remember this, that, uh, the Lord will find a way to tell us you may have failed me before, but there will come a time where you'll

have another opportunity and you won't fail me. That's. I love that about the Lord. That we have lots of opportunities to serve him. And he keeps giving us time after time. And you know what happens if we fail him again? He's going to restore us again. And then what will he do? Give us another opportunity and another opportunity in the end. He wants us to. He doesn't want us to fail. He wants us to follow. He wants us to be the ones who follow him to

the end. Uh, what's the opportunity he's given you? I had a friend who I think was wrongly accused of wrongdoing in ministry and was removed from his position, and he was with a denomination and sent to another congregation, and he was out of ministry, and he was in services. And his wife was just heartbroken. And again, I think he was even wrongfully accused. But the very first week he was in that other congregation, he went and grabbed bulletins and started to give them out. His wife said

to him, what are you doing? He said, says. I'm doing whatever I can. I have an opportunity to give out bulletins. Say hello to people. That's my ministry now and that's what I'm going to do. He was not a hopeless failure. He's he's doing quite well in ministry. He was ultimately vindicated and not, uh, it's not it

was not true. And it was vindicated. But what I loved about what he was doing was he saw every opportunity for what he could do, and he took advantage of it and gave out those those pamphlets, those bulletins and welcomed people. And God used that. Okay, so here's the main message of this main idea of this. When we fail the Lord, we want to retreat. But the Lord does everything he can to restore us. What does he do? He reminds us of our calling. He reaffirms

our commitment right? Uh, he renews our calling. And then what does he do? Give us. He restores our confidence. You're listening to a special pre-recorded open line Bible study on the deck of the Star Clipper. From the moody journeys of Paul to stay with us. We'll be back with more.

you're with me today. It's a special pre-recorded Bible study on the deck of the Star Clipper. It's about how to become a hopeful failure. Stay with us right now. Okay. So you want to know the end of the story about that horrible experience I had? I spent the next, uh, 30 years or so longing for an opportunity to make it up and have another opportunity with that guy to debate him. I don't even believe in debates, but I thought because I think they're uncomfortable. But I wanted to

debate him. I went to school. I learned a lot more. I felt a lot more confident that I could do this because I had put in the work, you know, not a thing. In fact, there were some radio stations. One TV station tried to set up a debate with me and this guy because he had become a famous writer and radio host. And he would always say no, because he was trying to build bridges with evangelical Christians and didn't want to do. Not that he remembered me or knew me. It's just he didn't want to do

those kind of debates. I was really disappointed. So, uh, but I always wanted to do it again anyway, about. I guess 2005 or 6, I had written a book called understanding the Arab-Israeli conflict, and I was out in California doing a workshop at a messianic congregation. And it was about the understanding the Arab-Israeli conflict. And so I'm getting set to do this. Uh, I don't know what you would call the PowerPoint and all this. I was going to teach it in Shabbat school at a messianic

congregation And I felt miserable that weekend. I felt again, like a hopeless failure because that weekend, the day before I left for California, I had heard that a woman I had led to the Lord right on the campus of Moody, a moody, uh, a Jewish, not a Jewish student, but a Jewish woman had come to campus and asked questions. I led her to faith. Even I had worked with her to disciple her, and her cousin came from Israel and convinced her to abandon the faith. I thought, I

am such a loser. I can't even ground people well. And then a guy I had discipled in New York had just been arrested for, uh, molesting a child. And I thought, once again, this is the quality of my disciples. Why am I even in the ministry? I felt horrible, and I'm out there teaching, trying to get the power point to come up on the with my computer, you know, and there's a guy out in California with a thick New York accent, and he's talking to me. And I

just want to say, shut up, will you? Can't you see I'm having trouble with the computer? But. Oh, yeah. Just one moment. But inside I was saying, shut up. You don't understand how that feels. No. Anyway, also, the screen comes alive. It's working. I see I've got about 5 or 10 minutes before class, and now I turn my attention to him. I said, hey, where'd you get that New York accent? He says, honestly, I'm from Brooklyn. And I said, oh, really? What brings you out here?

I'm a teacher. I've been out here ten years. I said, great, what? Where'd you teach in New York? And he said, John Dewey High. I went to John Dewey. He said, really? I said what? I said, when did you teach there? He says, from the day it opened in 1972 till ten years ago when I moved out here to California, I said, so you were there when I was there. He said, I guess I said, what did you teach? And he said, music. And all of a sudden I looked at him and I said, You're Vic Zolotov. You

are my guitar teacher. And he said, oh, wow. Remember when you spoke here last year? I told you, you reminded me of someone. I said you did. He said, yeah, you reminded me of you. I couldn't believe it. So I said, well, I can't believe this. I had to teach. I couldn't even talk to him. So after I taught that lesson, I actually had a break. I called my son. I said, my guitar teacher is a Jewish believer. He's here at the congregation and he said, is he the

guitar teacher you liked or the. Guitar teacher you didn't like? He said what I liked. And so after the the lesson, I said, tell me how you came to the Lord. He said, well, there was a teacher in the high school, a Jewish teacher, who had a bumper sticker about Jesus. And so I went and talked with him. And it was he actually had been my history teacher. I had

no idea that he was a believer. And so he says, I talked to Steve, who was this other teacher, and he told me about how it was that he came to believe in Jesus. And I was kind of struck by that. And then just a few weeks later, it was announced that the Hebrew club was going to have this guy come and speak about why Jews shouldn't believe in Jesus. And I thought, well, I better go talk to listen to what he has to say, too. And he says, you may have heard of him. He's become

quite famous now. He's on the radio. He's written books. I said, yeah, I've heard of him. He said, I have no idea what he said. I just remember when it was all done, some student got up and started talking about the Bible and he had an answer for everything, this speaker. And. But this kid wouldn't stop. He answered one thing. He could say, okay, how about this? And for like 30 or 40 minutes, this kid kept going on with another question. Another question. And he says he

mentioned the guy's name. He had an answer for everything. But I thought, that kid has a lot of verses. I'm going to get a Bible and I'm going to read it for myself, and I'm going to see if Jesus is the Messiah or not. I said, wow. And then he said, do you know who that kid was? And truly, I was awed by the grace of God. My worst failure. He could use. He could use it for his own glory. And I never, ever wanted to debate that famous radio guy again. I'm telling you, never

be a hopeless failure. Our Lord can make us hopeful failures. He can even take the failures and turn them into the greatest joys of our entire lives. It was like God pulled back the curtain of Providence, and he said to me, yeah, I know about the girl who denied the faith, and I know about the guy who did something really wrong. And I know about the quality of your disciples. They're bad, but you follow me. Father in heaven.

Every person here has felt the same way I did. Lord, thank you for calling us into your service and reminding us that you're not letting let go. Thank you for forgiving us, for our failures and still wanting to use us. Lord, you are better than we ever, ever could have imagined or dreamed. We're so grateful for it, and we just want to thank you for that. In the name of Jesus,

our Messiah. Amen. Thanks for listening to this special pre-recorded Journeys of Paul edition of Open Line, recorded on the deck of the Star Clipper. I'll be back with you live next week for our Bible study across America, answering your questions about the Bible, God, and the spiritual life. Till then, check out our web page, Open Line Radio. Org that has everything you're looking for, even a link

to our upcoming November 9th summit opposing anti-Semitism. Open line with Doctor Michael Dolnick is a production of Moody Radio, a ministry of Moody Bible Institute.