Hope In Love

I receive a weekly email called thortfortheweek from my pastor Brett Fish Anderson and I’ve decided to use this week’s thort as today’s post…if you want to subscribe to the thorts, send him an email: brettfish@hotmail.com

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Dear Friends

Greetings in the name of Jesus who I strive to follow.

“Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, “Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother when he sins against me? Up to seven times?”

Jesus answered, “I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times.”

[Matthew 18.21-22]

`Now Peter was sitting out in the courtyard, and a servant girl came to him, “You also were with Jesus of Galilee,” she said. But he denied it before them all. “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he said. Then he went out to the gateway, where another girl saw him and said to the people there, “This fellow was with Jesus of Nazareth.” He denied it again with an oath: “I don’t know the man!”

After a little while, those standing there went up to Peter and said, “Surely you are one of them, for your accent gives you away.” Then he began to call down curses on himself and he swore to them, “I don’t know the man!”

Immediately a rooster crowed. Then Peter remembered the word Jesus had spoken: “Before the rooster crows, you will disown me three times.” And he went outside and wept bitterly.’

[Matthew 26.69-75]

Then in John 21 there is the story of Jesus and Peter on the beach and Jesus lovingly reinstating Peter.

Now if we recall the stories of the gospel we can probably remember quite a few occasions when Peter gets it completely wrong – rebuking Jesus, cutting off the guard’s ear, clamouring for position among the disciples, falling asleep when he was meant to be praying for Jesus – and i’m sure there are a bunch of times that were not recorded as well.

I would imagine when Jesus comes to chat with Peter on the beach after His resurrection from the grave, that Peter was quite happy the answer to his original question here was not “seven times.”

Nice story hey? We all love it when Peter is reinstated because we all identify with messing it up horribly with God (and probably with people) and we all want to be reinstated with the least amount of fuss and guilt.

How eager are you to reinstate though?

Cos that’s when it becomes tricky hey? What if you are the person who has been sinned against seven times – how easy is that eighth time to forgive?

YES, BUT ARE YOU A GODLY FRIEND…?

On Sunday i was preaching on the difference between David and Samson in the Bible. Both lived within a generation of each other. Both were called early on in their lives. Both were leaders. And both sinned sexually. And yet for Samson that leads to his death but for David he lives. What is the reason for the difference there?

David had Godly friends. When you read the story of Samson it’s always `Samson went here’ and `Samson did this’ and he is always getting himself into trouble and sometimes getting himself out of it.

Whereas David had Jonathan (to stand alongside him with incredible loyalty that even went above that to his father) and Nathan the prophet (took a huge risk at speaking truth to David after the Bathsheba incident) and the Mighty men (a bunch of thirty-seven or more warrior fighters around him who had his back and did special missions for him) and Samuel (older mentor, advisor, father figure) and many more. David had people around him who encouraged and cheered and protected and rebuked and challenged and so when he sinned he was able to learn from it and repent of it and recover from it and move forwards…

Are you Samson or David?

During my preach on Sunday i spoke a bit about one of my best friends who taught me how not to give up on people. My buddy had two good friends I can think of who treated him pretty badly and it was often much a one-sided friendship and if i gave any counsel at all it would have been to protect yourself dude and run away from these people. He didn’t. They let him down and sometimes directly hurt him again and again and again and yet he continued to show faithfulness and loyalty to them way above and beyond the `call of duty’ so to speak.

When we look at divorce rates in the church and in the area of friendships and even perhaps why people leave churches sometimes we can see a clear pattern of people walking away when it gets tough (that is a generalisation on all three of those mentioned above but a lot of the time it is true) – this isn’t working for me, it’s hard, you hurt me, you got it wrong so i am outta here…

Then in John 21 there is the story of Jesus and Peter on the beach and Jesus lovingly reinstating Peter.

The rest of that Matthew 18 passage is the story of the unmerciful servant and Jesus concluding with the message that if we cannot forgive other people then God cannot and will not forgive us. Strong and hectic words.

The point of this week’s thort is the question, `How quickly do you give up on your friendships?’ and i am asking the Holy Spirit as i send this out to add conviction where conviction is necessary (conviction has a similar feeling to guilt sometimes but it is proactive in directing us to action – what can i do to put this right?) because i believe a number of you need to get hold of people and apologise and put things right. You will know who you are. And it may have been something from twenty-three years ago, or maybe this last week.

Forget the mindset of the world. I’ve been wronged, I must revenge. I’ve been wronged – you are no longer good enough to be my friend. Seek the mindset of God. And take some moments putting yourself in the other person’s person. If i was [insert name here] how would i be feeling? What would help me the most? What would teach me a strong love that always protects, always hopes, always trusts, always perseveres (1 Cor 13)

Read those four again: ALWAYS protects. ALWAYS hopes. ALWAYS trusts. ALWAYS perseveres… and goes on to say Love never fails. Love makes mistakes oh yes, by the thousands… but love doesn’t leave it there. Love NEVER fails. Love never gives up on a person no matter how bad they have gone.

What is Jesus calling me to do in the area of past friendships and maybe even some current ones when the mindset is to flee, to protect myself, to look after my reputation.

And what might it look like two weeks later… let’s take a quick look at the possibility of a life transformed by undeserved and revolutionary forgiveness:

`Peter replied, “Repent and be baptised, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. The promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off – for all whom the Lord our God will call.”

With many other words he warned them; and he pleaded with them, “Save yourselves from this corrupt generation.” Those who accepted his message were baptised and THREE THOUSAND WERE ADDED TO THEIR NUMBER THAT DAY.”

If Jesus had given up on Peter that day two weeks ago?

And to you i say – “Go and sin no more!”

God bless you
Brett FISH Anderson and No_bob (he’s back, oh yes!)