Step Out and Make a Change
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“Upon this rock.” I’m not speaking of that in a “popish” sense. I’m speaking of that in terms of He did talk to Peter first, didn’t He? He did, in Matthew 16, in fact address that to Peter, didn’t He? I’m not saying that makes Peter a pope at all. You know me better than that. I am simply saying that He wasn’t talking to James. He wasn’t talking to Bartholomew; He wasn’t talking to even John. He was talking to Peter. The reason He was talking to Peter was because Peter was about half-crazy in His desire to go forward regardless of consequences. He was correctable and resilient. I lift him up as a model of that which Jesus chooses to entrust very, very much to. In regard to this whole area, I realize that it’s going to take some courage. You’ll have to step out of the ordinary realm of activity.
You’re not going to be able to go on like you have been and do what I’m talking about. You will not be able to go on like you have been and respond to what I’m talking about. There must be change to respond to what I’m talking about in each of you individually. In the way you think about yourself, the way you consider the Scriptures, the way you consider the people of God, there has to be a change. Activity. There must be some mode of activity. Some change of what you do in order to respond to what I’m saying, and I’m just asking you to do it with courage. I would rather you make a mistake and be resilient, correctable than to just go on the way you have been. The way we’ve been going is not acceptable. Do I need to be more clear than that? What you’ve been doing individually, and I’ve been doing individually is not acceptable. Therefore, we must change. Something has to change.
If you don’t do anything differently after tonight, then you have failed this whole discussion. If you have failed this discussion because you don’t think it’s important that we teach and that we make an effort, then speak up. Talk to me privately; talk about it publicly. If you agree that it’s God’s heart to go forward and teach, it implies a thorough, comprehensive explanation of the counsel of God on the subject, and coming from you towards others. If you don’t believe that’s necessary in a very heightened way from where we’ve been, speak up. If you do believe it’s necessary, and it is God’s heart to go forward and to view life and the Christian faith, if you will -- the ways of God as something to go forward with and teach -- if you do view it that way, then it only makes sense to me that you would also readily acknowledge in your own selves, “I must change.” I just want to make this real clear for this to have value this evening, and I believe for us to please God corporately and you to please God individually, as well as myself.
