Matthew 26: 69-75
Now Peter was sitting outside in the courtyard, A servant-girl came to him and said, “You also were with Jesus the Galilean.” But he denied it before all of them saying, “I do not know what you are talking about.” When he went out to the porch, another servant-girl saw him, and said to the bystanders, “This man was with Jesus of Nazareth,” Again he denied it with an oath, “I don’t know the man.” After a little while the bystanders came up and said to Peter, “Certainly you are also one of them, for your accent betrays you.” Then he began to curse, and he swore an oath, “I do not know the man!” At that moment the cock crowed. Then Peter remembered what Jesus had said: “Before cock crows, you will dent me three times.” And he went out and wept bitterly.
He went out and wept bitterly. This passage has always stuck me. First, because Peter choose to be there with Jesus. He made other choices along the way. A choice to go knowing what was gong to happen, Jesus told them what was going to happen. This is a distinct advantage that most of us do not have when weighing our decisions. This probably made Peter’s choices that much harder. He made his choices for one reason and it is the same reason that we choose the things that we do. We make all of our choices because we have free will. We choose every action that we take or the actions we will avoid to take at all costs, because we can. None of us here today would walk out the front door and choose to rob a bank or knowing take a life. No we would never knwoing choose those things. In fact, many of us would say that we would do what Peter did; that we would not deny Jesus. That we would make better choices.
But what do we choose everyday, when we are on auto pilot? I recently heard a statistic that 85% of what we do everyday is a habit. As we know most habits are unconscious and we do them without really stopping and thinking about them. Smoking, bitting our nails, using language that might not be the best, nit picking with our spouse, a lot of things that we do with out stopping to think about them.
To further prove this point, I bet all of you can walk through you house blindfolded. You know where everything is. In fact, I would guess that most of you could get up tomorrow morning. Never open your opens and short of picking out clothes that match could do you entire morning routine without ever opening your eyes. I am sure that once many of you are at work you again switch to your auto-pilot to get you through some series of actions. You park in the same spot, you come in the same door, speak to the same people; maybe saying the same thing, walk down the same halls. Until you sit down and begin your work day, dealing with the issues right in front of you – the latest crises via email or voicemail.
So if we are that predisposed to doing as many of the things by routine then what happens when something interrupts our routine? But I am constant out of my routine (i hear you saying), I deal with different things everyday, I deal with different people everyday. It is never the same. Yes, but what happens in this politically correct world, that we now live in, when someone mentions something out of acceptable range of topics such as the sermon from church, a new Christian song or singer they heard on the radio. We have all seen it. The conversation turns polite and quickly winds down. It is almost as if people are scrambling to get away, To deny their beliefs. But why?
What is wrong in this day and age, when a Christian can’t express their beliefs. Have we bceome a soceity so worried about offending others that we will deny our own beliefs. Is it out of fear of offending someone else’s beliefs, fear of retribution or losing their job, or simply fear of not knowing how to express your beliefs to the world.
When we go to church, we are safe and able to openly and freely express our beliefs. We are comfortable and we know no harm will come to us by doing so. Yet when we are outside those walls or the walls of our homes. How many of us stop and acknowledge our Lord in all that we do and have? Stopping in every moment of everyday, realzing that it is Him that is providing and controlling. I realize that is no small task and would not leave time to actually get a lot done, so let’s take a step back from that level of praise and think about what are routines show.
Do we stop, bow our heads and bless all the food that we have at every meal? When we hear about bad news from a coworker that one of the family members is sick do we acknowledge God’s power to heal the sick and pray for them and with them or do we say by routine – I hope they get better or sorry to hear you are going through that. Do we even ask if we can added them to our prayer list at church? Do we as some of governing bodies of this country thankful still do, open our meetings with a prayer – asking for the Lord’s guidance in our decisions and actions? Or do we go through the meeting as quickly as possible, thinking about all the other things that have to be done. Never stopping once to think about why we are there and what we can do to honor our belief’s in a Risen Lord.
I realize what I am asking is bold and unusual, I’m sure a lot of you are shocked and are thinking - IF I did do that, prayed openly before a meeting, then I might as well pack my desk and call it a day because I know I will get fired. Sure a valid concern, because when the Lord comes again he wants to make sure we punched the clock at work and got all our emails answered, voicemail listened to and returned, spreadsheets balanced, all the I’s dotted and T;s crossed as it were.
No, what I am suggesting is taking a step outside your current comfort zone. Exploring , finding out others outside of the safe walls of your church and your current circle of fellow belivers. That you share your belief in Jesus. Through simple things and in doing so help others learn about Him.
Stop and think for a minute. Everyday there is an assault on our freedom, especially our religious freedoms. Our freedom to worship, our freedom to openly express who we are and what we believe is under attack. Our ability to say that certain behavior is wrong in the eyes of God is even now being considered to be hate speeech. Everyday when we choose not to express what we believe, we lose a little more and it becomes easier next time when more is taken away. We will wake up one day, and like so many of the people in other parts of the world must meet in secret to express our beliefs. Our beliefs that are easily taken for granted when we are on auto-pilot and that pilot is predisposed to not acknowledge where all things come from – From God.
So I issue a challenge to you. Tomorrow step out of your safe zone. Be armed with a new knowledge that you will no longer accept your faith having a back seat. Express to the world, what you believe, take small steps, do little things to show the world who it is that you believe in. Appropriately express you faith to a coworker, express how God has helped you and your family through difficult times, express your thanks to the world for what God has done for you, bow your head at lunch at the fast food place and give thanks for the food you are about to eat.
The strength and the reminders to these BOLD little steps in your faith are all around you and most importantly in you.
Will you be sitting there when the cock crows as you deny Jesus and your faith. Or will you take bold steps to show the world you will not deny WHO and WHAT YOU BELIVE IN?
