You Will be Sifted

good morning and welcome to midweek

insights with Pastor

John I'm Pastor John Moore from popular

Assembly of God and today we're going to

be taking a look at something I made

reference to and I want to give you some

scriptural background on it I made this

statement that you can believe in

something and not have faith in it but

you can't have

faith in something that you don't

believe

in and as I was uh praying over this and

preparing this um I want you to turn

your Bibles to Luke chapter

22 and uh this is at the Lord's supper

and uh Jesus is speaking to Peter he

said starting verse 31 he says and the

Lord said Simon Simon behold Satan hath

desired to have you that he may sift you

as wheat but I have prayed for thee that

thy faith fell not and when thou art

converted strengthen thy

Brethren now Peter had recognized who

Jesus

was uh he had called him Lord he had

said he was truly the Messiah he was the

son of God Jesus had told him several

times that man had not revealed that to

him but that God had revealed it to him

but at this point Peter believed but he

didn't have faith in Jesus and the

reason he didn't have faith in Jesus yet

is because Jesus had not risen from the

dead in fact he hadn't even been

crucified yet at this point and uh he

goes on in verse 33 and he said unto him

Lord I am ready to go with thee both

into prison and to death and he said I

tell thee Peter the shall not Crow

this day before that thou shall Thrice

deny that thou knowest

me and this

passage if we understand what uh to

understand what I said that you can

believe in something not have faith in

it but you can't have faith in something

you don't believe in so at this point

Peter

believes who Jesus said he was he

believes that Jesus is the Messiah but

what he hasn't reconciled yet is the

fact that for Jesus truly to be the

Messiah it was going to require his

death burial and Resurrection because

his purpose for being here was to bring

his

salvation and one of the things that uh

we often times Miss is is that reference

that Jesus made to being sifted as wheat

and if you've never if you've never

harvested wheat uh you never seen a

wheat Harvest especially you know in the

Middle

East they they take the wheat they cut

it down and they knock it Loose uh from

the wheat stock and then they W they use

the term is called winnowing and what

they do is they toss that wheat up in

the air and and they do it vigorously

and what it does is it knocks the dirt

off it knocks the chaff off the wheat it

takes the hole off the wheat and it

makes the wheat uh come to a place where

it could be dried out in ground and

turned into flour

to make it into you uh a usable food

source because wheat in it in and of

itself in its natural whole state you

can't eat it there's no way to eat it

you could boil it and turn it into

porridge but if you want to make bread

you have to grind that wheat and you

can't grind it if it's got all of the

stuff on it and

so we as Christians as Believers in God

we go through things and that process

that we're going through is knocking all

the stuff off of us it's it's putting us

into a position where we're much more

prepared and able to share the word of

God with someone and so after uh Jesus

died and he rose from the dead and he's

appeared to his disciples several times

at this point their faith is real they

don't just

believe who Jesus is now they actually

believe in Jesus because he's he's come

back from the dead and so to get the

full picture of what happened we need to

go over to the Book of John in chapter

21 at the end of the Gospel of John and

listen to what Jesus now says to Peter

because Peter has gone through this

process he's denied Christ he has felt

rejected because uh of himself he feels

he's unworthy that he he has no Ministry

left because he denied Christ three

times uh to the point that he he act as

though he didn't even know him and never

had known him and so in verse 15 is

where it starts and we're going to go

from from there he says so when they had

died Jesus said to Simon Peter Simon son

of Jonas lovest thou me more than

these and Peter

says he saith unto him yay Lord thou

knowest that I love thee he saith unto

him feed my

lambs and he said to him again the

second time Simon son of Jonas lovest

thou me and he saith unto him yay Lord

thou knowest that I love thee he saith

unto him feed my

sheep and he says unto him the third

time s son of Jonas lovest thou me and

Peter was grieved because he said unto

him the third time lovest thou me and he

said unto him Lord thou knowest all

things thou knowest that I love thee and

Jesus said unto him feed my sheep verily

verily I say unto thee when thou was

young and thou GED thyself and wst

whether thou would but when thou shall

be old thou shallal stretch forth thine

hands and another shall G thee and carry

thee whether thou wouldst not go

thisp he signifying by what death he

should glorify God and when he had

spoken this he saith unto him follow

me then Peter turning about seeth the

disciple whom Jesus loved following

which also leaned on his breast at

supper he's speaking of himself John and

said Lord which is he that betrayeth

thee and Peter seeing him saith to

Jesus Lord and what shall this me do and

Jesus says unto him if I will that he T

till I come what is that to thee follow

thou me then went this saying abroad

among the Brethren that the disciples

should not die yet Jesus said not unto

him he shall not die but if I will that

he tar till I come what is that to thee

and we have to understand

something and that is each and every one

of us is on our own

journey and part of this uh being sifted

as weed is coming to a place where we

understand that it doesn't matter what

the other people do it doesn't matter

what the other people say what matters

is what we

do God didn't call

me to do anything other than what he

directed me to do I

can't uh

model my Ministry on somebody else I

have to do it the way God has laid it

out for me to

do I could be the most eloquent speaker

there is I could come with just

wonderful words and and encouragement

and all of these kind of things and we

should we should encourage other people

to serve God to the fullest but at the

same

time I also can't look at what someone

else is doing because if I do then I

fall into this category of uh judging

them and it that judging that we're

talking about Jesus talked about it in

The Sermon on the Mount is I I'm in

danger of judging based on hypocrisy

well I'm better than they are because I

do this and they don't or I'm not as

good as they are because they do this

and I don't each one of us are called to

serve God to the best of our abilities

with the talents and things that he's

given us and put inside us to do the job

he's called us to do each and every one

of us have something different to do

with all of us working towards the same

goal which is reaching the lost with the

message of the Gospel that the Kingdom

of Heaven has come that you don't have

to continue living in the life you're

living you can go forward and you can

walk in faith and you can believe and

trust in God because God has made a way

for us to enter into his

rest and we

can't take the

position of I'm not good enough or that

person's better than I am because they

can speak better than I can or they they

they can sing better than I can or

they're a better musician than I am or

or whatever the case might be because

each and every one of us have our own

particular talents and abilities that

God's given us and those are what he

uses he doesn't use someone else's

talents for

us except for to draw us closer to him

but each and every one of us in

Ministry and I'm speaking to the whole

church not

ministers but in the ministry which is

proclaiming the

gospel to Every Creature as he

commanded he uses the talents we have he

uses the material that we are when we

confess him as Lord and we've repented

faith has come we're stepping out to

reach other people for the kingdom of

God he's going to use the talents he put

in you to make that happen

at the same time we also have to

understand that that is the one thing

that the enemy Satan does not want to

happen he does not want you to have a

testimony of Jesus Christ because if you

do people are going to get saved and he

doesn't want that he wants to

he wants to destroy as many as possible

until his time on Earth is done and so

we need to make sure that as we're going

forward we realize

that the enemy is going to

attack there's going to be rests between

attacks um when you read through the

Temptation Of Christ after he tempted

him with he said if you're the Son of

God turn these breads uh this Stone into

bread uh he showed him

uh all the kingdoms of the world and

said if you'll worship me you can have

these he took them to the top of the

temple and told him that the word said

you know cast yourself down because the

angels are going to protect you and

Jesus overcame him by the

word and then it says and Satan left him

for a

time there's always rest

periods in the battle and if you read

through that when Jesus had overcome

Satan in the Temptation it says when

Satan had left him the Angels Came and

ministered unto him

and then he went after that ministering

of the Angels then he went out and began

his public Ministry he began calling

disciples and he turned water into wine

he started healing sick and uh casting

out demons and doing all these things

clear up until he was you know taken and

tried and

crucified

died and rose from the dead so we have

to

realize that there's going to be battles

that we need to keep our our Vigilant

watch over what's going on around

us and we also need to understand that

Jesus is never going to leave us or

forsake us he's going to be right there

with us through the

trials but we have to go through those

trials those trials is what produces

growth in us and prepares us to do the

next thing that God wants us to do so if

you're going through something praise

God and I mean that literally if you're

going through something begin to praise

God because if you get

thankful to God in the tough times he's

going to take you through to the

Victory and uh he tells you in uh 1

Thessalonians 5:18 and everything give

thanks for this is the will of God for

Christ Jesus concerning you so learn to

be thankful in the tough times Praise

Him and when you get through the trials

be prepared to share the gospel with

people as you see

them and above all things realize that

even when the enemy comes against you

even when you're being sifted you're

still going to have the victory but you

must fight that

battle it's important without fighting

that battle there's not going to be

growth you're not going to change your

own life and you're not going to change

anybody else life either

so accept

battles um Romans 8:28 says for all

things work together for good to them

that love the Lord and are the called

according to his purposes and when it

says all things that means good things

and bad things what we have to do is

remain thankful and go through it

because it's a

process I'm going to leave that with you

this week we'll see you guys again next

week and just remember Jesus Jesus has

it under control if you're trusting the

controller all right we'll see you next

week