Peter swore he would never deny Jesus, then did it three times before dawn. We look at his story and ask a harder question about ourselves. In the moments that matter, do we do the same thing in subtler ways?
01The Night Everyone Walked Away
Peter was the bold one. The one who leapt out of boats, drew swords, and made grand declarations of loyalty. Just hours before Jesus was arrested, Peter had looked him in the eye and said something along the lines of: even if everyone else abandons you, I never will.
And then, standing by a fire in a courtyard while Jesus was being interrogated inside, Peter denied three times that he even knew the man. Not to soldiers. Not under torture. To a servant girl and a couple of bystanders.
It is one of the most painfully human moments in the entire Bible. And it raises a question most of us would rather not sit with: do we do the same thing?
02The Setup Nobody Notices
Peter's denial did not come out of nowhere. The talk traced the events leading up to that moment, and the pattern is worth noticing.
Jesus had told Peter plainly that he would deny him three times before the rooster crowed. Peter dismissed it outright. He was so confident in his own loyalty that he could not even entertain the possibility of failure. That overconfidence was the first crack.
Then, in the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus asked Peter to stay awake and pray. Three times Peter fell asleep. He could not even manage one hour of wakefulness for the person he had just pledged his life to.
"Peter's denial didn't start in the courtyard. It started in the garden, when he stopped paying attention."
By the time the arrest happened, Peter was already running on empty. He had ignored the warning, failed the preparation, and then found himself in a high-pressure situation with no reserves to draw on.
03Three Denials and a Rooster
The details of Peter's denial are worth looking at closely, because they escalate in a way that feels uncomfortably familiar.
The first denial was casual. A servant girl said, "You were with Jesus," and Peter said he did not know what she was talking about. It was not a dramatic rejection. It was a shrug. A sidestep. The kind of thing most people do when a conversation gets awkward at a dinner party.
The second denial was more deliberate. More people were asking questions, and Peter actively denied any association with Jesus. He was not just deflecting now — he was constructing a lie.
The third denial was emphatic. Peter began to curse and swear, insisting he did not know Jesus. The man who had confessed Jesus as the Messiah was now swearing on everything he could think of that he had no connection to him whatsoever.
And then the rooster crowed. And Peter remembered what Jesus had said. And the gospel of Luke adds one devastating detail: "The Lord turned and looked at Peter."
Not a look of anger. Not condemnation. Just a look. And Peter went outside and wept bitterly.
04The Ways We Deny Without Realising
It would be comfortable to read Peter's story as a dramatic, one-off failure that has nothing to do with us. But the talk pushed further.
"We might not deny Jesus in such an obvious way. But how often do we stay silent when we could speak up? How often do we distance ourselves from our faith when it might cost us something socially?"
Most denial is not dramatic. It is the conversation at work where someone asks what you did at the weekend and you say "not much" instead of mentioning church. It is the moment when someone mocks faith in your presence and you laugh along rather than push back. It is the slow, quiet retreat from anything that might identify you as someone who takes Jesus seriously.
Peter's denial was loud and public. Ours tends to be subtle and private. But the mechanism is the same: fear of what other people will think.
05Why Fear Wins
Peter was not a coward. This was the man who had stepped out of a boat onto open water. The man who had drawn a sword against an armed mob just hours earlier. And yet, faced with a teenage girl's question by a fire, he crumbled.
Fear does not always look like fear. Sometimes it looks like pragmatism. Sometimes it looks like keeping the peace. Sometimes it looks like fitting in.
The discussion explored how social pressure operates differently from physical threat. Most people can imagine being brave in a crisis — the house fire, the mugging, the dramatic moment of truth. But the slow drip of social disapproval is harder to resist, precisely because each individual moment seems so small.
Nobody decides to deny their faith in one grand gesture. It happens in a thousand tiny choices, each one barely noticeable, until one day you realise you have built an entire life where Jesus is carefully hidden from view.
06The Restoration Nobody Expected
If Peter's denial were the end of the story, it would be devastating. But it is not the end.
After the resurrection, Jesus appeared to his disciples by the Sea of Galilee. Peter, who had gone back to fishing — back to his old life, as if the previous three years had not happened — saw Jesus on the shore and threw himself into the water to get to him.
And then Jesus did something extraordinary. He asked Peter three times: "Do you love me?" Three questions to match three denials. Not as punishment, but as restoration.
"Each time Peter says yes, Jesus gives him a job: feed my lambs, take care of my sheep, feed my sheep. The denial was real, but it was not final. Jesus did not discard Peter. He restored him."
Peter went on to become one of the most influential leaders of the early church. He preached the sermon at Pentecost that launched the entire Christian movement. The man who denied Jesus by a fire became the man who proclaimed Jesus to thousands.
07What Makes the Difference
The talk drew a contrast between Peter and Judas — two men who both betrayed Jesus on the same night. Judas, overwhelmed by guilt, went away and ended his life. Peter, equally broken, came back.
The difference was not that Peter's sin was smaller. Three public denials is hardly a minor slip. The difference was what Peter did with his failure. He wept. He grieved. And when Jesus appeared again, Peter ran towards him instead of away.
"The question is not whether we will fail. The question is what we do after the failure."
Guilt tells us we are defined by our worst moment. Grace tells us we are defined by God's response to our worst moment. And God's response, as demonstrated by Jesus on that beach, is not rejection. It is a question: do you love me? And then a commission: then go and do something with it.
08Living in the Courtyard
Every day presents small courtyard moments. Situations where acknowledging our faith might cost something — a bit of social standing, a bit of comfort, a raised eyebrow from a colleague.
The point of Peter's story is not to heap guilt on anyone for the times they have stayed quiet. Peter himself failed spectacularly, and Jesus did not give up on him. The point is that we have a choice in those moments, and the choice matters.
Not because God's love depends on our performance, but because the people standing around the fire might be watching more closely than we think. And what they see — or do not see — might shape what they believe about whether faith is real.
09A Question Worth Sitting With
Peter's story ends with restoration, purpose, and a life that far exceeded anything he could have imagined by that courtyard fire. His worst night became the foundation for his greatest work.
Where in your life are you standing by the fire, staying quiet? And what might it look like to stop editing yourself and simply be honest about who you follow — not with grand declarations, but with the quiet, consistent truth of how you live?
Topics in this talk
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hmm so foreign me do my bye oh good afternoon good afternoon and welcome to crowd church welcome welcome welcome and if you are a liverpool fan this is probably the best place to be right now let's just call it out as it is yes we know it's not been great uh this afternoon if you're a liverpool fan but you know what god's still on the throne jesus apparently is still lord so we've still got something to shout about okay so welcome to crowd church my name is matt edmondson it's great to see you here this is our live stream this is our church service live stream so uh if you are online and you're watching this why not comment be be sure to say hi let us know where you're watching this from join in the conversation always great to hear from folks now you will notice uh if you are a regular of crowd church that i'm actually flying a little bit solo today uh sal is uh enjoying the service from the other side of the camera today so uh a big shout out to cell but yeah it means i'm flying a little bit solo so are you going to have to make do uh queso as they say now we are a digital church uh but what does that actually mean right it's an interesting comment isn't it when i say we are a digital church well it means that we're not a building we're here we're online we are live streaming because church is about people and it's about community not just a building so we do things a little bit differently here let us know what you think do you like live live streaming church do you like digital church uh we say that we're an online church for those that might not see the point of church but want to know more about jesus and how he can help us live a more meaningful life that's why we're here that's what we are all about let me tell you uh because that's what church is all about it's all about jesus right it's all about him and being inspired by him which is good to remind ourselves when our football team is not doing so great uh or maybe yours is doing so great either way it still works right now you may not have been to church before you may have gone to church a few years ago and you're kind of finding your way back or you may be like an avid church fan wherever you are in your faith journey i just want you to know that you are very very welcome here at the crowd church live stream so like i said make sure you say hi in the comments i'll be looking at those shortly and if you are watching on ketchup as i know many of you do you can still join in the catch up uh just you know make sure you connect with us be great to hear from you and also i hope that you do find a local and because you know being plugged into a local group of christians is always good fun but if not let me invite you to consider joining crowd church or at least come back and check us out again we do live stream every four p.m uk time uh here sunday afternoon um which if i translate that it's about 11 a.m est um and very early in the morning in new zealand and australia but it's about 4 p.m here in the uk now you can also as well as the comments you can get in touch with us on the whatsapp number which is now on your screen you can send it any prayer requests to that number um anything you would like us to pray about this is a little bit more confidential send it into the whatsapp number and we would love to pray for you uh you can also send in to that number um any photographs like if you're sending us a photograph of how you watch the live stream or any videos for like catch up and all that sort of stuff you can use that whatsapp number as well this one right here that's right you can use that now be warned if you send in anything like a video or a photograph there's a good chance it might be shown on the live stream so just do bear that in mind okay uh we do we do show them uh and we we don't really show that much mercy funnily enough uh when it comes to them now uh as i've said we are a live stream so make sure you like comment say hi uh but also why not share it out if you're on facebook um just share out the live stream and just say come watch church because you know this is what we do on a sunday afternoon come join in it's always great to connect with new folks around the globe let me tell you now before we jump in on your comments let me tell you what is coming up in today's live stream oh yes we have got the amazing the very talented and delectable and delightful and just all round beautiful man which is james sloane yes he's talking to us about this really well-known portion of scripture where um peter denies jesus it's oh i say it's well known it's well known if you've been in church for a while you would have heard this story if you haven't though stick around because it's a really fascinating one and we're going to learn what we can pick out from that for ourselves what we can learn from it then we're going to have a little bit of worship and reflection time which i'll explain in just a little bit and then after that we are going to have what we have started to internally call conversation street which might be a slight you know uh throwback to um uh what's that grand tour that's it conversation street so we're gonna get james onto the show after his talk and we are gonna have a conversation with him yes we are we are gonna throw our questions at him and we're gonna dig in a little bit deeper so stick around for that and then we will close out with some more worship after that now just to let you know there will be no catch-up video today as well so uh if you are kind of thinking mac you've not given us any kind of catch-up video that's deliberate because there isn't a catch-up video today josh has had to spend most of his time studying hard for an exam which he's got tomorrow so um i figured you know fair play good on him so i hope the exam goes well so yeah i hope you've got all of that let's see what's going on here uh say what uh hey antoine hey priscilla i hope you guys are doing well uh good afternoon bonjour should i say uh in my worst friend jackson ever sharon's here trev is here yes trev uh red liverpool is a little bit sad as i've mentioned now if you are watching this live stream you have no idea what i'm talking about uh we we live stream from liverpool i live in liverpool uh and i have a real love of this city and i came to liverpool believe it or not over 29 years ago so a long time i've lived here most of my life and i came here for university and i chose liverpool because of the football team i've been a lifelong liverpool fan um and there is a football club or a soccer team if you're outside of the uk called liverpool and guess what we won last year the whole thing it was brilliant first time in a long time we'd win it this year it's like it's like we've just fallen off a cliff i have not seen such a capitulation for a long time the year after winning the championship and playing so brilliantly but you know what it's still good to be in church so uh but yes trev we are a little bit sad uh hey nicola how you doing james is in the house good afternoon james uh matt hey matt how you doing chunky pasta uh i don't know whether chunk is a good thing or a bad thing uh what was the score did the hashtag little reds lose yeah ah thank you yes yes we did lose it was one nil uh nicholas says are we going to miss sally yes we are going to miss sally sally's awesome uh again for those of you new to the live stream normally i have uh the amazing sally uh next to me leading the live stream uh she's not here this week but she will hopefully be back for next week which is going to be mother's day oh yes um the host team has definitely lost his beauty yes i agree with you uh slowly nicholas got a great question for today okay good uh so apparently uh matt's got a great question okay back off yeah matt don't do it it's not worth it it's not worth the pain and aggravation that's all i'm saying uh more on that later uh is going to be coming up so thank you for joining in the comments make sure you keep doing that i am now going to put the talk on we've got james stein like i say he's going to talk about peter okay and his denial of jesus and the lessons that we can learn from that for ourselves then as i said i'll be back we're going to have a little bit of worship and reflection before we go into the q a so uh let's get james on let's get the going make sure you get your notebooks out i found it's always great to take notes whenever i'm listening to a talk whether that's a christian talk or a non-christian talk you know i go to a lot of business events i'll listen i'll take notes it keeps me engaged and i kind of write down the questions you know as they come to me it's kind of like that's a really interesting question let me write that down so i know to ask it and get that answered so wherever you are whatever you're doing if you can get out your notebooks uh worst case scenario get out your phone to jot your notes down in your phone but join in put them in the comments as we go along because like i say we've got james in just a few minutes where we can talk to him about those questions and i would love to hear your thoughts any scriptures any ideas anything you want to share put them in the comments we're going to be coming back to them very very soon but in the meantime here is the amazing james sloan well hello welcome to uh this afternoon's crowd church talk my name is james uh for those of you who don't know me i'm part of the senior leadership team here at the frontline and i'm also the chief exec of imagine if trust which is our charitable arm which i think we've talked about a few times we've had a few spotlights on in crowd church in the last few months so i'm talking today about this passage in mark 14 uh where peter denies jesus and really the the take-home point is that we can all mess up we all make mistakes even the most disciplined ardent followers of jesus can slip up so we're going to read the passage and then we're going to talk through a number of points so if you follow along in your bibles mark 14 it's 27 to 31 and then we're going to pick up a bit later on in verses 66 to 72. so mark 14 27 you will all fall away jesus told them for it has written i will strike the shepherd and the sheep will be scattered but after i've risen i will go ahead of you into galilee peter declared even if all fall away i will not i tell you the truth jesus answered today yes tonight before the rooster crows twice you yourself will disown me three times but peter insisted emphatically even if i have to die with you i will never disown you and all the others said the same we then move on to verse 66 while peter was below in the courtyard one of the servant girls of the high priest came by when she saw peter warming himself she looked close at him you also were with that natherine jesus she said but he denied it i don't know or understand what you're talking about he said and went out into the courtyard when the servant girl saw him there she said again to those standing around this fellow is one of them again he denied it after a little while they were standing there said to peter surely you are one of them for you are a galilean he began to call down curses on himself and he swore i don't know this man you're talking about immediately the rooster crowed the second time and peter remembered the word jesus had spoken to him before the rooster crows twice you will disown me three times and he broke down it's a familiar passage one that we've read many times before potentially or one that we've seen portrayed in video but yet here we see that judas's greatest point of need peter disowns him verse 27 is a prophecy from the book of zechariah in the old testament where jesus says you will all fall away for it is written i will strike the shepherd and the sheep will be scattered jesus knew what was coming but surely not peter as peter says i will never disown you and yet he does you've got to love the character of peter haven't you he's one of the first disciples to be called him and his brother andrew called as fisherman and become one of the first few disciples jesus then renames him and gives us a name cephas which is translated to mean the rock and jesus says on you on this rock i will build my church you know jesus recognizes this guy has potential we see that jesus and peter walk very closely together he's one of the the three disciples that we see in the inner circle of jesus peter's seen miracle after miracle he's walked on water he has defended jesus closely between these two passages they go into the garden of gethsemane and jesus arrested and peter grabs a sword and cuts one of the guard's ears off so peter is the most enthusiastic of disciples and yet here in jesus greatest need peter disowns him so i think we can understand that we will all come to a point where we face battles and even if we are close to jesus we can still fail and we can still fall short you know i grew up in a in a christian home um my parents were leading a small church at the time uh when we were in leeds and even then i had times when i questioned what i believed i saw the church and i saw christians around me but i didn't have a strong enough faith that when it came to testing that i thought i could stand firm and often i would take an easy route or be tempted into other things and look back now i reckon as i've grown because of that um i've i've come to find a strong faith of my own not just one that is based on my family or my parents profession of faith but my own faith and we all need to come to a point of making our own decision to follow jesus but even then we will all be tested and we've all made vows haven't we you know whether that be um if you're a christian and you've been baptized baptism is a vow saying i belong to jesus i'm gonna worship him i'm gonna love him i'm gonna live my life abandoned set out to live for him but sometimes that can be a struggle being a church member is another vow a way of saying we're committed to this church to this local expression of faith i'm going to serve here i'm going to give here i'm going to um you know give myself to the church fully you know how's that going maybe you've spoken to a friend and said i'm going to be here for you when when you need me the most when you're struggling when you're down when things go badly i'll be here for you and there are times when we can't fulfill that promise that vow so they're all manners of ways that we often slip up and struggle but don't beat yourself up i'm not here to say you know you're gonna fall short and you should feel bad about it but recognize your humanity and your brokenness jesus recognized that we were human that we would sin and he paid the price for that on the cross and we'll come to that a bit later on but really we need to recognize that there are times that we will slip up and that's okay that's what the gospel is all about and that's what the good news is and that's why this next point is so important the second point i really want to make is that jesus will never fail us he is faithful to the end for each one of us regardless of what we've done and we see this in the passage he says to the disciples um this is before peter's betrayed him he says but after i have risen i will go ahead of you into galilee he already knows what's going to happen he has already set a path and what will happen even after he knows that peter will betray him and fall short and i love the fact that peter failed jesus and that we will fail jesus but jesus didn't fail peter and jesus will not fail us it says it to timothy chapter 2 verse 13 even when although we are faithless he remains faithful it's the essence of the christian faith isn't it that we slip up that we make mistakes but he is a faithful one it's what holds your relationship my relationship peter's relationship together it's jesus's faithfulness to us you know this year may have been difficult for many of us for us my wife hannah is self-employed but didn't qualify for any government support so we had to juggle the year between looking after the kids and keeping my work going and keeping her work going our income dropped probably by 20 30 or even 40 over the year but yet somehow we always had enough money to get by now granted in the natural things were closed we couldn't spend money like we normally did but even so we found that god's provision was there throughout he was faithful to us in that situation he didn't leave us without he didn't leave us lacking in any way his provision was was amazing and that's who jesus is he is a faithful one one that we can trust it's god's character it's his nature that even though we for sure and we make mistakes he will never fail us c.s lewis puts it this way though our feelings come and go his love for us does not it's not weary by our sins or our indifference and therefore it's quite relentless in its determination that we shall be cured of those sins at whatever cost to us and at whatever cost to him see jesus is relentless he's relentless to us he's relentless to pursue us he's relentless to forgive us and he's relentless to love us he's one that we can put our trust and our hope in because he will never fail he is a certainty in all situations and even when you do fail him he is there for you even we slip up god is there he is faithful he is true and and and i've found so many times that when i've fallen short i often feel like there's a distance i can feel it's hard to connect with god to connect through quiet time or through worship i feel there's a a burden um but it's really important that we bring those things to him and to enter the church to the body of believers who are there you know um accountable relationships are so important that we can come and confess our failures our mistakes our shortcomings because god is faithful not just to those who believe but he is faithful to even those who know nothing of him he is there waiting and ready to accept us into his arms so my third point is that there is redemption through relationship we see that uh peter may have fallen short but jesus restores him in the book of john jesus asking this question three times in chapter 21 peter do you love me peter do you love peter do you love me three times it seems no coincidence that peter betrayed jesus three times and yet jesus restores him three times for asking him these questions and ultimately he hands over the responsibility for the church to jesus to peter so peter becomes the the rock that jesus had anticipated he would be see jesus is a hero in each of our lives in our testimonies they're not focused on us they're not about what we did or how clever we were or what self effort and work that we did to become um to come christians but actually it's what jesus did in our lives he is a hero in our story we messed up we fell short but jesus welcomed us and jesus transformed us and changed us into his likeness that's our testimony that's the good news of the gospel but often we don't really accept or believe that jesus loves us that jesus could love a sinner or someone that's fallen short we think oh no one knows what i've done surely my sin is worse than anyone else's jesus can't possibly love me in sight of that but that's the good news of the gospel that jesus saw all that sin and shame and guilt and he took it to the cross so that we could live in fullness with him he invites us into relationship scripture is full of invitations from god the father to welcome his sons home we see the parables of the lost sheep and the lost coin and the extent that those who lost those things go to to get them back and that is the love of the father that is reckless that seeks us out and welcomes us back into his arms he's jealous for us but we need to be quick to repent just as peter did it says that when he did on the three the third time it says peter fell on the floor and wept he recognized what he'd done wrong and he learned from those mistakes what's really interesting when you look in in the history books it's not shown in scripture but we hear of what happened to peter he grew up to be an elderly man he'd been walking with jesus for many years and the authorities eventually come and arrest him just as they did at this point they question him and say you must deny christ you must say that you are not one of his followers say that you didn't love him say that you didn't follow him you must deny him and peter refuses he says i will not and because of that he was crucified and killed but peter had an opportunity to sin to fail and to deny but all those years later he stood firm and he stood by his decision to love and to stand up for him but he didn't want to be crucified in the same way that jesus was so uh history tells that he was hung upside down and killed in that way so what can we learn from this kind of short passage what can we take away from it i think the first thing is that we're all human we all make mistakes um and we need to not get consumed by those mistakes but be quick to repent and to fall back on the love of jesus secondly to recognize that jesus is faithful he is a faithful one it's what we sing about in our worship songs that he is faithful and he will never fail us and thirdly we need to recognize that he will restore us if we come to him if we're quick to repent and quickly to recognize our sin that he will restore us back and he will help us grow to be like his son jesus i love that verse in um corinthians chapter 2 it says my grace is sufficient for you for my power is made perfect in weakness therefore i will boast all the more gladly about my weakness so that christ's power may rest on me what a great promise that we have in scripture that when we mess that in our weakness that christ's power will rest on us and that we can use his strength to overcome what may have happened so know that today that in whatever you've done no matter what you've uh slipped up in or made mistakes or upset somebody that you can come back to jesus and his grace his amazing grace is sufficient for each of us and there is love from jesus to accept us and to welcome us back into his arms what a great promise amen well thanks james appreciate you doing that bud and we are going to be talking to james in just a few minutes time so if you've got any questions uh any thoughts on what james said then we're going to get into that in just a few minutes here so make sure you get busy putting those in the comments now one of the overriding themes i guess of that story um that james uh sort of caught on was right peter was a great friend of christ he was a great strong disciple of christ and yet yeah when the rubber hit the road he kind of acted in a way that he didn't expect to right um and sometimes that kind of is true for us isn't it we don't always act in the way that we would hope or expect us to uh when we have the knowledge that we have um and so we're just gonna have a little bit of time of worship and reflection now and the song we're gonna play is the song that we did last week it's called king of my heart the king of my heart and i think it's just a time now just to reflect on what james has said and maybe just going yes jesus you are in fact the king of my heart and we can uh we can think about that we can think about those words think about peter and how you know how his life gets changed around after this massive sort of fall if you like this sort of this denial of jesus and so uh yeah we're gonna get this worship going uh do join in if you like you can sing along uh if it's not your thing or if you're new to church then just let the words kind of minister to you just to sit back enjoy the words and just think about what they're saying and about what they're meaning and we'll be back in just a few minutes time let the king of my heart be the mouth is my song let the king of my heart be the shadow where i oh is [Applause] and you are good no you're you're good wow what a great track that is right you are jesus the king of my heart and just as before we get into the conversation with james it's just good to stand here or sit here or lie here or you know wherever you actually are and just kind of go right let's make that a reality let's make that a truth jesus you're the king of my heart and just remind ourselves of that beautiful track beautiful song thanks to laura and the family for doing that amazing amazing stuff now without further ado i'm going to press this button on my control panel and oh actually i need to do this first and now i'm going to press this button on my control panel and hopefully amazing james is with us james can you hear us all right yeah i can hear you can you hear me uh we can hear you yeah you're just a little bit jumpy but sorry i'm uh i'm on the whirl and the internet here is just terrible okay so because your picture keeps jumping in and out but your audio is fine my advice is don't pull any funny faces just because you never know where it's gonna freeze right okay i'll just keep smiling it's the best way it's the best way how are you doing yeah i'm doing all right doing all right uh can't wait for the 29th of march when things change i'm a sold out extrovert so i'm dying to have people around in our garden and start socializing again yeah you and me both have you started to um to do the garden prep yet to get the garden ready for the guests have you started that oh yeah that started weeks ago the lawn has been mowed it's like anfield it's like a um yeah it's ready beautiful wow i'm definitely not that prepared i was thinking this morning actually as making some notes i really need to start getting the garden ready for when we can actually have one or two guests around i feel like the sales of garden furniture is just about to skyrocket so uh yes what can i say uh so james listen thanks for doing the talk bud um i think this conversation about peter is a fascinating one isn't it and it's kind of like um it's kind of an interesting journey and you said right at the start the overarching takeaway of all of this is that we all mess up we all make mistakes why do you think that is like peter why do you think we all make these kind of crazy mistakes i mean in essence it's because we're human it's how we're created i think the quicker we can recognize our brokenness and our humanity uh the better in so many ways i think it makes you more humble as a person i think it makes you recognize your savior in jesus christ even more so um i think it makes you hopefully quick to repent and every time you slip up just saying god thank you that you've already gone there ahead of us um in our place like i said for our sin shame and guilt you took that all across and in our brokenness we can come to god to jesus who who died for us um and and take his his salvation uh that what wipes us clean not just once twice three times but every single time we for sure god is a as father to wrap us up in his arms which yeah which is a beautiful thing right it's a beautiful thing now you mentioned this where i i'm gonna have to get you to clarify um this you keep using this word repent so let's for the for those that might not know what that word means what what it's a very old-fashioned christian word isn't it what does that actually mean for me it means to do a i think that the word actually comes from doing a turnaround like doing a 180 almost um and essentially recognizing what you've done almost admitting it i guess maybe admitting and saying sorry is an easy way to put it in layman's terms admitting that you've done something and saying you're sorry for it and repentance simply means that to to recognize that we slipped up and we're coming back to jesus and saying i'm so sorry please forgive me and that's essentially what peter does in this passage he recognizes he's fallen short he weeps in that moment and jesus restores him beautifully um and that's the same for us we can learn from that but we can also embrace that same relationship uh through jesus christ today yeah it's very good very very true um so one of the things that stood out to me i have to be honest because i i i heard the talk i've heard the talk twice now right so i i i heard it before it went live and then i obviously heard it when it went and one of the things that stood out to me right was when they're in this passage they're chatting away and it says that peter emphatically says um even if i die i will never deny you i love this sort of expression i'm gonna emphatically say this right so you can sort of picture the whole thing in your head but then one thing that i'd never noticed before about this was the very next sentence says and they all said the same thing right so the whole room of disciples are there and they're all like agreeing with peter yes we're not gonna do this jesus you're a nutcase for even thinking such a thing and they all said the same thing yet scripture sort of picks on peter doesn't it really it kind of draws out peter's story and i just wondered if you had any thoughts about this james i don't know if you noticed that as well or whether it was just me no i can't pick up on that but i think often peter was a spokesman for all of them so i wonder if in all of their pride he's just shouted the loudest and we often that's such a good answer we often we often say now that we pride comes before fall and i think he was so eager to please jesus and to be the one that could never fallen short that i think jesus uses that as his achilles heel to say you're not that good yeah you know you're not that great you're not that uh eager you're not not even that loyal if i'm honest i think it just shows that where we think we are strongest jesus often can use those um elements of pride our blind spots maybe there's a way to them um there's teachable moments yeah yeah that's really good he can use those things as teachable moments i like that teachable moments is such a great phrase um and so he obviously has this sort of teachable moment and then one of the bits which you you kind of alluded to in your talk and um sally's going to be getting into this in a few weeks time actually um there's a part of the scripture coming up where they where they come to arrest jesus right this is like an hour or two after this conversation isn't there's a part of this conversation where they come to arrest jesus and um and peter ends up taking out his sword doesn't he and chopping off the ear of one of the the soldiers who've come to arrest jesus now i don't know if this was a moment of madness i don't know if peter was like i as a single person with my sword are going to take on this whole roman god i wonder if he had in his head this conversation which is like oh there's no way i'm denying jesus here i'm gonna i'm gonna take out the sword even if i die jeremy but it was it was that contrast with another hour or so later it was just a it was a village girl that kind of asked him a question which undid him did you see what i mean and i thought that was a really interesting contrast oh yeah james yeah i think our things we have and not physic so i was saying some of the battles we have are not physical battles they're they're mental they're spiritual so the fight in the garden peter copes with quite easily but being by a very simple um conversation um completely throws him yeah i gemma's right you've got to love wi-fi james sorry budget you're breaking up really badly at the moment i'll tell you what i'm gonna do i'm just gonna do this uh hopefully james's internet restores itself in just a few seconds time uh he'll be back in just a minute when he just sort of catches up with himself so we don't get that kind of effect but yes did you pick up what james was saying there that actually sometimes it's the little things just this simple conversation with a village girl that kind of undid peter you know here he is one minute with a sword kind of like defending jesus against a whole group of people and the next minute he's kind of undone by some simple words and it's amazing in life what can actually undo us if that makes sense it's amazing where we think we're strong and we can kind of prove that we're strong we can cope with this you know i mean and over here we look fearless and we look like the leader and we look strong but over here something really really simple well that totally undoes us doesn't it and it's quite fascinating how that works now let me press this button again see if i can get james back you there bud i'm here ah good we can hear you again uh you're frozen in a very thoughtful process just like this um so one of the other points that you talked about in this james uh which he kept coming back to was he kept saying that he is faithful right um he is faithful jesus is faithful god will never fail us jesus will never fail us what do you understand by that phrase that he is faithful he will never fail us what does that mean to you i think it means that he's constant i think we're in a very quick changing culture um and we're used to getting results as fast as we can you know my internet is not fast and that's proven to be an issue and therefore we want to fix it you know that's a real example right now um but god is not like an insect connection he's faithful he's constant he's there regardless of how we're doing and how we're performing in life um and i think i've seen that i talk a lot about the congo just because it really shows how faith works um when people are surrounded by you know broken buildings and a broken infrastructure a broken government and rebel attacks and death on their doorstep and poverty yet somehow they have found an ability to cling to god and a persistence to seek him in prayer to pursue him in worship to give their lives to him and that to me shows the faithfulness of god's character that they've picked that up in their life it's not dependent on what's happening in their day-to-day lives it's not situational it's not circumstantial it's based on a a relentless pursuit of uh of us by god and i think um faithfulness to me means a constant he's there um when we're doing great he's there we're not doing great you know i don't know what your people watching don't know what your relationship is like with your father if you think of a perfect perfect father um who's there to pick you up and he's always there for you that's that's the god that we ship yeah that's really good i like that fact that god transcends wealth and nations and class and all that sort of stuff doesn't he god has no favorites as the bible says everyone is his favorite and that's really interesting and actually we're going to have you've sent me a video actually with an update from the congo which we're going to play in a couple of weeks time so do stay peeled for that because there's some stuff coming out of the congo that it will be good to be aware of and to pray into and we've got that video coming soon listen james uh the final question okay now i don't know if you're aware of this and maybe i should have prepped you beforehand uh last week nick was on and i didn't prep him that these kind of questions come up and i need to start prepping our speakers a little bit better um we we get these kind of questions which come in uh and uh so i i feel like i'm obligated to ask you this question right the question is do pineapples belong on pizza yes or no well that's a tough one matt you really should have prepped me i mean it's the tip it's the spiritual depth that just just blows me away every time well these are the big questions you know yeah yeah absolutely did peter fail jesus intentionally should pineapple being a pizza life questions answered here at crowd right how to live a more meaningful life join crowd and find out the real answers to the real questions at plagueis that's it i'd have to say yes i mean the fact that it's still on pizzas worldwide today would suggest it's got some real strength of character you know it's resilient surprising but resilient let me tell you a story right um when i was 18 um i lived in north carolina for a little while and whilst i was living over there um i went to a pizza place with some friends right we went and got some pizza and the waitress came took everyone's order and i was too busy talking to even look at the menu and she said to me she says what would you like said oh i'm not that bothered just bring me a simple hawaiian pizza okay well she looked at me everyone just stopped and looked at me and we're like what's a hawaiian pizza is this kind of some kind of crazy english thing i said hawaiian pizza is just a pizza with ham and pineapple on it right they looked at me again like y'all put pineapple on your pizza that's you've never tried pineapple on a pizza they were like no i was like okay and so i went to the kitchen i talked to the guy that made the pizza this is how you make a ham and pineapple pizza right we're just having a right left so he made this hammond panel for pizza he they bought the hammer panel pizza right let me tell you i got one slice of my own pizza right everybody else ate it well the next week we went into the same place to get some pizza guess what was on the menu let me guess hawaiian pizza absolutely it was there i introduced to one small segment of the united states ham and pineapple pizza you're welcome america you're welcome that's what we do for the transatlantic say again yeah so i reckon it's grown since then it must have spread out nationwide you obviously put hawaiian pizza on the map i don't know about that just one tiny small speck of the united states it was hysterical so yes ham and pineapple pizza i agree belongs on on the pizza i don't know what everybody else thinks uh but um nicola said no it doesn't and nicola you're wrong just take it off just take it off brilliant listen james i appreciate that but and uh thanks for joining us uh it's good your internet uh sort of has got a little bit better as we've gone along uh which was just brilliant um so yeah thanks for joining us much appreciated and we'll see you again soon lovely take care cheers buddy bless you well james fantastic great conversations there about all things also i want to say all things spiritual let's just leave it at that right there were some spiritual things in the human pineapple pizza what has crowd church become when this is the big question of the day right what pineapple do we need on there so what's nikola put here we often fail jesus but we are so often blown away that jesus doesn't fail us even in the way or answer or even if the way or the answer is not what we wanted that's very very true right sometimes uh we kind of expect god to answer in a certain way but god answers in a different way and it's genuinely better for us and it takes us sometimes a little while to figure that out but that's another story that's for another day now let me tell you in the next few weeks what's coming up we have got mother's day uh which i believe is next week um and then after that we have sharon my beautiful wife she's gonna be sharing with us and then after that we've got sally uh the amazing sally and as sharon and sally going to be carrying on our study in mark's gospel and then i think it's easter we're running into easter if my date recollection is serving me well speaking of dates uh i believe i'm just going to press a button here on my uh my little desk here um we have had uh let me play this can you hear that oh yes we've had a few birthdays this week can i just say a big happy birthday to the amazing and beautiful and all-round fantastic julie connolly it is julie connolly's birthday today ladies and gentlemen if you don't know julie she is one of the founding pastors of frontline church crowd is part of frontline uh and when i first came to liverpool back in 1992 29 years ago dave and julie uh and nick and jen nick was on last week's uh crowd church live stream they just started front line church it was called bethany back then and anyway it's julie's birthday uh beautiful beautiful lady so much respect and love for julie happy birthday julie it's also been james burch's birthday this week he's the husband of sally um and so make sure you say a big happy birthday to james and of course it is in a few days time don't tell him i told you um it's al marshall's birthday so make sure uh you connect with our marshall if you know ow and say happy birthday to him as well he's a big big fan of what we're doing here and he's the guy that's always just loving everything and giving hugs to everybody he's such a cool dude out so big happy birthday to everybody if it is your birthday uh then have a happy happy birthday this what can i say uh you're in great company okay what else have we got going here sharon says i like pineapple on my pizza uh matt says lots of love team edmundson i think gemma likes uh pineapple on pizza judging by the emojis that took a little bit of talent there gemma to create emojis that said that that's uh happy birthday happy birthday to all our marshall is 54 ancient matt you have got what is commonly known as the complementary gene you know how to compliment people right ancient brilliant uh and apparently united are one nil up against city for those of you that actually care unlike me because it's just been a disaster of an afternoon in football anyway i think we're gonna end i know blew myself away says gemma i tell you what if anybody needs to know how to use the um you know the little icons uh then just talk to gemma because she's queen at it what can i say uh it's been great uh for you to join us this week sorry there's been no catch-up uh but hopefully josh will be back next week do pray for him uh in his exams and test tomorrow as he's got all kinds of good stuff going on uh in the meantime wherever you are whatever you're doing have a fantastic week now just to sort of give you the notices that we almost forgot to give you on wednesday we have a disciple session now this is basically where a group of us just get together online uh on zoom on wednesday evenings and if you want to know more here's a whatsapp number um and we just get together on zoom on a wednesday evening come join in the conversation we are basically going through some of the fundamental foundations of the christian faith and then just having a conversation with him you'd be more than welcome to join us it'll be great to meet you there uh i do do so enjoy the wednesday evening conversations next week we'll be back at 4 p.m to live stream so do come and join us for that now we are gonna close out today's service with some worship and again the worship um is uh what have we got this week uh you are worthy of it all and only in you these two songs again just kind of speak to the lordship of christ you know that the place where we come to uh like peter of surrender of just going no i need to stop denying you and i need to start acknowledging you and when i do maybe just maybe my world will change rapidly in so many ways accordingly right so that's what the the worship is all about do carry on listening to it do enjoy the worship do join in after the worship is finished the livestream will end um and you will see again uh next week so i'll be back again here next sunday in the meantime wherever you are whatever you're doing have a fantastic week god bless you oh and let me put that number on the screen one more time as i say for any prayer requests do let us know bye for now god of goodness anything blessed and all of you anything less than your life giving true could never satisfy my heart never satisfy only in you do i have it all only in you jesus anything less than your life giving you could never satisfy my heart never for jesus how great you are how great am beyond measured how great great you are how great you are how great and beyond great you are how great you are how great and beyond you are great only in your cheeks oh the saints and angels bow before oh the elders cast their crowns before the lamb of you were for from you are all things until you are all things you deserve the glory for of god you worthy of it all day and night night and day let incense rise day and night night and day letting center rise day and night night and day and night night and day here deserve the glory
