Wild Goose Chase – Guilt
Wild Goose Chase – Cage of Guilt
Luke 22.34 (pg 805)
But Jesus said, “Peter, let me tell you something. Before the rooster crows tomorrow morning, you will deny three times that you even know me.”
Luke 22.61-62 (pg 806)
At that moment the Lord turned and looked at Peter. Suddenly, the Lord’s words flashed through Peter’s mind: “Before the rooster crows tomorrow morning, you will deny three times that you even know me.” And Peter left the courtyard, weeping bitterly.
John 21.17 (pg 829)
A third time he asked him, “Simon son of John, do you love me?”
Peter was hurt that Jesus asked the question a third time. He said, “Lord, you know everything. You know that I love you.”
Jesus said, “Then feed my sheep.”
Jesus came to recondition us with His grace so that
we are no longer reactionaries to guilt but
revolutionaries for God’s love.
What is your “rooster’s crow” or trigger of guilty feelings? Are you ready to let Jesus recondition your response to that trigger of guilt?
Who do you need to forgive to be set free from the cage of guilt?
Following Jesus means that His right standing with God has been exchanged for your sin or separation from God. In what ways are you living as if that’s true? In what ways are you not living as if that’s true?
Taking it further…
Luke 22.54-62
John 21.15-19
Romans 8.1-3
View the Bleeding Love song/video our band played here.
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I love the concept of Peter denying Jesus three times and that just dug so deep within him, but Jesus comes later and reconditions that with grace. Not only does Jesus just mention it he reminds him exactly three times. Our baggage can really run deep within us because we have been conditioning that baggage for so long. One time of realizing you need reconditioning isn’t going to change that. It is a process to recondition old habits into new ones, but if you really try to focus on reconditioning that old stuff you will soon uproot it and be able to live with freedom. Peter was able to do it and played a major role in changing the world! Can you imagine the story if Peter didn’t allow the guilt to be reconditioned with grace?
It wasn’t until within the last couple years that I even saw the baggage that I’d been carrying around my whole life. It kept building because I could never measure up. We all have wounded hearts, some more than others.
We get stuck strapping on the baggage every morning that it’s become such a part of our lives that we don’t remember what life was like without it. We look bent over with all our baggage before other people.
Someone once told me it was like Jacob Marley’s ghost in “A Christmas Carol” He walks around w/ the chains/baggage of his past haunting Scrooge. I know I’ve found myself in that situation, being “haunted” by the cage of guilt.
God is totally in the business of throwing aside the guilt. I love how Psalm 71:20 puts it:
“You have allowed me to suffer much hardship, but you will restore me to life again and lift me up from the depths of the earth.” (NLT)
I really loved this week, because there is not a person alive that doesn’t have some sort of guilt in them. I should have told them…, I shouldn’t have done…, you get the point. In the “Wild Goose Chase” book there is a really great section about Jesus destroying the evidence against us. The story used is when Peter impulsively cut’s off the ear of a man named Malchus when they came to take Jesus away. Peter at that point was in a whole bunch of legal trouble. Worst-case scenario, Peter gets charged with attempted murder. Best-case scenario, Peter gets assualt and battery with a deadly weapon. Either way, Peter was going to serve some time in a very small cold room. Here’s the amazing thing…Jesus walks over and miraculously reattaches the man’s ear, thus destroying any evidence against Peter. The point is, Jesus has destroyed any evidence of guilt against us and sure we know we have done something (just like Peter knew he cut that man’s ear off) but we, like Peter, must let this miraculous Jesus reverse the irreversable and not live in the cage of guilt.
Also, great point Dave! I love when Jesus asks Peter three times if he loves Him! He reconditions Peter or as Mark Batterson puts it “recommissions” him. And notice the time of day (John 21:15) “In the morning” or “After breakfast”, now that’s good right there!
I think that it is just unbelievable of the amount of grace that God has for us, even when He knows that we will fail. Knowing this we must learn to be more aware of our own breaking points and not become over confident or self-sufficient. Like Peter, when we recognize these failures we will be able to grow and be useful to God and His Kingdom!
Like Hollie said, His grace so sooo big for us. That he would take the time to recondition Peter from the guilt that he would hear every morning just magnifies His love and grace. Knowing that he took our sins and covered them completely – enough to change things that trigger us into guilt, should be enough to save anyone!
I love how Hollie and Justin have identified grace as the true hero in the struggle with guilt! God began revealing the depths of grace to me by passing me through the FIRE. The necessity to forgive and the effort required to truly forgive unconditionally caused me to begin tasting the infinite depths of Grace! Luke 6:37
[ Judging Others ] “Do not judge, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven.” Scripture does not give any other answer for our sin or guilt. We are commanded to practice the Grace that we have received. That is the only reconditioning that scripture has revealed for us. I suppose the sermon didn’t have to stop there… This is a good litmus test for your salvation. Only those who have received Grace can give Grace. Darkness does not part the light. Darkness gives way to light. You cannot give something you do not have.
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