* John 21:17 - Jesus kept asking Peter questions until he felt the pain of it.

* Peter felt the sting of conviction while he received his commission.

* The same should be true with us.

* We need to know we are all Peters, but God still wants to use us for His purposes.

* If you don’t feel unworthy then you’re headed toward an eye-opening experience that will prove it to you.

* Reminds me of the 80’s song “Hurt So Good.”

* “Sometimes love don’t feel like it should…”

* God’s love involves pain for our own good.

* Acts 5:14-15 - Before popularity Peter had to experience pain!

* The pain prepared him for popularity.

* It’s what kept him humble when people flocked to him.

* The priest and the king went to Huldah the prophetess for advice when the nation was in a tough spot morally.

* This is a great picture of how men and women together can bring about positive change in a culture.

* Genesis 2:18 & 20 - the woman was the “helper suitable.”

* This is the same word God describes Himself 16 times in Scripture.

* Here in 2 Kings 22 we see the helper was a woman who could rescue the people in the midst of their problem.

* God didn’t choose her because there was no man available - Hilkiah was available.

* God chose Huldah because He made her to be a helper!

* She simply fulfilled her God-given role as a woman.

* 1 Chronicles 7:24 - Sheerah was a well-known developer who built three cities.

* vs 22 - If you want the Holy Spirit you’ve got to get close enough to smell God’s breath.

* He speaks in a whisper, and His breath comes through His words.

* vs 23 - The first thing Jesus says after He gives them His Holy Spirit was concerning forgiveness.

* He gave them a very simple principle - we have the authority to forgive as Christ forgave.

* He did not grant blind forgiveness.

* He only forgave those who were truly repentant.

* So what do you do when someone doesn’t repent?

* You do what Jesus did on the cross - He gave the situation to God.

* In the 1st century, neither Roman nor Jewish courts of law would allow the testimony of a woman as evidence.

* Just confronted this cultural bias when He allowed a woman to be His very first witness.

* vs 17a - He gave her a very clear command - GO and TELL!

* She was the first “sent one” who received the first apostolic commission from the risen Lord to proclaim the Good News of His resurrection.

* vs 17b - Jesus put the disciples on His same team (“My Father and your Father”).

* This would be a great encouragement to His disciples after they deserted Him.

* vs 18 - Two things Mary used to convince the disciples Christ was alive:

* 1) Testimony - “I have seen the Lord.”

* 2) The Word - “He said these things to her.”

* We need to do the same thing.

* How do you reveal God to the world?

* The same way Jesus did - by giving others the words God gave us.

* vs 8 - Jesus simply gave the 12 disciples the word God gave Him.

* His job was to deliver the message to these men.

* Their job was to accept or reject it.

* We don’t need to control the response of our message.

* We just need to deliver the mail!

* As Christians we are to be the chocolate chips in the cookie dough of culture.

* This is what Christ was praying over His disciples.

* vs 17 - the way they could remain pure is to be “sanctified by the truth.”

* When you’re pure on the inside nothing from the outside can blemish you.

* A chocolate chip is made differently than flour or sugar or butter.

* It isn’t made to blend when it’s mixed.

* Ps 119:9 - A young man keeps his way pure by living according to the Word.

* Jereboam was not a good man, but he was God’s man.

* God was going to do something on behalf of Israel but He chose Jeroboam, an evil king, to do it.

* Through this evil king God brought peace to the Israelites.

* I’ve always held that Obama was not a good man in terms of his policies.

* But he was God’s man to bring our nation to its knees.

* I feel the same way about Trump - he’s not a good man in terms of his personal issues.

* But he’s God’s man for the job.

* He’s done more to help persecuted Christians than any other president in the last 100 years.

* Jesus was talking about abiding in Him and when we abide in Him we'll bear fruit.

* Two way abiding:

* Abiding in Christ - obedience to God’s commands.

* Christ abiding is us - God’s Spirit and Word inside of us.

* Christ only abides in us if we abide in Him.

* Then we will bear fruit.

* But what is fruit?

* vs 17 - Fruit = Love.

* The way we know we’re bearing fruit is by the love we show to others.

* If we’re not loving we’re not bearing.

* All we have to do is stay close to God through abiding in Him.

* The love that comes out of us will take care of itself.

* I’ve built several businesses, one of them was a franchise that had my name.

* Using my name opened doors for my franchisees so they could earn business.

* It showed my approval of two things:

* 1) The person - I approved the person who could use my name.

* 2) The business - I approved the type of business the people who used my name would get into.

* As believers, we can use Christ’s name because He’s stamped His approval on us.

* But we have to make sure to request things in which He approves.

* Asking in Christ’s name is a privilege and a responsibility.

* A privilege because we’ll get what we ask for when it lines up with God’s best for our lives.

* A responsibility because we have to make sure we ask with a heart to glorify God (vs 13).

* To know God’s name is to know His nature - what He is and what He wants to do.

* So when we know God we'll know what to ask for because we know His nature.