Touré Roberts - Promotion Has a Process

I dare you to receive it in advance right now. Come on, somebody! God didn’t bring you here for nothing; He brought you here to give you something, and I dare you to have the measure of faith to hold it up before it even happens. Come on, somebody! Press in and get it! Let’s talk a little bit. Please be seated; let’s have a conversation here. This is written by Peter, and I love Peter for so many reasons. One of the things that I love about Peter, and what really moves me concerning him, is that he has been through some stuff. It’s like the older I get, the less I trust people who haven’t been through anything. Are you tracking with me? The older I get, the more I realize that it’s not the person who has never been through anything that is the most valuable. I think what manifests a person’s value is not that they have avoided something, but that they have walked through something. Come on, somebody! Do I have any people in God’s house? Come on, Denver! Do I have any people in God’s house? It wasn’t that you avoided everything; it wasn’t that you did everything perfectly; it was that you survived. Do I have any survivors? Come on! And October is Breast Cancer Month. Do I have any survivors? Whether it was cancer, heartbreak, or divorce, if you are a survivor, I dare you to take a minute and celebrate the One who gave you the strength to survive. Come on, somebody! Some of you survived 2017; some of you are surviving 2018. Some of you have survived when people gave up on you, when life threatened to wipe you out, but you are still here! Where are my «still here» saints? Come on, somebody! There’s something about surviving, and I can’t explain it. I love everybody—well, everybody’s cool—I’ll go to coffee with anyone. But the only people who can really sit at my table, truly at my table, are those who have been tried, those who have been through something. We’re not going to connect if you don’t have any scars. We’re not going to connect very deeply if life hasn’t thrown everything it could at you. In some way, you found it within yourself to get up, to stand again, and to keep moving, believing that the best is still yet to come. Some of you are in the process of getting there, and you don’t like it, and we’ll talk about that. I’m trying to stay on track today; I’m trying to stay here, but I feel the spirit of digression creeping in. I love Peter because he has experienced every side of this faith journey. You know Peter—when he first started walking with Jesus, he was talking big talk: «Lord, even if everybody leaves You, don’t worry about me! I will be with You until the very end!» And Jesus is like, «Mmhmm, you’re going to deny me.» Peter was shocked at the notion that Jesus would even insinuate that someone of his caliber of integrity, faith, and loyalty would one day turn his back on Him. Right? Peter was tough; he would cut off people’s ears—Peter was something else! And now Peter is writing about what we have to endure in order to develop the type of character that is worth what God has promised us. Hmm. Peter went through something. It’s funny; as we look at this text, there’s so much in it. I pray I can get through all of it in the two hours we have together for this message. But look at what Peter says; I pointed out the word «again» because he says in verse 3, «Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His abundant mercy has begotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.» What is he talking about? He’s saying that even Peter went through a very dark and difficult moment where his faith was tested like never before. You know the story: even after all that talk about not forsaking Jesus, not giving up on Him—remember all the talk Peter was doing? You need to study your Bible; it’s really amazing. All the things that he swore he wouldn’t do because he was so committed to Jesus, and then he denies Jesus. One reason Peter is able to talk so masterfully about how your faith must be tested is that when he went through that, he did not lose his faith; he lost his fire. You see, Peter had walked with Jesus. He had seen all kinds of miracles take place; he had seen provision come out of nowhere. He had witnessed when people were hungry; he had seen all those problems solved by Jesus. Right? He saw when the sick were healed, when haters were trying to get them, and they escaped the haters! There was no poverty or scarcity. His relationship with Jesus was based on the expectation that as long as he walked with Jesus, nothing negative would happen to him. Then, all of a sudden, Jesus was removed from him; Jesus had to go to the cross; Jesus died, and now…