Posted August 8, 2002

Adam Spacht was met by Scott Sander and studied the Bible with him and Dave Brown in 1999. A disciple for just over three years, Adam has come to realize and, with God's help, overcome many earthly struggles. Adam has worked hard with the teen ministry, and has played a principle role in successfully reaching out to some of the tougher and more difficult-to-reach teens. Adam, who was recently married, shared the following communion message during one of the Sunday services last month. When they had sung a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives. Then Jesus told them, “This very night you will all fall away on account of me, for it is written: 'I will strike the shepherd, and the sheep of the flock will be scattered.' But after I have risen, I will go ahead of you into Galilee.” Peter replied, “Even if all fall away on account of you, I never will.” “I tell you the truth,” Jesus answered, “this very night, before the rooster crows, you will disown me three times." But Peter declared, “Even if I have to die with you, I will never disown you.” And all the other disciples said the same. -- Matthew 26: 30-35 NIV As a young Christian, I wondered why God let Peter fail so miserably in this circumstance. With time, study and the help of others, I realized that free will meant that Peter was able to choose his course, whether righteous or not. We can only imagine what Peter was thinking after the rooster crowed and he realized what he had (or hadn't) done. What sorts of thoughts must he have been thinking? God uses Peter's decision to deny Christ as an opportunity to help Peter. The situation humbles Peter so Peter can see his weakness. He feels the pain of his sin. The Bible says he “wept bitterly”. His actions after this incident show that he connects with the consequences of his sin and this pain leads him to Godly sorrow. Lastly, by letting Peter fail, God’s mercy is more fully realized. As some of you know, I am an alcoholic and I spent about 10 years drinking and drugging. I began drinking in college because I was insecure and I wanted to fit in and be popular, something many of us can probably relate with. I soon began drinking and going to class, doing “shots” to get drunk quicker, and drinking by myself. By the end of college, a short four years later, my “reputation” as a drinker was well known. I had a large tolerance and drinking had become the focus of my daily life. In my early adult years drinking continued along with the other sins that come along with addiction: impurity, immorality, deceit, lying, gluttony, and so forth. A huge burden of guilt built up in my mind. In spite of these building pressures, I loved drinking. All the while I kept thinking, “I can handle this”. Drinking progressed from a mostly weekend activity to almost daily ritual. I went from beer to liquor and began abusing prescription medicine. For the last six months of using, I had frequent blackouts, major health problems and I kept doing things I promised myself I would never do. My lowest point was waking up in pools on my own vomit – several times. I don’t share this to shock or disgust you, I only want to illustrate who I was without God in my life. While my sins broke God’s heart, he loved me enough to let me fail and see the futility of my best thinking and “skills.” For me personally, his grace became ten million times sweeter. I destroyed myself to the point where I “gave up” trying to do things my way and let God rebuild me his way. We see in the Bible how Peter learned and grew from his denial of Christ. He goes on to preach at Pentecost, writes books of the Bible, becomes an elder, and has the privilege to be martyred for his faith. While I am nothing like Peter, God has rebuilt my life to the point where I have gotten married to a wonderful woman, have been clean for over four years, have great friends, a nice home, a good job, had the privilege to serve in the teen ministry for two years and many more wonderful things. What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? By no means! We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? Or don't you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life. – Romans 6:1-4 NIV We are often reminded to keep our eyes focused on the cross. To me the cross represents second chances. God doesn’t want us to fail and be hurt, but if that is what it takes for us to get humble and turn to him, than he loves us enough to let it happen. He then steps in, demonstrates his endless grace and gives us a new life.