BUCKLING UNDER PRESSURE
Pray before lesson!
Okay, let’s start out today’s lesson with a question. My question to you is, will YOU buckle under pressure?
You ask, What pressure am I talking about?
Scripture Text:
- Matt. 26:33-35
- Mark 14:29-31
- Luke 22:33-34
Now to clarify my question, will YOU buckle under the pressure to deny Christ?
I suspected you would all say, no, uh uh, not me. I would never deny Christ. I love him. I love this way of life. This is the good life. No one could ever persuade me any different. After all just like the song we sing here "I choose to be a Christian". I would never cave into deny Christ.
Yeah, right! Isn’t that what Peter just said? Oh Lord, I will even die with you, but let’s see what he did.
Scripture Text:
- Matt. 26:69-75
- Mark 14:65-72
- Luke 22:54-62
Oh looky here, Peter, Jesus’ #1 disciple, did just that in the face of peer pressure. What about you? How do you react to peer pressure. Now I know you all say, I love this Christian life, and I like who and what I am, but really I want you to think about it. Let’s talk about it. First let’s see why perhaps Peter denied Jesus. Was it just fear? Let’s examine the scriptures. (Discuss in detail the afore read verses)
Now let’s examine ourselves and see where we stand. Would we deny Christ if the pressure was on. I’m not talking about completely giving up this Christian life and never going to church again, although that can happen if we’re not careful. I’m talking about how you act when you are faced with questions about God or church. Do you act as if you don’t know God. How about this, has someone ever asked you about speaking in tongues? Yeah that a good one. What did you tell them? Oh, no I don’t speak in tongues. I never heard of such a thing. Do people really do that.
Or how about the question, "why do you wear skirts all the time?" Do you answer, Oh that’s just because of my religion? I don’t really want to but I have to. My mom makes me wear these things.
What about the pressure to act like your worldly friends. You may not dress and look like them, but have you adopted their actions and attitudes into your life when you are around them? You have a need to fit in with the crowd so you feel the pressure to act like them and talk like them to make sure you won’t be thrown out of the group. Maybe you’ve adopted their slang talk, their rebellious attitudes or smartalecky attitudes. You may not partake in things like smoking or out and out cussing (or maybe you do), but just picking up on these attitudes and actions is like denying Christ. Maybe you do this so you won’t have to fear persecution and ridicule because of your Christian life. Maybe it’s because deep down you are ashamed of who and what you are. After all, isn’t that why we try to act like our friends to fit in, because we are ashamed who we "really" are? Isn’t that the same as denying Christ? Are you guilty?
Jesus said, "Whosoever therefore shall be ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation; of him also shall the Son of man be ashamed, when he cometh in the glory of his Father with the holy angels." Mark 8:38
Do you live a double life, acting like the world when you’re around the people of the world and then acting like Christian’s when you are around other Christians? However, we shouldn’t have a Christian life and a worldly life. We should only have a Christian life. We should be the same at all times, like God is the same at all times. He is the same yesterday, today and forever. He never changes. He is always holy and so also should we be.
We need to take some time to reflect on this and examine ourselves.
I know we all sing and love the song "I choose to be a Christian, I choose to be like him, nobody’s making me do it, this is how I want to live. You decide for you and I’ll decide for me, the choice is mine, this is what I choose to be." Do you really mean that?
Oh I know you all say, not me. I would never deny Christ, but I want you to ask yourself today, am I like Peter? When the pressure is on do I also deny Christ? If so, we need to work on changing that about ourselves. After all, we are the only hope of salvation for this world and if we continually or regularly deny Christ by acting like our friends or making excuses for our religion, we will never be able to point them to Christ that they can be saved. If they constantly see your shame in who and what you really are, they will never find their way to God.
The apostle Paul said, and this is our memory verse this week.
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