Many of us carry something from our past that we can't shake.
Maybe it was one moment.
Maybe it was years.
Something we said.
Something we did.
Someone we hurt.
A time we let God down when it mattered most.
We have prayed about it.
We have asked for forgiveness.
And we believe God forgave us.
But we can't get past it.
It comes back at night.
It comes back when we try to serve.
And a voice says, "Who are you to do anything for God, after what you did?"
There is a story in the Bible about a man who knew exactly how that feels.
His name was Peter.
On the night Jesus was arrested, Peter made a promise.
He said, "Though all men shall be offended because of thee, yet will I never be offended."
And, "Though I should die with thee, yet will I not deny thee."
That same night, Peter stood in a courtyard, warming his hands by a fire.
A servant girl looked at him and said, "You were with Him."
And Peter said, "I know him not."
Three times.
Then the rooster crowed.
And Peter went out and wept bitterly.
That was not a small failure.
It was public.
It was repeated.
It was against his closest friend, on the worst night of that friend's life.
Now fast forward.
Jesus has risen.
And Peter has gone back to fishing.
Early one morning, the disciples come in from the sea, and Jesus is on the shore.
Listen to what John tells us.
John 21, verse 9:
"As soon then as they were come to land, they saw a fire of coals there, and fish laid thereon, and bread."
A fire of coals.
That phrase appears only one other time in the whole New Testament.
In the courtyard.
On the night Peter denied Him.
Peter stood by a fire of coals and failed.
And now Jesus builds a fire of coals on a beach and cooks him breakfast.
Do we see what He is doing?
He is not avoiding the place where Peter failed.
He is taking him back to it.
So here is the first thing we need to hear.
Getting past what we did does not usually come from forgetting it.
Many of us are waiting for the memory to fade.
It may not fade.
Jesus does not heal Peter by helping him forget the fire.
He heals him at the fire.
Now listen to what Jesus asks.
Verse 15:
"Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me more than these?"
Notice the name.
Not Peter, the name Jesus gave him, which means "rock."
Simon, son of Jonas.
The name he had before any of it began.
Jesus was being honest.
The rock had crumbled, and they both knew it.
Real restoration does not pretend the failure did not happen.
And then He asks the question three times.
"Lovest thou me?"
"Lovest thou me?"
"Lovest thou me?"
Three denials.
Three questions.
Verse 17 says:
"Peter was grieved because he said unto him the third time, Lovest thou me?"
It hurt.
Jesus was walking him back through every denial, one at a time.
Sometimes healing hurts before it helps.
Now listen to how Peter answers the third time.
"Lord, thou knowest all things; thou knowest that I love thee."
That is a different man.
The old Peter made big claims about himself.
"I will never deny You."
"Even if everyone else does, I won't."
The new Peter makes no claims.
He says, "Lord, You know."
He has stopped trusting his own promises.
He is resting on what Jesus knows.
So here is the second thing.
If our confidence before God is built on our own record, our failure will always win.
Because our record is exactly what broke.
But if our confidence rests on what He knows, and what He has done, then even our worst failure cannot have the last word.
Now watch what Jesus does next.
After each question, He gives Peter a job.
"Feed my lambs."
"Feed my sheep."
"Feed my sheep."
He did not say, "You're forgiven, now sit in the back for a few years."
He did not say, "We'll find a smaller role for you."
He did not put him on probation.
He gave a failed man a flock.
That is how Jesus restores.
He does not just forgive us.
He sends us again.
And here is the third thing.
Many of us who have failed quietly retire.
We still come to church.
We still believe.
But we never pick up anything weighty again.
We call it humility.
Often it is just fear of failing again.
Jesus's answer to Peter was not retirement.
It was sheep.
Three times.
And then the last two words.
Verse 19:
"Follow me."
Do we know where Peter first heard those words?
On the shore of that same sea, years earlier, when he was a young fisherman.
"Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men."
Jesus did not change the call because Peter failed.
He did not water it down.
He gave it again, word for word, on the same beach.
So, how do we get past what we did?
We stop waiting for the memory to fade, and let Jesus meet us at our fire of coals.
We stop resting on our own promises, and rest on what He knows.
And when He hands us something to do, we don't retire.
We feed His sheep.
Peter denied Him beside a fire.
And the risen Lord lit one and made him breakfast.
Whatever we did, He has not withdrawn the call.
The grace that restored us was never meant to sit still in us.
It was meant to feed somebody.
That is how we make our redemption effective.