3 February 2008
10Am
Apostle Andre Pelser

Luke 22:31-34 "And the Lord said, Simon, Simon, behold, Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat: 32 But I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not: and when thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren. 33 And he said unto him, Lord, I am ready to go with thee, both into prison, and to death. 34 And he said, I tell thee, Peter, the ***** shall not crow this day, before that thou shalt thrice deny that thou knowest me."  I want to concentrate on these words Jesus said. Jesus said "I have prayed for you." I have prayed for you. When Jesus warned Peter, He also prayed for him.

Many times parents warn children about things but they don't pray for them. The prayer should go with the warning. He warned him and He prayed for him. It is wonderful to know that Peter had something coming, but that he had someone praying for him. And that someone was Jesus. Wouldn't it be wonderful to know that Jesus prays for you? There is a verse in Hebrews that says He ever lives to make intercession for us. Hebrews 7:25- "Therefore He is also able to save to the uttermost those who come to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them." From the gutter most to the utter most. How many of you, if you were in Peter's shoes, if you knew that you are going to face something, temptation, Satan is going to sift you. You don't know quite what is going to happen. It is scary, isn't it? Satan has asked for you so he can sift you. But how many of you would be confident if you knew Jesus is praying for you, that you will come through some how? I wondered about these things and I said on what grounds could Satan ask for Peter? What gave him the right to do that?

Well, there is a scripture in Amos 9:9 "For, lo, I will command, and I will sift the house of Israel among all nations, like as corn is sifted in a sieve, yet shall not the least grain fall upon the earth." The Devil also knows the scriptures. So Satan used this scripture to say that he wants to sift Peter. It is scriptural. Sifting is a scriptural process, because when you sift, the Hebrew word for sieve is "netted", it is "kbarah" (3527). They made the sieves out of fine string or coarse string or even reeds for the bigger things. Everything that does not remain in the sieve, the good grain, is given to annihilation. That which falls through is annihilated. Isaiah 30:28 "And his breath, as an overflowing stream, shall reach to the midst of the neck, to sift the nations with the sieve of vanity: and there shall be a bridle in the jaws of the people, causing them to err. " The sieve of vanity. This is given so that it is a means to prove or to test you; to see what will become; to see what is inside; to see who you really are on the inside.

Jesus said it is okay to sift him but Amos says 'yet not the smallest grain shall fall to the ground.' So you have this security, that although you might be at a place of sifting, that the smallest particle of God's Word in you will not fall through and will not be destroyed. it is almost as if God is saying "it is okay" and actually He is using it to get rid of all the things, the ungodly things in us, so that can fall though and just His Word can remain. See, we always looked at Peter as if he did something terribly wrong that Satan sifted him. All of us are being sifted, right now. I never understood this. It has been a revelation to me, because I ask God why did He allow Satan to ask for Peter. He said it is in My Word. Satan stood on a scripture, so Jesus had to go with the Word. But the whole scripture says "I will not allow the smallest grain to fall to the ground." So anything from God that is in you will not be destroyed no matter what tests you are going through. Amen.

So be encouraged this morning. He allows the sifting to take place in your life to remove the sin. To remove the sinfulness. To remove sinful desires. Because man is tempted when he is drawn away, James tells us, by his own lust. When lust is conceived it brings forth death. And so to remove things from our lives, there is a sifting process so that you can begin to distinguish what is precious and what is not, within yourself. You can begin to hate the chaff. You can begin to hate that which is not from God and begin to choose the godly things. Make a decision.

If you read further in Amos 9 verse 13-15, he says that after the sifting will come a time of such blessing, that the plowman will overtake the sower and the reaper. He says that the harvest is going to come so quickly, that while the one is still sowing the other one is reaping already. There will be an increase. God wants to bless the good things in you. So He has to remove the other things because they will absorb His blessings and waste it. What if God has to give you a billion dollars, how will you spend it? Will we buy a fast sports car, or will we further the gospel with it? Is it in God's interests or your interest? How many people, once they get rich, just leave God? while they were struggling they were saying "oh please God help me" and when they do well you never see them in church. It is our human nature, isn't it? All of us are like that. it is pride. Isaiah talks about the sieve of pride. Unless your pride is sifted, pride will being you to a fall. Thank God for the sifting processes in our lives, so that just the good grain can remain.

We have such false concepts about God's processes, that when God deals with us we think He rejects us. It is just like children. When the parents corrects them they think that the parent don't love them anymore. No, it is because they love you that they correct you. God says, "I chastise those whom I love." He says not to despise the day of chastisement. Pastor Godwin spoke about the shepherd that has a hook to bring the sheep back, because we go astray, easily. Have you seen sheep in a field? One sheep will see a green bush over there somewhere and he will go there. Within a few second all the other sheep will follow him. Sheep follow and the shepherd has to pull them back in line again. That is what God does with us on a Sunday, isn't it? Because Sunday we praise God and Monday we go astray again and before you know it some other people starts following you. God pulls us back and keeps us on the right path for our sake. If you don't come to church for three months, see where you are. You are backslidden. Did you know that you backslide in church? Because you don't listen. You just go to church because it is a ritual. You do the dancing, the singing, and when the preaching comes you switch off. When all the other people nod, you just nod as well, because you are a sheep, but you don't know what has been said. it is not going in. It is not changing. So then God has got other systems. The best sifting process is the Word, but if the Word does not do the job for you, God will allow circumstances to sift you. But He will make you hear what He wants to say.

It is not a negative thing. It is a positive thing. I want to change your perspective of sifting and say that it is a positive thing in the end. It is scriptural because God wants to remove some things. And then He says " so that you might be fruitful." We heard this morning that those who are fruitful will get pruned so that they can bear more fruit. He wants to establish you in security. Isaiah 65 says that new wine is found in a cluster. Here is a revelation. New wine is found in a cluster. God does not destroy a cluster because one grape is rotten. If one grape is not in good shape, God does not destroy the cluster. For He says that there is a blessing in that cluster. That is the safety of the church. In a church there might be two or three people that aren't pulling weight, that aren't