Generally, Generally speaking, when something's broken, we think of it as useless.

We toss it out.

But today on Truth for Life, Alistair Begg briefly reviews the highs and lows of the

Apostle Peter's faith to demonstrate how it was his utter brokenness

that led to his usefulness in God's kingdom.

I invite you to turn to the Gospel of Mark and to Chapter 14.

This morning we're in verses 66 to 72.

And I'm going to read them as you follow along. And as Peter was below in the courtyard, one of the servant girls of the high priest came.

And seeing Peter warming himself, she looked at him and said, You also were with the Nazarene Jesus. But he denied it, saying I neither know or understand what you mean.

And he went out into the gateway and the rooster crowed. And the servant girl saw him and began again

to say to the bystanders, this man is one of them. But again, he denied it. And after a little while,

the bystanders again said to Peter, certainly you are one of them, for you are a Galilean.

But he began to invoke a curse on himself and to swear, I do not know this man of whom you speak. And immediately the rooster

crowed a second time. And Peter remembered how Jesus had said to him, before the rooster

crows twice, you will deny me three times, and he broke down

and wept. Amen. Well, a brief prayer. Make the book live to me, O Lord. Show me yourself within your

word. Show me myself, and show me my Savior, and make the book

live to me. For Jesus' sake, amen. Well, I wonder if we were to assess the keys to Peter's usefulness, as we think of him in all of his

powerful declaration of the story of redemption on the day of Pentecost, as we see him there

at the beginning of the book of Acts. I wonder how much significance we would attach

to this particular section that we have just read here at the end of chapter 14.

I have a sneaking suspicion that many of us would have, if we had been discussing this in a more interactive setting, many of us would have been tempted to say, I think probably the launching pad for his usefulness was in his great declaration when in Caesarea Philippi, he was enabled by the Father to say, you are the Christ,

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