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Hendersonville Seventh-day Adventist Church, NC

David Wright

Lessons from the Life of Peter 2

Was there ever a time in your life that maybe not you necessarily, but the people around you were big into arm wrestling?

And I don't know if it was when you were coming of age or, you know, starting to become a man, especially for the males here in the room, but arm, I don't know, too many ladies arm wrestle, but arm wrestling became a thing because it showed are you stronger than the other person.

And so I can remember a time when arm wrestling was a thing and I was never big for my age.

We just, as rights, we just gradually, you know, like an eighth of an inch every year do a thing.

But it's always a scary thing to get involved in an arm wrestling match.

Because people gather around, and people start cheering, and all the rest.

Well, the story is told at a high school, there was this 1 individual who was the it guy on campus.

He was the all-star basketball player, but it really didn't matter what sport it was, he was good at them all.

And he was fit, and he was taller, he was muscular.

Perhaps we could say he had way too much confidence.

And so it happened 1 day while he was in shop class, there was another young man who was handicapped and actually was mentally challenged, if you will, and so he got teased a lot.

He wasn't a small guy, he had a decent size on him, but he talked kind of funny and how he walked around was kind of funny, and so he got teased.

Well, in this shop class on this particular day, they were both needing the same tool at the same time.

How do mature, grown men handle this issue?

And so he challenged this mentally challenged young man.

And whoever wins in the arm wrestle gets the tool.

And then of course, you know, everybody piles up.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, let's do this, let's do this, let's do this.

And this kid is looking at this guy in the face and okay, I got it, I got it, on your mark, get set, go.

Well the basketball all-star, he's really trying, he just wants to just smoke him, just Pow, but he can't.

And he's gritting his teeth and he's grabbing the table and he's doing everything he's trying to do.

Oh, you can't do that, oh, okay, wait, wait, wait.

And after about 15 seconds, it's in a dead heat.

And the mentally challenged young man, he's actually looking pretty cool.

And there's this exchange as they are locking eyes and making eye contact.

And you can tell, everybody who's watching can tell, there's 1 person in the arm wrestling match that all of a sudden becomes very afraid and 1 person that seems to very much be in control.

And then as he looks at him, it's almost as if he says, he doesn't say it out loud, but it's almost like he says, okay, I'm going to do it now.

And he starts going, and the basketball all started, and people started cheering, whoa, whoa, go, go, go, go, pow, and everybody, yeah, The underdog takes the day.

And then he did something else that was kind of cool.

You know, it's a good thing to be confident, but does it matter what we're confident in, or perhaps who we're confident in?

We've been looking in this three-part series, we're on number 2, that I'm calling now, Converted Lessons from the Life of Peter.

And we know Peter well enough, we know that He is pretty confident.

And does this confidence actually work against him rather than for him?

And so This is part of what he wrote later, and this is a little bit of a review of last week.

Now for a little while you have been grieved by various trials that the genuineness of your faith, though it is tested by fire, may be found to praise, honor, and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

And how do we know if our faith is genuine?

And we talked about that last week and we don't always like challenges but the challenges reveal often times our character and who we are.

And so we looked at last week Peter's call by the sea.

We spent a little time talking about the amazing catch that really got his attention.

We talked about various healings that Peter witnessed.

I mean he saw repeatedly, over and over and over, the power of Jesus Christ as he followed him, even raising a girl back to life, 1 of the few allowed inside to witness this spectacular miracle.

And I believe it's all with a purpose that Jesus is not only seeking to save the lost, he's seeking to save the 12.

He's trying to bring them to a deeper level of faith, a deeper experience, and to show, yes, their weaknesses.

Talked about how he sent them out 2 by 2, how they themselves healed and cast out demons.

The healing of the 5, 000, they got to witness all of that, to be part of that.

And then last time we ended with Peter walking on the water.

I'm not sure if something's loose or not.

But Peter is walking on water, and then it comes to that critical moment when his fears are greater than his faith, and he starts looking at the circumstances instead of Jesus.

Yes, he had confidence to get out of the boat, but his confidence is really more in himself than in Jesus.

But then we see this compassionate redeemer pulling him up.

You see, Jesus is trying to prepare Peter for a final test that he's not ready for.

Any teachers in the room, do you know when your class is not ready for the test?

But maybe they're not taking it seriously, maybe you're trying over and over and over, but Somehow they think they have it, they know it.

And so sometimes you have to say, all right, here you go, and let them fail.

Is failure sometimes the best thing for a student?

Can failure sometimes be the best thing for you and for me?

But sometimes, could it be in our best interest?

Today I want to look and continue on in this series with Peter's life.

We have a lot of verses to read this morning, but we're gonna start in Luke chapter 9.

And before this, we have Peter's confession of Christ.

We could spend time there but we're not going to.

Jesus predicts his death and resurrection and so on.

But then here in verse 28 it says, now it came to pass about 8 days after these sayings that he took again Peter, James, and John and went up the mountain to pray.

Could it be that Jesus knows that these 3 are going to also be the ones that are going to witness his anguish in Gethsemane?

And he has chosen them now to be with him on this mountain in preparation for that valley?

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Lessons from the Life of Peter 2

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