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Ceres SDA Church

Anil Kanda

Winning Again

So why don't we bow our heads right now and let's just take some time to pray and ask that God's Holy Spirit would be here, that God would grant to us the present blessing, and that we'd all walk away changed having been in His presence.

Father in heaven, we thank you so much for grace, God, that we can come to your throne right now, just as we are, Lord, to find help, to find grace in times of need.

Lord, you've called us here to worship and, God, to receive the message from heaven.

And Father, we know that there are many things that are on our hearts and minds, bills, houses, people, situations, circumstances, Lord.

But Father, right now we just want to pray and ask for the present blessing.

God, we ask that you would open up heaven's gates and that you would pour your Holy Spirit upon this congregation.

God, we want you to give us a message this morning, the things we need to understand.

I, You know, I'm somebody who likes playing basketball, but I'm not somebody who actually likes to watch basketball.

My mom, on the other hand, she loves to watch basketball.

She's just a little Indian lady, she's about 61 years old, and her favorite team is the LA Lakers.

And if you ever want to see an Indian lady curse up a storm, just put a game of the Lakers playing and them losing and you will see a little Indian attempt to cuss in the English language.

And, you know, I never grew up actually watching sports.

I used to play out in the streets or in the field and stuff.

But there was something I actually liked to watch, and that was the Olympics.

Now I don't actually like watching all of the Olympics.

My favorite part of the Olympics is the very end.

I'm talking about the part in slow motion when that runner is going right through that finish line.

I don't want to see the rest of the race.

I just like the very end, when they're going to that final lap.

NASCAR racing, People like watching NASCAR racing.

I don't understand why watching cars go 250 laps around.

You know, it's the very end that matters, right?

And probably most of the women will agree on this too as well and some of the men.

My favorite thing about watching sports is the very end.

That's when the sweat is coming down your face.

That's when you're just on the edge of your seat and you're watching just to see what's going to happen.

Because the unexpected happens at the very end.

You can imagine somebody, for example, the Olympics.

Let's talk about somebody who's running, right?

And you see as it goes into slow motion, perhaps you missed the actual event when it took place, but you're watching the slow motion replay, and you're seeing somebody running.

And you're seeing them run with just efficiency.

Every part of their body is moving in sync.

And their body, their muscle is throbbing.

You can see the sweat that is coming off people's heads as they're racing towards that finish line.

You can see people in the background as they're trying to catch up.

And that 1 winner is making his way towards the very finish line.

Well, you know what the favorite thing about that is?

Is when you're looking and you see the people in the audience or in the stadium.

And you're seeing there, you see a guy with a hot dog, and you see a guy with a hat and somebody holding up their child and just people holding food and all of a sudden you see them slowly going up.

The hot dog guy's mouth, the hot dog's coming out of his hand as he's raising up.

The guy with the hat, his hat's falling over in his face.

There's a man with his little daughter who's in front of his little daughter.

And you see them slowly rising up as the runner is...

Making his way right towards the finish line and as he is getting right through that ribbon and the ribbon is stretching and finally it just snaps you see people's expression right in the stadium and their faces are just like you watch out those are golden moments right we love victory Can you say amen to that?

In fact, this is the reason why I think people watch sports, is because we like victory.

God created us to be a people of victory.

And we need to experience more than just victory in sports, but victory in our own lives.

And what we're going to be looking at today, we're going to be looking at the life of somebody who began to experience uninterrupted victory.

Not just victory and then stumbling and then coming back a year later, but somebody who had victory after victory after victory after victory.

And you're going to see that in their life, it started off with a defeat.

Let's go to Luke chapter 22 Luke chapter 22 And this is Jesus at the Last Supper.

And he's with his disciples, and you can imagine this is the last few hours he's having with his disciples.

So he wants to communicate things that are extremely important for his disciples to understand.

Watch what Luke chapter 22 verse 21 says.

Betrayer is with me on the table and truly the Son of Man goes as has been determined but woe to that man by whom he is betrayed.

Now let me ask you a question, who was Jesus talking about?

Jesus was specifically talking about Judas but guess what?

His own disciples were going to betray him shortly.

In fact go to verse 31 you're going to see Jesus actually address Peter right here.

Verse 31 Luke chapter 22 starting with verse 31 and the Lord said Simon Simon you notice in the Bible whenever God is mentioning the name twice he's placing an emphasis upon that person.

Listen, I am speaking to you is what he is saying.

Indeed, Satan has asked for you, that he may what?

But I have prayed for you that your faith should not fail.

And when you have returned to me strengthen your brethren notice what Jesus is saying right here He says Simon Simon Satan has asked for you that he may sift you as wheat I did a little bit study about the word sifting and what it actually occurs what it actually means.

It's not talking about the very beginning of planting crops, it's actually referring to the very end after the harvest has already been plucked.

And sifting is basically separating the wheat from the debris.

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Winning Again

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