Part 3: Show 'em Who Is In Control Series

It was good advice and I have never forgotten what he had said. Of course he was referring to football but it applies to most things, especially sports.

Satan thinks he is the boss. He wants to boss you around in the RING of LIFE. From the time you are a young adult, he tries to impress his will on you.

Do this and do that!

Well, it's time you put your big boy, or girl, pants on and climb into the RING.

Jesus is in charge...or so He should be.

Luke 22: 31-62

POINTS

#1: Get up; #2 You have help; #3: Get back up; #4: Fight another day.

POINT #1

Get up.

Peter was the kind of guy who stood out in a crowd. He wasn't bashful. In our last sermon, we heard about Jesus asking "who do you think I am?"

Peter jumped up and responded "You are the Son of God."

He was commended then and then later he was rebuked by Jesus and why?

Because Jesus knew that Satan was in control at that moment for He said, "Satan get behind him!"

Peter most often showed courage in what he did but not always. There were times that he let doubt control him like the time he tried to walk on water. But even though he began to sink...we must remember that he did get out of the boat...He got up...He entered the RING!

POINT #2

You have Help.

If you have made Jesus your Lord and Savior--you will never get in the RING by yourself. Jesus once said, "I will never forsake you!"

I believe that with all of my heart, mind and soul; for He cannot lie and He cares that much that His promises are "golden."

Without Jesus, it is Satan who is joins you in the RING of LIFE.

And Satan could care less about you but instead he wants to destroy you and hence slight Jesus by taking you away to a place far away.

With Satan, your punches will be futile, for he is much stronger and much more powerful than you.

He will join your opponents in putting you down for the count.

You must depend on Jesus for Satan is no match for Him--the creator of all things! Amen.

POINT #3

Get back up.

But if you get knocked down in the RING of LIFE, you need only to GET BACK UP!

Don't just lick your wounds and then take the ball and go home. No NEVER.

Peter was warned by Jesus that he would deny him three times before the rooster crowed [verse], and he did.

He left the courtyard and cried.

But remember this. He followed Jesus into the courtyard and that took courage.

He backed down from the three people who identified him as a Jesus follower, most likely as we would or do this day and age.

But he got back up. He licked his wounds and continued to follow his Lord.

POINT #4

Fight another day.

Who was there with Jesus in the garden and eventually drew a sword and cut the ear off of a guard? Why it was Peter!

Here he was, fighting another day. Defending His Lord...who as we know did not need defended. But, it was the thought and it is touching.

Peter was ready, as later Paul was..."to fight the good fight."

But, Jesus taught Peter and the others a valuable lesson that night in the garden when He reached down and placed the severed ear back onto the guard.

The lesson was and is this: Jesus deplores violence. He wants us to be peacekeepers.

When we talk about the RING and the FIGHT, we are not talking physically but instead metaphysically.

We are not to back down from our enemy, which is not the other person--not the person who is lost--but the driving force behind that person--that being Satan.

With His help, we can free that person from the will of Satan and make him or her a brother or sister. That is what is meant by "fighting the good fight!"