David Wright

Hendersonville Seventh-day Adventist Church, NC

Fair Weather Faith

Well, and you probably all have been curious what book I'm looking at up here.

For those of you that can see, can you read it?

The Guinness Book of World Records, 1998.

I was looking for 1 of these, and every library I went to, they were checked out.

And so I finally got a hold of Jennifer Kuhn, I said, do you have a copy?

But I remember as a kid loving to just finger through here and see all the wild and random things.

I mean, here's a picture of a guy with 57 glasses on his chin.

What are you going to do when you grow up?

This is 1 string bean down here, or green bean.

Here's a world-size pumpkin, here's an onion.

They didn't have pictures of the tallest.

And they talk about 1 of the shortest men being, well that's the tallest, is what, where is he?

Oh, the shortest man, here's 1 I was gonna share.

He's only 22 and a half inches tall and weighed 37 and a half pounds.

That would change things for you a little bit, wouldn't it?

There was another 1 back here I thought was interesting.

Of course, the whole book's kind of interesting.

For those of you guys who are into working out, this guy set the record for the most push-ups back in 93 in a 124 hour period, 46, 001.

There's a little star here it says for rules, see page 300, they know you're doubting.

And then this 1 I thought was interesting I shared this with my youth has to do with computers in 1998 this is a huge breakthrough This book isn't turning pages for me like I need it to.

It is a 4 gigabyte dynamic random access memory chip.

And they go on to say, it has the capabilities of storing 6 hours of audio data.

I have an iPod now that fits in my pocket that I have over a month of solid sermons.

Anyway, there was another record that was set and maybe this could be something that would be a Pathfinder badge, something you could accomplish.

This 1 was by a Remy Bricka was his name.

The date was 1988, April 2, and he crossed the Atlantic, setting a record.

He left from Spain, the Spanish Canary Islands just south of Spain, went all the way across the Atlantic to Trinidad, just north and east of Venezuela.

3502 miles, but how he did it was what was unique.

Well, he had these polyester ski floats attached, 1 on each foot, and he made a motion kind of like when you're cross-country skiing, and he had some form of paddles that he would do and all this kind of stuff.

I think it took him 60 days to make that journey all the way across.

And when they asked him about his experience, do you know what he said?

Well it was fascinating and all, but what really was kind of annoying was the slow pace of it.

Do you think he perhaps was reading his Bible and was inspired?

That's the story I want to look at this morning because I believe there's some lessons there that Jesus wants to teach us.

What circumstances surround that rather strange story, honestly?

What ways does that story apply to us, to you and me today?

So let's turn in our Bibles, if you brought your swords this morning, to Matthew, is the account that speaks of Peter walking on the water.

The only account really that speaks of him walking on the water.

Matthew chapter 14, and we'll begin in verse 22, but Let me give you a little bit of a, well, we'll read the first verse and I'll give you some background.

And there we read, immediately, Jesus made his disciples, perhaps a better translation is he strongly compelled his disciples to get in the boat and go before him to the other side while he sent the multitudes away.

Now if you're like me you recognize we're kind of coming in, in the middle of a story in so many ways.

And as you glance back in your Bible, you see that just moments before, he has fed the 5, 000.

And so there's this huge multitude there, yet we see this haste, this urgency of Jesus to leave, to break it up.

We probably have some reluctancy of the disciples, what's exactly going on?

The reality of the situation is Jesus had become too popular.

The crowd wanted to appoint him king right there.

He could make Judea an earthly Paradise, land flowing with milk and honey.

He could break the power of the hated Romans.

I mean, think of the endless possibilities.

He could heal the soldiers wounded in battle.

And you know, if he comes along, it's kind of like having the cafeteria he could feed everybody He could conquer the nations and give Israel their long-sought dominion this is our chance everybody's saying But poor Jesus he's too modest he's too humble Left to himself.

And so they collaborate together and they agreed to do Jesus this big favor after all he needs our help and they desire to make him king by force for they themselves have a service in this too but also they want to exalt Him as their Deliverer.

We gather that from John's account, chapter 6, verse 15, where Jesus perceived, it says, that they were about to come and take Him by force to make Him king.

He departed again to the mountain by himself alone.

And while we're in that line of thought, think about the disciples for a moment.

Were they always to be known by their friends and their family as followers of this false prophet?

I mean the whole church at that time condemned this man, saying he was following a rebel.

But at this moment, this was the moment they had been waiting for.

We can't let this opportunity pass us by.

And after all, why wouldn't Jesus want to relieve us of all of this pain and uncertainty and really, honestly, just the heckling that we've had to receive.

Doesn't He want to make our way less painful?

And I have to ask, do you ever seem to perceive God's will better than He does?

To know what needs to happen at this very moment?

Do you ever have selfish, self-serving plans for God?

Do you ever find yourself angry and upset if God doesn't lead in your life just like he's supposed to?

For their disciples, the love of honor had blinded them.

Is There an Elephant in the Room

I tell you, Elizabeth and I are still thrilled to be here and to be part of the Hendersonville Church.

Never before have I been in a church that has so emphatically insisted I take all the time I want.

And so for that, I thank each and every 1 of you.

Back in 1991, a show came out called Home Improvement.

And a significant part of that show was centered on a man's tool show.

This tool show was called Tool Time, where typically they would be showcasing some tedious, mundane task, and then the host of the show, Tim, the tool man, Taylor, would ask his flannel-wearing assistant, What do we need to complete this task?

And he'd often look to the audience who would respond in unison, more power!

And after some grunting and some fanfare, They would wheel out some new Benford tool, some 5100 high-powered twin-blade 15-horsepower fuel-injected garbage disposal or something.

But so much of that show was focused on him amping up, souping up, creating something with more power.

We like to think we have the most powerful drill or motorcycle or laundry detergent, yet how do we feel when we switch gears a bit and talk about people in positions of power.

Very quickly we start to think oftentimes of those that abuse power, don't we?

Yes, we're quick to realize that power, like many things, can be very good.

It's like so many other things in life, it depends so much on how we use it.

So this morning I wanna look at a very powerful person in the Bible and see just how they used their power.

So if you brought your Bible this morning, I encourage you to turn with me to the book of 2 Samuel.

2 Samuel, we'll be looking at a portion of the life of David.

2 Samuel, and we begin looking at a few things here in chapter 7, before we move on.

And it's important that we begin here because now David is king, but there's full recognition of who has put him there, and rightfully so.

And so we read in 2 Samuel chapter 7 verse 8.

I took you from the pastor, this is what the Lord Almighty says, I took you from the pastor from following the flock to be ruler over the people of Israel.

I have been with you wherever you have gone and I have cut off your enemies from before you now I will make your name great who will make David's name great The Lord that's right and Verse 22 it's reiterated again How great you are Oh Sovereign Lord Now David is recognizing where the strength comes from.

My Bible reads, in the course of time, David defeated the Philistines.

Verse 2, David also defeated the Moabites.

Verse 3, moreover David fought Hadadazir.

Verse 4, David captured a thousand of his chariots, 7000 charioteers, and 20000 foot soldiers.

And so here we see success after success.

And verse 5, when the Armenians of Damascus came to help that same king of Zobah, David struck down 22, 000 of them.

Verse 6, he put garrisons in the Armenian kingdoms of Damascus and the Armenians became subject to him and brought tribute.

The Lord gave David victory wherever he went.

And in case we missed it in verse 6, it's reiterated in verse 14.

The Lord again gave David victory wherever he went.

However, sadly enough, in chapter 9 and chapter 10 and chapter 11, we see little if even no mention of the Lord except in chapter 10, verse 12, where we read, Be strong and let us fight bravely for our people and the cities of our God.

The Lord will do what is good in his sight.

It's as if there's some degeneration perhaps, and maybe I'm reading into it too much, but the Lord is mentioned less and less as there is more and more success.

To where we get to this point, well the Lord, He can just do what is good in His sight.

Don't worry God, I've got this under control.

We've been through this a few times before.

And So we flip over another page or 2 in our Bibles to 2 Samuel chapter 11.

And this is the story that we will be focusing on this morning.

And we read, in the spring, at the time when kings go off to war, David sent Joab out with the king's men and the whole Israelite army.

It's spring, It's after the rainy season, the roads were good, there was plenty of food for the troops.

And so this was the time when kings, when kings go off to war.

And so the writer wants us to know this is the time that kings go off to war, yet David sent Joab.

That word for sent in Hebrew is shalach, used 23 times in chapters 10, 11, and 12.

As if there's been this deliberate shift of power before God was sending David, now David is the 1 doing the sending.

I mean, after all, if I am a powerful person, I make the command.

I send them here, I send them there, they follow.

And in fact in chapter 10 we see 2 kings busy sending in this strategic play for power.

Their sending is all about human power struggles and the who and who has access to the most strength in order to dominate the other.

And so here in verse 1 of chapter 11, David sends while he, the king, stays home.

Well the last of verse 1, but David remained in Jerusalem.

Verse 2, 1 evening David got up from his bed and walked around on the roof of the palace.

And from the roof he saw a beautiful woman.

Evening, the word is really eventide if you have your King James Bible with you, meaning twilight or sunset.

He's had a rather lazy day, wouldn't you say?

And so David gets up, and he's walking around on the roof and sees this woman bathing.

Now, bathing and cooking all took place in private courtyards, up on the roof, oftentimes protected from the neighbors around, but not protected from above.

And part of the culture which is still in practice today in Israel is that you are not to go on rooftops at that particular time of day because as you peek down you will see all kinds of people.

And even archaeology will tell us that David's palace was up on the ledge and all the rest of Jerusalem was down below.

It tells us that this is a deliberate action on the part of David.

He wakes up late in the day and he goes out when kings are supposed to be off at war, he goes out up on his roof at sunset.

In fact, it mentions twice, in case you missed.

From the roof, he went walking around on the roof of the palace, and from the roof, he saw a woman bathing.

And then we see that word again, after he sees this beautiful woman, David sent someone to find out about her.

The man said, in the end of verse 3, isn't this Bathsheba, the daughter of Ilium and the wife of Uriah?

There's another detail the writer wants us to pick up.

And Uriah, of all people, is 1 of David's original mighty men.

Someone he would have been friends with, yet he sees her and sins for her.

Living with Uncertainty

Have you ever noticed how uncertain life can be?

Are you all facing any trials this morning?

I kind of hesitate to share this because it's kind of trivial in comparison to what I know many of you are facing.

But 5 weeks ago I was in a car accident and it could have been pretty bad.

But luckily this is the worst, a broken thumb.

And initially I thought that's not a big deal, we'll be fine, and we will be.

But I'm learning that a broken right thumb is a bigger deal than I initially thought.

There's a lot of things I can't do like I used to be able to do.

I mean, for a grown man to have to ask his wife, trying to, you know, honey, will you open this jar of anything?

These fingers used to be very, very sensitive.

In fact, this whole arm, 1 of the brakes is into the joint, so that was part of the reason there.

But to try and tie your shoes with 1 hand?

To try and just put your belt on, this button is still vexing, let me tell you.

Typing, I always space with my right thumb, so I'm relearning how to type.

And it's not that I can't do things as much as everything just takes so much longer.

In fact, today's message just might be longer, I don't know.

But of all times that this could happen, it would have to be just, I don't know, a month or so after baby number 4 comes along.

And sometimes there's real pandemonium at the right household.

A baby is crying and needs a binky or a diaper change.

The other 2 are arguing over something else and they're screaming and they're crying.

Supper is burning on the stove and I used to be more helpful, but now I'm doing thumb exercises in the corner.

4 times a day, going to rehab in Asheville twice a week.

It all takes time, and everything's taking longer.

So if you're going to feel bad for anybody, feel bad for Elizabeth.

You don't know from day to day how your life will be changed or affected.

And they say I'll lose some range in my thumb.

We'll see, but I think I'm gonna be okay.

What is it in your own life that has been difficult here recently?

And maybe a better question is, how do you deal with the trials of life, whether they be big or small?

What do you do when things don't go according to plan how do you live with uncertainty From a spiritual perspective even how do you face trials?

Maybe you're going through a trial or something that's rather uncertain financially.

Maybe you're going through a trial or uncertainty about the direction of your future as a young person, not knowing exactly where you want to go, what you want to do, what profession you might want to explore.

Maybe the trial for you is your health, and you're filled with uncertainty.

Maybe as a patient you are uncertain about your, or sorry, as a parent, you're uncertain about your children and the path that they're taking and what choices they are making.

So how do you live in a world where the future is not secure and uncertainty is just around the corner.

If you have your Bibles, I invite you to turn with me to 2 Corinthians.

Not 1 Corinthians, but 2 Corinthians, chapter 12.

Second Corinthians chapter 12, we'll be reading verse 7.

And the apostle Paul, here we find him living with uncertainty.

But he lived rejoicing and courageous in that uncertainty.

Let's read 2 Corinthians now, chapter 12, verse 7.

And lest I should be exalted above measure by the abundance of the revelations.

A thorn in the flesh was given to me, a messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I be exalted above measure." Now, let's look at that text carefully.

Notice Paul says, I was given a thorn in the flesh.

Have you ever been outside playing as a child, or maybe you're splitting wood, or it doesn't really matter what is happening, but somewhere in that process, a little thorn gets stuck, or maybe it's a sliver or something of that nature, and it just gets underneath the skin.

And it can be quite an irritation and an annoyance, and it's just, you know, you haven't really taken the time to get it out, and every time you do, you think, ow, Ow, ow, ow, ow.

A little scratch, a little sliver that annoys him?

The word for thorn in the Greek language is skloops.

It's the same word that's used in ancient literature for impaling a victim.

In other words, you take a stake or a sharp spear or a metal and make it sharp on 1 end and you drive it through.

In Roman times, in the Middle Ages, you take that sharp stake, you stick it through the chest and it comes through the back and it pins a person to the ground.

It's 1 of the most excruciating and painful forms of torture as you can imagine.

Impaling was 1 of the most painful of all ancient tortures.

Here's a definition, a shaft like a spear was sharpened on 1 end and driven through the entire flesh.

The sharp stake passed the body, nailing the victim to the ground.

Many impaled victims, writhing in agony, screamed in pain and begged the passersby to kill them.

They said, Death is much better than being impaled to the ground.

Another author commenting on this says, the word scallops denotes an agony so excruciating as to be properly depicted by the barbarous custom of impaling victims or criminals by driving stakes through their grieving body.

So Paul is not describing here some little scratch, some little annoyance.

He says I have this thorn in my flesh, thorn like this impaling.

It's like a spear has been driven through me.

I'm writhing in agony, I'm filled with pain.

Back to Menu

Presenter

David Wright

All Recordings

Fair Weather Faith

44m

Is There an Elephant in the Room

37m

Living with Uncertainty

55m

Who Do You Trust?

48m

Sound Doctrine