Fall Focus 23- Choose your Captain

Intro

Simon Says

whats the point of the game?

is Simon trying to help you with his instructions?

we all follow after something, are led by something, have something leading in our lives

it ought to be God but sometimes we tell ourselves that God is what we are following when really we are far more devoted to something or someone else, that much like Simon, doesn’t want us to succeed

God wants you to live

he wants a relationship with you, to walk with you now and forever

he cares enough about you that he would send his son to die for you, in your place so that nothing can separate us from him again

no one and no thing does the same for you or even can, but there is opposition to God that will try to convince you of anything else

God

Creator- Gen 1

makes order where there is Chaos

Just, slow to anger quick to forgiveness- Jonah 4-

also a God of consequences for evil and of wrath- part of the justice

God can’t be God if he isn’t all of those things, otherwise he becomes something else

Satan

the opposition- Job

the temptor- Matthew 4

the one working against all those things that God is

literally, the opposer, the opposition

wants as many to be in opposition to the creator as possible and will use any means necessary

he is not in control of all things and he is not going to be victorious in the end, but he doesn’t want to lose alone

one of his greatest tricks is that he doesn’t need you to worship him specifically or profess a life of following him for you to be part of his opposition to God

he just needs you to be following anything other than God, to tempt you to go any different direction

Missing the Mark

shoot arrows at two different targets

the definition of sin- to miss the mark

Satan isn’t only going to try to convince people to live with no purpose or just be completely chaotic

most of the time, he convinces people to aim for a mark thats just a different one than what God has given us

he wants you to focus on a different target

Gen 4

really the opposer would like you to choose to follow ANYTHING other than God

and the truth is that for us thats never been easier

its never been easier to find and devote yourself to more things, the opportunity has never been greater

because of that it can even be easy to justify the things other than God that I am following after

Education, Money, Popularity, Sports,

Application

its easy to misunderstand the way that tempation most often comes

it would be silly to say that we are most often simply being thrown off target to wild chaotic randomness

no one is going to shoot at nothing and for no reason

but if my life is devoted to something other than God, to serving my self or something that is just going to end someday, I’ve missed the mark

I’ve chosen the wrong leader. I’ve followed and been led to my own end.

I’ve been made eternally defeated by the design of the one who is opposed to eternal life