God of the Real World
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· 6 viewsGod is the God of the real world and we can really know Him.
Notes
Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
Plato’s Cave Allegory
The people in The Cave believe that their perception of reality is real but in fact it’s not.
What is real is found in the light while a false reality exists in the shadows.
We all have a worldview—we have a system of beliefs that determine how we act and ultimately the course of our lives.
And our worldview includes belief about God—even the atheist has a belief about God, that God doesn’t exist.
Have you seen the movie the Matrix? (It’s pretty old at this point)
Goal: I want you to be aware of the The Cave, know there is an alternative, and be able to think and talk about it.
[Pray]
I. We all start off in the Cave.
I. We all start off in the Cave.
Here’s the bad news we all start off chained up in the Cave.
Read Genesis 3:1-7 together
Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made.
He said to the woman, “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?” And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.’ ” But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate. Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths.
Q. What’s happening here?
So let’s look at the result
Read Romans 5:12 together
Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned—
Before Genesis 3 Sin had not entered God’s creation including humanity.
But because of Adam and Eve all of humanity is born in sin and desires sin. It’s natural to us.
You don’t have to teach a child to lie or hide the truth—no cookie, Rebekah covered in Oreos
So we all start off in The Cave and unless we escape our reality—what we believe and what we do—is shaped by the lies of the cave. We believe that the shadows are reality.
But there is good news.
II. We can be set free.
II. We can be set free.
If darkness is our problem what is our solution? What expels darkness?
The light expels the dark—the light shows us what is real so that we can see clearly.
Read John 8:12 together
Again Jesus spoke to them, saying, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”
Our freedom does not come by our own power. But we must look to God--God provides the way in which we can be saved.
Read Colossians 1:13 together
He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son,
Jesus, God the Son, is the light that expels the darkness.
If we want to see clearly—if we want to see the world, God, ourselves clearly then it starts with leaving the darkness and walking in the light.
Read John 14:6 together
Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
One of the lies in The Cave is that there are multiple ways to be saved—but there aren’t. Only God can solve the problem we have and He offers that salvation in Jesus alone.
Have you ever been in a pitch black room and had the lights suddenly turned on? What’s that like?
It’s jarring, and the light of Christ—a new life in Christ can seem scary, and jarring—it can feel like suddenly having a light turned on and wanting to hide back in the darkness.
What are some other reasons a person might prefer to stay in the darkness rather than come to the light?
The truth is that we are often comfortable in the shadows because we believe that the life we have there is good—we don’t believe that God is better than what we currently have or we don’t think that God is bigger than the chains that imprison us.
III. God is BIGGER and BETTER than our chains.
III. God is BIGGER and BETTER than our chains.
God is bigger than our chains–than the darkness–than our sin and our guilt.
The whole story of God in scripture proves time and again that God is the most powerful.
Can you think of a time in the Bible where God proved Himself to be most powerful?
Red Sea Crossing. Mana in the Wilderness. Quieting the Storm on the Sea.
Read Revelation 1:8 together
“I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God, “who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.”
Read 1 Chronicles 29:11
Yours, O Lord, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the victory and the majesty, for all that is in the heavens and in the earth is yours. Yours is the kingdom, O Lord, and you are exalted as head above all.
There is nothing that God cannot do. Sin and darkness is not too powerful for the almighty God of the Universe. Power finds its definition in God.
And often times when confronted with this truth we think, “Well that may be true for most people, but God would never want to free me—my sin is too bad.”
Paul was a persecutor and murderer of the church, he calls himself the Chief of Sinners.
And among the saved are stories of great sinners being greatly saved.
God IS bigger than what chains you.
God is also BETTER than the sins you may enjoy.
Read Hebrews 11:24-25 together
By faith Moses, when he was grown up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter, choosing rather to be mistreated with the people of God than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin.
What does this tell us about sin? (It feels like pleasure)
Sin is like food laced with poison. We think it’s good but it is killing us. Christmas tree cakes story. Delicious and deadly.
Read Romans 6:23 together.
For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Read Psalm 16:11 together.
You make known to me the path of life;
in your presence there is fullness of joy;
at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.
Just like a person who escapes The Cave, at first the light seems scary but once their eyes adjust they see that true life is found in the light.
When I was young I was afraid of obedience to God because I thought, “If I surrender too much to God then I’ll be miserable.”
Even as a Christian I believed the lie that following God was boring, scary, and would deprive me of joy and fun.
But I can tell you that this is a lie. The more I surrender every part of my life to God the more I find that God’s ways are good, pleasurable, enjoyable, and are full of freedom.
Conclusion
To recap: We all start in the Cave, We can be set free in Christ, and God can rescue us and living in God’s light through Christ is where true freedom is found.
Let’s break into our small group discussions.
[Pray]