Creation and Koinonia

Get some demographics on the group: age ranges, sports being represented, years as a Christian, denominations represented.

Are there any techie geeks in the group? (Like me!)

I would bet that there are more of you that love tech than you think: how many of you own and love your smartphones?

On that note, how many of you guys use a Bible app on your smartphones?

Anyone use their smartphone as a daily devotional tool?

Well, how about if I take a minute and tell you guys a little bit about myself, does that sound alright?

It won’t take too long. Maybe a two or three hours!

I say that you guys just let me order a few dozen pizzas and we hang out and get to know one another! Sound OK to you?

Sounds great to me, except that I don’t think that your principal or your teachers or the school board would go for that!

Talk about my life (BRIEFLY)

Where you’re from (Mention fun facts about Chattanooga: Rock City, Ruby Falls, Aquarium, Chattanooga Choo-Choo, Moon Pies!)

playing little league baseball (I was never very athletic, or competitive!)

I have always enjoyed fishing!

I graduated from UT in 1991 with a degree in marketing

I worked for a few years at different sales jobs, waiting for the doors to the world to open up for me........they didn’t!

I graduated in 1997 with a degree as a Physical Therapist Assistant and moved to Crossville that same spring.

I worked for 17 years in Physical Therapy and loved it! (Elaborate if needed)

Go, back briefly to childhood and the mention about the urge to preach and my experiences with this as a child!

Mention then, how the devil had already gained a grip on my life at an early age and the later effects of it and the damage in my life!

There are really two things that I want to stress to all of you this morning:

God has a plan for your life!

He has a plan that involves using you right now, right where you are in your life and your current walk with Him and for every day hereafter!

The other thing is this: The devil is going to try to sabotage you and strip you of your walk and relationship with the Lord!

One of his greatest tools and the one that is doing so much damage to the children and the youth, as well as the adults of this generation, is that of sexual sin!

Now, let me say this to you, sexual sins are nothing new and have been around since the the beginning book of the Bible!

Just out of curiosity, what is the beginning book of the Bible?

Who can tell me the books of the Bible?

OK, so my point about sexual sins being nothing new, is that the devil has always used one of the greatest physical blessings that God gave to the marriage between one man and one woman, sex, as a way to allure us from God and a close relationship with God!

If the enemy of our souls (the devil), can divert your mind away from what God created you and I to be and to do, and then fill our mind with skewed, polluted images and ideas that go against God’s created order, then the devil can capture us and effectively lessen, or even shut down our walk with God!

Well

If the enemy of our souls (the devil), can divert your mind away from what God created you and I to be and to do, and then fill our mind with skewed, polluted images and ideas that go against God’s created order, then the devil can capture us and effectively lessen, or even shut down our walk with God!

So, having said that God has a plan for your life and that the devil is trying to sabotage that plan through such things as sexual sins; let me share three very basic Biblical points with you!

First point: EVERYTHING THAT GOD HAS CREATED, HAS A DESIGNED PURPOSE AND REASON! EVERYTHING AND EVERYONE WHO IS, OR WAS, OR EVER WILL BE, HAS A DESIGNED PLAN AND PURPOSE BY GOD!

says, “The LORD has made everything for its purpose, even the wicked for the day of trouble.”

, “I have spoken, and I will bring it to pass; I have purposed, and I will do it.”

EVERYTHING AND EVERYONE HAS A PURPOSE WITH GOD!

Everyone turn to someone around you and say, “I have a purpose” and then say, “You have a purpose!”

Second point: ONLY GOD CAN CREATE! The devil cannot create anything from nothing, as does our God and Father!

tells us, “For by him (talking about Jesus), all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him.

So, the devil takes what God has created and he warps it and changes it into a counterfeit version of what God has made!

Third point: THE DEVIL IS A LIAR! In fact, Jesus, Himself, said this about the devil, “He was a murderer from the beginning. He has always hated the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, it is consistent with his character; for he is a liar and the father of lies.”

tells us, “For by him (talking about Jesus), all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him.

So, the devil takes what God has created and he warps it and changes it into a counterfeit version of what God has made!

You’re probably asking yourself, “why are you telling us this”, right?