Sermon Central
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This Could Be The Start Of Something Big: Victim Or Victor? Series
Contributed by Johnny Creasong on Mar 24, 2010 (message contributor)
Summary: Lions roar to induce their victims to freeze in fear before the attack! Satan is like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour! Will you be his next victim?
This Could Be the Start of Something Big: Victim or Victor?
7 Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.
8 Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.
9 Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that your brothers throughout the world are undergoing the same kind of sufferings.
10 And the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast.
11 To him be the power for ever and ever. Amen.
(NIV)
Lions, in their prime are amazing predator's. They prowl and lie in wait for prey. Then without warning they will rush out of hiding, silently, swiftly catching and killing their victim.
Young and old lions have something in common. They have a problem taking down their prey. When a lion is young it has small claws, short teeth and is really quite awkward. They have a very difficult time chasing down prey and catching it. And once they do manage to catch something they usually have a difficult time killing it.
Old lions suffer the opposite end of the lifecycle. They are slow and weak, have lost their teeth and claws and are unable to pursue and take down prey.
These two must rely on a different style of attack to survive. They also prowl and lie in wait, But then must rush at their prey and ROAR! This is what they have in common, to be able to take prey they must roar. Sounds fairly innocuous, however, it is how they survive.
The part that is amazing is that they know by instinct they can frighten their prey into submission, so that they can easily catch and kill it.
Lions roar to induce their victims to freeze in fear before the attack!
8 The lion has roared-- who will not fear?
(NIV)
God has not designed you to be a victim, but victorious!
7 For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.
(NKJ)
How NOT to become prey:
Be self-controlled and alert!
8 Be self-controlled and alert.
Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion
looking for someone to devour.
(NIV)
The most famous lion tamer in the Bible was Daniel. Daniel became a lion tamer because he did know how to control himself. His self-control caught the attention of the King.
Dan 6:3
3 Now Daniel so distinguished himself among the administrators and the satraps by his exceptional qualities that the king planned to set him over the whole kingdom.
(NIV)
And Daniel’s self-control unleashed the first lion he would have to tame – JEALOUSY!
Dan 6:4-5
4 At this, the administrators and the satraps tried to find grounds for charges against Daniel in his conduct of government affairs, but they were unable to do so. They could find no corruption in him, because he was trustworthy and neither corrupt nor negligent.
5 Finally these men said, "We will never find any basis for charges against this man Daniel unless it has something to do with the law of his God."
(NIV)
Dan 6:7
7 The royal administrators, prefects, satraps, advisers and governors have all agreed that the king should issue an edict and enforce the decree that anyone who prays to any god or man during the next thirty days, except to you, O king, shall be thrown into the lions' den.
(NIV)
Dan 6:10
10 Now when Daniel learned that the decree had been published, he went home to his upstairs room where the windows opened toward Jerusalem. Three times a day he got down on his knees and prayed, giving thanks to his God, just as he had done before.
(NIV)
Dan 6:13-23
13 Then they said to the king, "Daniel, who is one of the exiles from Judah, pays no attention to you, O king, or to the decree you put in writing. He still prays three times a day."
14 When the king heard this, he was greatly distressed; he was determined to rescue Daniel and made every effort until sundown to save him.
15 Then the men went as a group to the king and said to him, "Remember, O king, that according to the law of the Medes and Persians no decree or edict that the king issues can be changed."
16 So the king gave the order, and they brought Daniel and threw him into the lions' den. The king said to Daniel, "May your God, whom you serve continually, rescue you!"
