Lion Chaser - How do you chase after those things that most people run from? Can you believe that God wants you to do some amazing things...if only instead of running - you’ll take chase.
We’ve been looking at a guy named Beniah who had some pretty amazing feats - most notably he chased a lion into a pit on a snowy day and he killed it.
You know if you asked Beniah - I think he’d tell you that the greatest experiences, usually are the scariest.
Most fears aren’t rational...
Scream story (This is a story about a scary ride that my wife and I went on at Fiesta Texas)
1 Peter 5:8 - says “Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Resist him, standing firm in the faith...”
James 4:7 - says, “Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.”
The devil - the enemy really only has two tricks - Fear is one; failure is the other...
For me - I don’t climb chain link fences. I used to. I remember as a boy that I could climb anything. We had a chain link fence around a playground at our church - One of the games we played with vigor, was tag. I was being chased one night by Tina. We were running all over the place and I headed to the playground, but instead of going through the gate, I decided to hop the fence. It wasn’t a tall fence. I’d done it a million times, but this time I caught a piece of the fence and I got snagged.
Some of you had a failure in a relationship that sort of snagged you...
Rejection is that way - it doesn’t take much for us to begin to believe that we can never do something...
I think we are given some tools by the way:
Authority we have in Christ (story of Jesus in the wilderness - he quoted scripture)
Prayer - prayer allows us to see things from God’s perspective
Worship - worship is when we offer ourselves to God - we submit to him...
Purity - stand firm, resist - learn to live in purity and you never give the enemy an inch...
Grace! The story of Peter...
