God vs. World part 1

I am going to be posting a short series of lessons that I am teaching in AWANA right now. These are just notes. They are here for me to reference more than anything else. It is possible that I might teach this lesson again one day or that someone might want to take and use something in it. Mostly I just want it documented somewhere and I tend to lose things on my computers...

Watch this video and pray partcular attention to the lyrics.

Pray for You - Jaron and The Long Road to Love from Jaron and The Long Road to Love on Vimeo.

Ok, lets examine this song for a minute. It makes you laugh cause you think this guy is going to forgive and pray for this girl who hurt his heart, but then turns out he’s praying that bad things will happen. It’s meant to be a funny song and its easy to just laugh and move on when you hear it, but lets stop and REALLY think about this song.

What is the message of this song?

Tell me what is wrong or unbiblical about this song.

“He wants her to be hurt”
“He isn’t forgiving”
“He is misusing Biblical principles”
“He is angry”
“He is prideful”

This song is so typical of our sinful hearts.

The heart is:

-deceitful and desperately wicked (Jeremiah 17:9)

-every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was evil all the time (Gen
6:5)

-every inclination of his heart is evil from childhood (Gen 8:21)

We must understand that left to ourselves (without Jesus) our hearts are wicked and without hope. From birth it is our nature to rebel against God.

It’s really easy to hear this song and laugh and say, yeah that’s how a lot of people feel. We need to realize that messages like this get fed into our heads every single day.

What is our hearts nature without Christ? (desperately wicked, every inclination of our hearts is evil all the time, evil from childhood)

And so if this is true of every human heart then what do you think the “world” is going to teach you?

(And when I say “world” I am speaking about the concerns of people in the world. Anything that is opposite of God’s way.)

At schools?
On TV?
Our friends?
Magazines?
Commercials?
Music?
Movies?
Other Christians (we all still sin)?


God’s way is so different from man’s way.

The World says: it’s ok to hate those who have done wrong things to you

God says: love your enemies

The World says: get even

God says: forgive

The World says: Do what you need to do to get ahead

God says: give of yourself

The World says: Spend every moment of your life on what makes you happy –worship yourself

God says: give every moment of your life to me as worship

I heard this quote a long time ago and thought it was pretty accurate:

“Whatever the great majority is doing, on any given circumstance,
if you do the opposite, you will probably never make another mistake in your life.”

So we have a decision (and it is not as easy as it sounds):

Do we do what everyone else is doing or do we follow Jesus?

Why do you think so many people chose to do their own thing (not follow Jesus) ?

A: It’s easier. Or they don’t know about God’s laws

I want us to spend the rest of this time focusing on answering this one question. In the following weeks we are going to answer some different ones relating to following God in a sinful world.

“If our hearts are so wicked, how do we make them stop wanting the best for ourselves and start wanting to obey God?”

A: We cannot make our hearts want to follow God:

If fact, the Bible says that the message of the cross is nonsense to those who don’t know him.

1 Cor. 1:18-30 “For the message about the cross is nonsense to those who are being destroyed, but it is God's power to us who are being saved.”

Remember that every inclination of our heart is evil --even from childhood. There is nothing in us that will turn around and want to worship God. We cannot see the truth unless God opens our eyes and reveals himself to us in our heart.

God chooses us.
You did not choose me, but I chose you .... (John 15:16)

This word choose in the Greek means:
1) to pick out, choose, to pick or choose out for one's self
a) choosing one out of many, i.e. Jesus choosing his disciples

Romans 8:28-30 “And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them. For God knew his people in advance, and he chose them to become like his Son, so that his Son would be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters. And having chosen them, he called them to come to him. And having called them, he gave them right standing with himself. And having given them right standing, he gave them his glory.”

...God who called you into fellowship with his Son Jesus Christ our Lord, is faithful. ” (1 Cor. 1:8)

After he calls you he gives you a gift.

But what does God give to those who He calls?

“I will give them hearts that recognize me as the LORD. They will be my people, and I will be their God, for they will return to me wholeheartedly.” Jeremiah 24:7

God gives them the ability to recognize that He is God.

Now, even though we know he is God, sometimes that still isn’t enough to make me want to obey God. It is foolishness for me to not want to obey God.

And what is the opposite of foolishness?

A: Wisdom.

“If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him. James 1:5

God will give us wisdom and with wisdom we will see the value in obedience to God and are more likely to obey him.