06-18-2023 Prowling Like a Lion (1 Peter 5:8-9)

Prowling Like a Lion 1 Peter 5:8-9 Two Truths Concerning the Devil: • I believe in the devil because Jesus believed in the devil. • The devil's end goal is to spread death. John 8:44 You are of your father the devil, and you want to carry out your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he tells a lie, he speaks from his own nature, because he is a liar and the father of lies. There is a devil. diabolos- to slander, to accuse, "The Accuser" Genesis 3:1-7 1 Now the serpent was the most cunning of all the wild animals that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You can’t eat from any tree in the garden’?” 2 The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat the fruit from the trees in the garden. 3 But about the fruit of the tree in the middle of the garden, God said, ‘You must not eat it or touch it, or you will die.’” 4 “No! You will certainly not die,” the serpent said to the woman. 5 “In fact, God knows that when you eat it your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” 6 The woman saw that the tree was good for food and delightful to look at, and that it was desirable for obtaining wisdom. So she took some of its fruit and ate it; she also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. 7 Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves. "Did God really say...?" "...you will be like God..." Two statements that delve into the very core of the devil's deception: 1) to remove God's rule over your life 2) to redfine good and evil based on ourselves over trusting the will of God These statements lead us to three questions: Who is God? (or the gods? or is there a God or gods?) Who are we? How do we live? Or to say in another way: What role does God play in my purpose? What does it mean to be human? What is a life of meaning? John 6:32-51 John 8:30-41 John 6:37 Everyone the Father gives me will come to me, and the one who comes to me I will never cast out. John 8:42-45 How are we transformed into the image of the Son? We are transformed by the Holy Spirit and living in the truth. A life of isolation and lies deform us into the image of the devil.