[Podcast] Who’s Plan For Your Life?

Heroes01

LIfegroup discussion questions after the jump!

If you are the life group discussion leader this week, make sure everyone in your group opens this page on their mobile device. Have everyone take turns reading/asking questions. Remind everyone that these questions are based on this past week’s message, so they can always be prepared by listening on Sunday, or to the podcast, linked above.

Okay, we all know that God has a plan for our lives…

But so does Satan.

He wants to steal you out from the authority line of God. His only objective is to rob God of His Glory, and the best way for him to do that is to target us. The enemy lures us out from the authority of God, and causes us to DISAGREE with God, and to side with the devil in an overthrow attempt.  Don’t deny it.. This strategy has worked on you.  It has worked on me.  We’ve fallen for that snake’s plan.  More than once.  So, what do we do now?

Satan wants us to COVER

So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate. Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths.
-Genesis 3:6-7

Fig leaves. What good are those? How foolish it must have seemed to God that they would use such a fragile means of covering themselves. I almost think God chuckled. Foolish, yes. But, at the time, I bet it seemed so clever to Adam and Eve.

Sort of like that old pastor’s story…

A man was stopped on a beach by a wildlife officer and issued a fine for taking lobsters without a license. “What do you mean?” the man said. “I didn’t break the law. These two lobsters are my pets. I’m just taking them for a walk.” “You don’t really expect me to believe that do you?” asked the officer. “It’s true” protested the man. “They go in for a swim, and when I whistle they come back.” “Really?” said the officer. “Let’s see it then.” So the man throws the lobsters into the water and off they swim. “OK” says the officer. “Now let’s hear you whistle for your lobsters to come back.” “Lobsters?” asked the man. “What lobsters?”

Clever. But how far can cleverness really get us?

But your iniquities have separated you from your God; your sins have hidden his face from you….
-Isaiah 59:2

Whoever conceals their sins does not prosper, but the one who confesses and renounces them finds mercy.
-Prov 28:13

God wants us to CONFESS

Confession is not just admitting a wrong.. It is agreeing with God that He is right, and we are wrong… That HE is the King, and we want to be part of His Kingdom.  Confession is stepping back across the line of faith and trusting that God’s word is true.

Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed.
-James 5:16

When I refused to confess my sin, my body wasted away, and I groaned all day long.
Day and night your hand of discipline was heavy on me. My strength evaporated like water in the summer heat.
Interlude
Finally, I confessed all my sins to you and stopped trying to hide my guilt. I said to myself, “I will confess my rebellion to the Lord.”
And you forgave me! All my guilt is gone.
-Psalm 32:3-5

If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 10 If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.
-1 John 1:8-9

Is it easier for me to practice cleverness, or confession?  Is it more natural for me to cover, or to come clean?