1. Read Matthew 16:21-24. What stands out to you?
2. List some “things of men” that influence you.
3. Why do these influence you?
4. When do the things of men and Satan’s interests align?
For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it. What good will it be for a man if gains the whole world, yet forfeits his soul?
5. What does the above verse mean to you, personally? Today?

“And now, the end is here and so I face the final curtain. My friend, I’ll say it clear, I’ll state my case, of which I’m certain. I’ve lived a life that’s full; I traveled each and every highway. And more, much more than this, I did it my way.”

I’ve never been much of a Sinatra guy because, 1) He’s way before my generation, 2) I’m not a fan of anything New York 3) I’m not Italian (though I sure do like Italian food) and 4) I don’t have blue eyes. Not that those are any prerequisites. But I just never identified with him much. (Maybe also because his real name was Francis, which was my grandmother’s middle name, and I didn’t think that was very manly).

There’s a strong correlation between our likes and our plans and the things with which we identify. Peter obviously identified himself with Jesus — or at least with what Jesus had going on during his three years of earthly ministry. One day late into that effort, Peter announced Jesus was the Christ, the son of God. Jesus acknowledged the statement, saying it was God who’d revealed that to Peter. That probably stroked Pete’s ego a little. He probably thought, hey, this guy’s about to establish something big here on this real estate. Forget the fishing business–I’ll leave that to my brother-in-law for good–I’m putting all my stock in this Jesus guy and the kingdom he’s about to build.

But then, just a few verses later, Jesus says something different. Something about him having to suffer, die and then raising again on the third day… Whatever all that meant, it didn’t line up with Pete’s plans. “No way, Jose–or son of Jose, rather,” Peter told Jesus. “I’m not going to let that happen. I’ve invested time here with you. You’ve got an empire to conquer, a new kingdom to create. We’re doing it my way!”

And then Jesus said something that made it sound like Peter identified not with Jesus, but with… Satan?

Here’s what we discussed at our table:

1. Several different things stood out: Peter’s boldness in rebuking Jesus, Jesus calling him out so harshly, Jesus pointing out the things of men–the stuff we prioritize with our limited view of things instead of seeking the things of God, Peter–whose name meant “the rock”–being called a different kind of stone–one that causes people to stumble instead of being a foundation on which the church would be built.
2. Fear. Pain–we have more fear of having to endure painful circumstances rather than dying itself. Personal peace and comfort–as a society, we are so addicted to being comforted and entertained with our lifestyles (a Western/American phenomenon). Providing for ourselves. Disappointing our friends and family. The list just went on and on! Or maybe a is more appropriate.
3. Because our eyes are not fixed on Jesus. We succumb to the mind games thrown our direction that distract us from focusing on the things of God. None of these things sustain us, but we get caught up in our emotions and think we’re missing out on something, causing those fruitless pursuits to influence our lives. That fruit in the garden still causes fruitlessness with us today.
4. When don’t they?!?! It doesn’t take much to get us off God’s will. Just a slight nudge, and then we’re off to others’ interests.
5. That our calling is counterintuitive to the world’s way of thinking. We must empty ourselves, pouring out our interests and filling ourselves up with what God wants. We must decrease, He must increase. We must not be of this world, but we must be in it, sharing God’s mercy, grace and love to those who have the things of men in mind.

Can you imagine what life might look like today if Peter had done it his way? If he’d followed Frank Sinatra’s ode to opting for the things of men–that stuff that we want, because we think we know better?

Sinatra’s song ends with a very interesting, very stubborn proclamation: “For what is a man, what has he got? If not himself, then he has naught. To say the things he truly feels and not the words of one who kneels. The record shows I took the blows and did it my way! Yes, it was my way….”

As for me, I’ll gladly kneel before the One on the throne. As tough as it is, I’ll have “naught” in order to take up my cross and follow the Chairman of the Board (Universe, that is). I’ll ditch Burger King’s like-minded motto and opt for another one of Sinatra’s song lines: “I want to be a part of it…” God’s will, that is.

This concludes our 5th Dimension series–thanks for being a part!

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UNC meets weekly at the Atlanta Bread Company in Cumming GA. Each Friday, the morning’s opening talk is posted to the blog. Don’t forget, you can easily subscribe to our RSS feed.

Also, you can subscribe to our Podcast in iTunes. Start iTunes, enter the iTunes Store, and search for “UNC Friday Morning”.

“Get behind me Satan…

 …you do not have in mind the things of God but the things of men.” 

Jesus pointed these words at Peter, His loyal friend and follower.

This same Peter who had confessed Jesus as the Christ now protested Messiah’s mission.  

From that time on Jesus began to explain to his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life.

Peter wanted nothing of it.  The getting killed thing wasn’t on his agenda.  

Pictures formed in Peter’s mind of a world without Jesus.         

“What will become of me?  I have everything riding on this guy.”   

Peter stood witness to a head on collision between two ideas, both involving Jesus.

Idea #1: Jesus marches into Jerusalem and takes control with Peter by his side.

Idea #2:  Jesus suffers and dies.

“Ummm….  I’ll take Door #1.”

The pictures Satan planted conjured hope inside this age.  But hope inside this age is fleeting, Peter found. You can either attach your hope to this age or to Jesus…  but you cannot do both.

This age exalts the things of men.  And, the things of men do not suffer the Cross of Christ…  

The things of men tether themselves to the now.  The things of God stretch Eternal.

The things of men are about delaying death.  The things of God are about extending life.

The things of men are driven by fear.  The things of God are forged in faith.

Had the things of men prevailed upon Jesus, Jesus would not have prevailed against death.

Talk about the ultimate deceit…….! Take scripture….add or subtract a couple words here and there…or maybe take it out of context and presto…..the devil can slip “twisted” scripture right under your radar and have you believing what you heard was the truth!  This is what Satan did with Jesus when he tempted him after 40 days and 40 nights in the desert.  Could Jesus really trust God to sustain him?  Would He provide the necessary sustenance that Jesus needed?

As it turns out…it was the Word of God that Jesus “ate” that sustained him.  And every time Satan tried to appeal to any possible weaknesses that Jesus might have…. Jesus countered with the Truth.   And so can we!

Here’s what we discussed at our table:

1.)  Do you ever doubt that God will sustain you?  When and Why?

Yes, when we don’t fully trust Him.  When we start believing Satan’s lies! Because we base our view of God on our circumstances rather than on who He is and who we are in Christ.

2.)  What does provision look like to you?

Provision can cover the whole range from basic necessities like food and shelter to the extravagant desires of caviar and multiple mansions.  It depends on whether or not God is God in our lives or if some “idol” has taken his place.  This is a reflection on where we are in our spiritual development i.e.  the condition of our hearts and whether or not we think we are in control.

3.)  How has God provided for you this week?  What role did you play?

Yes, but when we cut through all of the layers of “me-me-me” what we discovered is that all we really have is our “next breath”!  In other words, God provides us with everything but we still need to do our part i.e. till the soil.

4.)  Read Genesis 3:14-23 out loud.  What stands out to you?

God said….and so it is.  Cursed…..the serpent and the ground( woman and man were judged).  God said “…man has become like one of us…..” This is plural and alludes to the Trinity.  Death became man’s ultimate consequence.  Man was banished from the garden but not abandoned.

5.)  What do we learn about God from this text?

God controls everything. Disobedience has consequences(sometimes long term). God is just. God is merciful…..he let Adam and Eve live!  Eventhough Man would have to work hard (judgment), he would be able to produce food that would sustain him (grace).  Inspite of their sin, God provided clothing to cover their shame. God loves us…always.

The devil quotes Scripture, too…

                                                             …just ask Jesus. 

The devil led him to Jerusalem and had him stand on the highest point in the temple.  “If you are the Son of God,” he said, “throw yourself down from here.  For it is written: 

“‘He will command his angels concerning you to guard you carefully; they will lift you up in their hands , so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.’” 

The words were right, but the meaning was wrong.

Way wrong.

Satan left out an important phrase, the words ”in all your ways.”  

Satan twisted the truth.  He does that a lot.  He pulls  truth to a place where its meaning is inverted.

To that place where truth becomes… a lie.

Lies are not always contradictions of truth.  Often, lies are obfuscationsof truth.

In this case, God’s words described His faithful provision.  Satan leveraged these into an intimation that God does not faithfully provide.   

Jesus retained within His divine nature the ability to provide for Himself.  But He didn’t.  He relied upon the Father for sustenance and pursued faithfulness over fulfillment.   

This is where Satan aimed his temptation.  He sought to convince Jesus to short cut the Cross, that He should rule men in glory without first suffering. 

Ruling was Jesus’ birthright, after all.  

Suffering was optional.  

Easy call.  

The same lie Satan pitched to Jesus hovers before you today.  Its power flows from your agreement that you can accomplish noble ends by ignoble means.  

You cannot.

Nobility derives from an abiding trust in the  One True God.  

So often, Satan dangles a  solution within arm’s reach.  Too often, we stretch for it as our ancestors stretched for the fruit in Eden. 

Jesus came to undo Eden.  His mission carried Him into a direct confrontation with Satan in the Desert of Sin.

We can learn from Jesus’ Desert days.  

Jesus battled our enemy with the Truth of God said and an abiding Trust in His Person.  

These same weapons avail themselves to us today.  If we’re going to reach, we should reach for these.

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UNC meets weekly at the Atlanta Bread Company in Cumming GA. Each Friday, the morning’s opening talk is posted to the blog. Don’t forget, you can easily subscribe to our RSS feed.

Also, you can subscribe to our Podcast in iTunes. Start iTunes, enter the iTunes Store, and search for “UNC Friday Morning”.

Click the ‘play’ button below to listen.

(If you cannot see the audio controls below, click the title of this post to refresh. Flash Player is required, click here to download.)

UNC meets weekly at the Atlanta Bread Company in Cumming GA. Each Friday, the morning’s opening talk is posted to the blog. Don’t forget, you can easily subscribe to our RSS feed.

Also, you can subscribe to our Podcast in iTunes. Start iTunes, enter the iTunes Store, and search for “UNC Friday Morning”.

But if you try sometimes, you might find, you get what you need… Ah, yeah…

Not that I have a thing for the Rolling Stones since this is the second time they’ve been referenced here, but it just seemed to fit with what we discussed this morning. What we want is life to be happy, shiny, profitable, pleasing, easy and fun. Is it ever that way for you? Even in the slightest? Chances are, even on our very best day when our sports team wins, our wives tell us we’re awesome, we get to eat steak, someone else mows the lawn, our kids listen to everything we say, Ed McMahon rings our door bell with a giant cardboard check in tow and we shoot an 18 on the golf course, something bad’s going to happen. When the going’s great, it’s easy to offer up the “God is great, God is good” kind of praise. But what happens when, to just be blunt, life starts to suck? You lose your job, your wife gets cancer, you kid becomes a prodigal, you lose your job, your retirement evaporates in the span of 30 market sessions?

Is it really true, you can’t always get what you want, but you do get what you need? After the set up (listen to the podcast if you didn’t hear it!), this is what we dove into at our table:

1. Do you ever doubt God is good? If so, when and why?
2. Do you see a connection between your expectations and your confidence in God’s goodness? Explain.
3. Read the verse below out loud. What stands out to you?
“The serpent said to the woman, ‘You surely will not die! For God knows that in the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.’”
4. What strategy did Satan deploy immediately before he accused God of sinister intent?
5. Look at the circumstances immediately surrounding the woman. Did these bear witness to God’s goodness or not? Explain.
6. Do you every have difficulty reconciling what God said to what you see? Explain.

1. As much as we’d all like to say never, if we’re completely honest, there are times when we momentarily let that though creep into our minds. It happens when we get caught up in our circumstances, whenever something bad happens–really bad, like innocent children becoming headlines on the eleven o’clock news because some monster did something to them or hearing about missionaries overseas being killed for their faith, or whenever justice doesn’t come through. Or on a very personal level, something affects those we love that’s just downright not fair. These things happen when we do trust in Him completely, and fail to see His big picture.
2. Absolutely–where is our hope? If we trust in His grace being sufficient, then that impacts both our expectations and confidence. One guy said that if we don’t put our confidence in the cross alone, and God’s goodness in the form of grace that came from that, then the only expectations we can really have is putting ourselves in the position of having to pay for our transgressions. Several guys said that at the time, we don’t always see the connection, but it’s often on the other side of things, like a Monday Morning Quarterback.
3. What stood out for most of us was the craftiness of the serpent: there’s a little bit of truth in what he said. They were like God, in that they did come to knew good and evil–only he didn’t really tell them what evil fully meant. And the “surely you will not die part”… did they know what dying really meant? Of course, taking the fruit was sin, and we know that the wages of sin is death. But one guy brought up an interesting concept–surely, they (mankind) wouldn’t die, like the serpent said… if they are followers of Christ–in that regard, we don’t truly die forever.
4. The serpent made them think that they were missing out on something… like that alluring image we see on TV or our comptuer screen. He got them away from their basic needs… like the upgrades for which we mortgage our lives away because we just have to have it (like, my current cell phone is just fine … so do I keep trying to convince my wife I need an i-Phone?). He made them think they deserved something … like, oh, insert your own thing here. Basically, he put the focus on themselves instead of God. We all said we pretty much do this every day.
5. They were in paradise. They had all they needed. There was no shame. They experienced God fully–literally conversed with Him. All their needs were provided. Yeah, we all said the circumstances pretty much bore out that God was good–especially the way He handled their sin afterward, providing them what they needed afterward despite the consequences. We also talked about what it was like from Eve’s perspective, her rationale given what she may or may not have known.
6. Only when we put our levels of content and trust in something other than Him.

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UNC meets weekly at the Atlanta Bread Company in Cumming GA. Each Friday, the morning’s opening talk is posted to the blog. Don’t forget, you can easily subscribe to our RSS feed.

Also, you can subscribe to our Podcast in iTunes. Start iTunes, enter the iTunes Store, and search for “UNC Friday Morning”.

[Y]ou will be like God…” 

The fantastic irony in the serpent’s statement is that God created us in His image.  He designed us to reflect His glory.  We, like Him, are moral and eternal, stacked with the ability to choose and the capacity to trust.

It is these the serpent sighted.  Satan took aim at the image we reflect and the choice we possess.

Choice sat between what God said and what the woman saw.  Into this gap slithered the serpent with a promise for change.

Freedom of choice is the freedom to trust.  We attach our trust where we perceive the greater good.  Will  we trust God or will we trust our eyes?

Consider the woman’s plight in Eden.  Surrounded on every side by all that God had made - all He declared to be “good”.  Good, because the creation flowed from the core of His being.  Good, because He is True to His Word.

Into the epicenter of God’s goodness the serpent slipped an alternative  - a thing called “evil”.

“…knowing good and evil.”

The woman already knew good.  She held that in portfolio.  It was evilthe serpent offered, a temptation to another good in service to another god.

The serpent convinced the woman that God was holding back, that there was more to be had should she simply switch teams.  This same temptation befalls us today.  If you hear nothing else, savor this:

Temptation prevails when you do not believe that God is good or that His Word is true.

How often does the truth of your moment conflict with the Truth of Eternal God?  How often does temptation entice you to exchange the Truth you know for the truth you see?

Here, between what God said and what you see, you must make a choice.  The same choice our ancestors made in Eden.

You must decide, “Is God good?”