Hi, this is the Common Sense Christian channel, and today I wanted to tell you a story that I believe is one of the best I have ever heard for illustrating one of the passages in the Bible. As a matter of fact, it's actually three different stories, but they all involve lions, and I wanted to start with a passage in 1 Peter chapter 5. It says, Be self controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion. looking for someone to devour. Well, when you think about it, most people today, when they think about the devil, they just don't think of him as being very serious, or maybe I should say they just don't take him very serious, if they believe in him at all. There are some entire religions now that deny the existence of the devil, and yet this is something that Jesus talked about very freely, and the New Testament revealed that, that is very real. And dangerous enemy. And so let's think about that for a moment. We're used to the old cartoon characterizations where you've got one cartoon angel sitting on one shoulder and one cartoon devil sitting on the other. One's encouraging you to do the right thing and one's encouraging you to do the wrong thing. And the one that encourages you to do the wrong thing, well, he's just kind of with it. He's kind of the party guy. He's the one everybody wants to be around. Whereas the angel is always kind of the wet blanket. Well, is this true when it, when it comes to the things that are spiritual, is the devil, somebody who is on our side, who just wants us to have fun, or is he like the scripture describes him? as an enemy, like a prowling lion looking for someone to devour. Well, let's look at that illustration of the lion and get that firmly within our minds so that we'll know what God wants us to take warning of. And I wanted to use three illustrations. I heard these Probably back in 1995. And I've only heard it one time and I've looked for it since and have not been able to find it. But if I recall correctly it was a man by the name of Mike Christensen who told these stories. He was the Bible chair at The University of Wyoming in Laramie at the time, may not have been Mike, it may have been somebody else, but I heard it at a men's retreat up on Casper Mountain. Again it's been nearly 30 years ago now, but it's always stuck with me, and it involved three separate The first involves something that we're all very familiar with if we've ever watched one of those Wild Kingdom programs, and it involved an elk herd in Africa, or an antelope herd in Africa. And, and they were there, and, and as you looked at the herd, you could see they were very cautious. They knew very well they were in lion country and knew that a lion was very capable of killing one of them and taking them off for its dinner. And so, as the, as these antelope were eating, every once in a while you'd see their heads raised, or, or a few of them in different parts of the herd raising their heads and just looking around very carefully. Well, there was one antelope that kind of strayed from the herd just a little bit. You know the kind. He was a young buck. He was full of energy and full of strength. Not a care in the world. And he relied on that energy and strength. And so he's just munching along on the grass and enjoying things, and as the rest of the herd is keeping a watch out for the lions, he's just, he's just eating what he didn't know. was that there was a lion in the tall grass that was watching him, that was stalking him. And it wasn't until just before the lion went into action that the young antelope realized that there was something amiss. And finally his head did shoot up and he started looking around with wide eyes all around, but it was too late. The lion was already halfway to him and the chase was really over before it began. And this young antelope, with not a care in the world and not a caution in the world, wasn't going to live to see another day. The second illustration, as I remember it, involved two wildlife photographers. And, and these two wildlife photographers were on a photographic safari. They were, they were in a, in a vehicle, and they'd come across a lion kill. And it was one of those once in a lifetime opportunities. Because there was an entire pride of lions, a family of lions that had killed something. I'm not sure what the something was that they had killed, but they were busy eating that, just devouring their, their recent kill. And so these two photographers from inside the vehicle were, were taking pictures. And, and finally it became very clear that the lions were not paying any attention to them at all. And so one of the photographers just decided, well, I'll open my door and that way I can, can get, get out a little ways to where the glass isn't between the camera and the lions. And so he opened his door, but again, he's very cautious and he's just kind of peeking over the, the door and he's taking pictures. And, and again, it's just, it's an incredible scene. nature at its rawest. And he's taking picture after picture, and he starts to get distracted from what's going on as far as how dangerous lions can be. And he comes out from behind that door and starts taking pictures. And again, lions don't appear to be paying any attention to him at all. Finally, he just starts walking forward just a little bit to get a little bit closer, and now he's got a clear view, and, and he is getting the pictures of a lifetime. This is something that he's just been waiting for, and this photographer is there at the right place at the right time, or so he thought. Now, a lion. When he eats, at times, will not just satisfy itself with just the meat on the bones. Sometimes it will eat the bones of its victim. And, and we know this because When the lions saw the photographer and the photographer as he was looking through the lens, realized that they saw him. It is too late. A lion can move about a hundred feet in, in about a little less than two seconds that a basketball court's about 90 feet. So if you're standing under the basket on one side and you see a lion coming, by the time you've gone 1,001 a thousand. Before you get to two, that lion's gonna have you. It's gonna be too late. Lions are very fast, they're very swift, and they're very powerful. And these lions caught this photographer before he got back to the vehicle. And his friend, sat in the vehicle, and the reason that we know that lions will sometimes eat even the bones is because we have photographic evidence of this from the friend who sat in the vehicle and and got the shoot of his lifetime. The third incident My understanding is somewhere back, maybe early 1900s in Africa, and it's, it's a park ranger or, or a wildlife ranger one of the very earliest ones. Either, either a game warden or he's, he's a big game hunter. I can't really remember the exact details on this one, but what I do remember is he was on horseback and he was riding through lion country and he knew he was riding through lion country. He had a powerful rifle in one hand. He was holding the reins of his horse in the other and he had a big knife strapped to his hip. And as he was riding along on this familiar trail, he was scanning both sides of the trail. looking for the possibility of lions lurking in the grass. The point is, he was ready, and he was looking, and he was not incautious. He wasn't inexperienced. He was on his guard, and he was prepared, or so he thought, because what he didn't realize was that on both sides of the trail was a lion, and by the time the horse alerted, its rider to the potential danger. It was too late. One lion hit the front of that horse at the same time the other lion hit the back of that horse and they spun that horse. And when they did, the, the, the the game warden fell to the ground and he lost consciousness. And he said, as he told this story later on, that when he finally came to, it was with a searing pain in his shoulder. And as he opened his eyes, it was to the horror of being drugged by a lion into the jungle. Well, the, the man was able, had lost his rifle. But he was able to locate his knife, and he had a, he had a very close up view of this lion's ribcage as it was dragging him backwards into the brush. And, and this, this game warden was able to get that knife off of his hip, and he was able to see about the right spot, and he started plunging his knife into the ribcage. of that lion and was able to kill him was able to to escape and live to tell the tale and so Think about these three stories and think about what they mean in relationship to this verse Let me read this verse again. It's found in first peter chapter 5 Verse 8. 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, because you know that your brothers throughout the world are undergoing the same kinds of suffering. Well, we're told that the devil is like a prowling lion, that he is our enemy and that we're to resist him. And you think about these three examples. You start with the antelope, and sometimes we're like that young, inexperienced antelope. If we have any concept of Satan at all, it's a very light view of him, maybe not even a serious view of him. We're young. We're, what, 10 feet tall and bulletproof. We're, we're absolutely impenetrable and we don't worry about things and because of that inexperience, we become very easy prey for the devil, our enemy. And he's going to get us when we are not paying attention, which is pretty easy because sometimes when we're young and we're inexperienced, we're not paying much attention. Most of the time in the second instance, there are times where we realize that the devil is real and we are on guard. We, we do we do take him seriously. But still, at times, we just get too close to him. Rather than trying to stay as far away from him as possible, sometimes we'll just kind of creep forward. And we'll get comfortable with being close to the devil, because nothing's happened yet. And then the next thing we know when our guard is down too much, that's when our enemy springs into action and we become lion food. The third example, maybe the, maybe the category you fall in into, I hope, I hope it is. But remember in the third example, we have somebody who is experienced. We have somebody who is cautious. We have somebody who is on guard and yet the attack still comes and he's in for the fight of his life. And there will be times like that when, when, when you are at your, maybe your weakest, and even though you're on guard, even though you're alert to the fact that Satan is a real enemy, you still are subject to his attacks. And if you're not willing to put up a fight, if you're not willing to resist him, you too are going to become food for the lion. And, and God doesn't want that of any of us. That's one of the reasons he gives us the warning. What was it Jesus said? If you'll resist the devil, he will flee from you. And remember, Jesus knew very well what he was talking about, because Jesus was in the wilderness and he was tempted. by the devil. He was there for 40 days. We're told that the devil came to Jesus at his weakest moment after he'd been fasting and without water for many days. And that's when the, his enemy, the devil came. And he didn't come in the form of an enemy, did he? Why don't you make some food? Why don't you submit yourself to me and I'll make sure that you have everything you've ever dreamed of. Why don't you show me who you really are? Are you afraid? Was the essential message. And that's very much how he comes at us today. Think of a, think of a teenager when they've been invited to a party, but they know better. They, they don't, they know that they really shouldn't be drinking alcohol. Not only is it illegal, but, but, But they've been warned of some of the effects of the alcohol. True, it can make you feel giddy and lightheaded and it can be fun for a while, but there's always the hangover the next morning, isn't there? And very often there is the problem with the things that you do that night that you are so ashamed of, not just the next morning, but sometimes for the rest of your life. There have been many, many people who, because of their inexperience, have gotten themselves in situations that have absolutely changed their life, maybe even taken the life of others. We need to make sure that we're on guard against these types of things. And there will be times where our friends will say, when they're inviting us, when we're young, what are you afraid? Are you a baby? Well, none of us wants to act like we're a coward. None of us wants to be a baby. So very often we'll give in. Usually we'll live to regret it. There are so many times in our life where, where we just kind of let our guard down just for a moment. And again, it's usually at a weak point. We're either going through something very difficult or we're so busy that we're just not paying attention. And, and we drift farther and farther away from God, and we drift closer and closer to our enemy, the devil. And before we know it, because we have dropped our guard, we become very vulnerable at that point. And again, there are the times where we are just attacked out of the blue. It's not that we weren't expecting an attack. It's not that we didn't believe that Satan really was an enemy. It's just that he gets us at times most unexpected. And, and so we need to be continually alert and continually on our guard. And we remember, we need to remember that we need to stand firm. It's that idea of resisting the devil and he'll flee from you. Well, if a lion's coming and attacking you and you resist him, not very often is he going to run away from you, but the devil will. Why? Because you're standing firm in the faith. And when you're standing firm in the faith, You have the protection of God and you can take these temptations or you can, you can prevent yourself from yielding to these temptations. Not that they aren't difficult. Don't think for a moment that the temptations that Satan offered to Jesus were not very difficult to turn down. Otherwise it wouldn't have been a temptation, but Jesus being aware of Jesus being prepared, Jesus standing firm in the faith was able. After the time of temptation was over to just tell Satan, get behind me. And Satan did. We need to have that type of faith in God. We need to rely on his protection, but we also need to do our part to take stand. And so here is a question for you. Which category do you find yourself in? Are you young and inexperienced in the faith? You need to start gaining some wisdom and you need to start gaining some caution because you're, you're very much vulnerable at this point. Are you, are you subject to, to letting your guard down from time to time? You try to be faithful in reading the word, you try to be faithful in prayer, you try to be faithful in worshiping on the first day of the week, but there are just times where life happens. And, and it catches up to you. And, and so instead of remaining firm in the faith, you just kind of waver just a little bit, you let your guard down just a little bit, or you're in danger in that category as well. But if you are like the game warden, if you're aware that, that Satan is a very real. persona, that he is very much your enemy, that he has never been your friend, that he seeks the destruction of your soul. Why? Who knows? But he hates you. But you're aware of that. And you're aware that even when there are times of difficulty in life, trials in life, that if you'll just stand firm, if you'll just yield not to temptation. If you'll resist the devil, then at some point he will flee from you because God will be your protection. The encouragement in this lesson is even though we're in for the fight of our life, sometimes it doesn't have to end in our death. We can stand the battle if we're with God or if God is with us, but we have to be alert. We have to be aware and, and we have to stand firm in the faith. That's it for today. I, I, it was an interesting story when I heard it again, it's been nearly 30 years since I've heard it, and even though I can't remember who told it, I certainly can remember the details of it. It's been something that really made an impression upon me. And I've thought about a lot through the years and I thought maybe it would be interesting for you as well to give you something to think about and I hope, hope you will. That's it for today. We're going to end there, but I appreciate so much for tuning in. If this helped you do me a favor and hit the like button. It'll get it out to more people. And if you have somebody in your life that you'd like to share it with that you think might help them, then, then do that as well. But until next time, I pray that God will richly bless you as you seek to serve him to the very best of your ability