His Rules Or House Rules?

God’s game. His rules or House rules?

1. Games. (Scrolled through slides of several games: Life, Monopoly, Uno, etc.)

2. Sorry: Object of the game is to get your four pieces from the start into your home, different cards different instructions, slides (but not your own color), safe zone.

3. The official rules. A set list of how to play the game as the creator of the game intended. Step 1, step 2, step 3. Here’s how you do it. Here’s how you start. Here’s how you play. Here’s how you win.

4. “House” rules. You take the rules and tweak them, or change them to suit your own idea of how to play. (Uno: If someone hits you with a Draw 2 and you have a Draw 2, you can play yours and the next person has to Draw 4, and so on and so on; Monopoly: Free Parking cash (taxes, fines, payments from Chance or Community Chest cards); Sorry: supposed to split seven between two pieces or you can use it as a 1 or 2 and get someone out of the start)

5. Genesis 1:1. God is the creator. All we are. All we see. All the world, and everything in it, belongs to him. It’s not ours. It’s his. And because it’s his, he calls the shots. He makes the rules.

6. J. Vernon McGee quote, "This is God's universe and he does things his way. You may have a better way, but you don't have a universe."

7. God’s sovereignty. Definition of sovereign: a king or other supreme ruler who has ultimate power or authority.

8. Christians choose to live by God’s rules.

• We don’t always understand them (Why …).

• We might not always agree with them (I think …).

• We might not see the wisdom in them (That’s just dumb …).

• The world might say differently than God says (Well that doesn’t make sense to me …).

• But God’s rules are the right rules because they’re His.

9. Craig Groeschel says, “Maybe you think it’s not fair that God created hell, a place of punishment. Maybe you think he shouldn’t have made it eternal. Maybe you’ve thought, ‘You can’t give me desires and then tell me not to do those things.’ We all have different ideas of what God ought to do. You think you know what you’d do if you were God. Great! When you get a universe, do it your way. But for now, this is God’s universe.”

10. Matthew 7:13-14. Why is the way to life small? Why is there only one gate? Why is it so easy to be led to destruction? That’s the way God put things together.

11. He is sovereign. He is wise. His will is perfect. His plan is perfect. If we are going to call ourselves by His name (Christians), we must submit to Him in all things.

12. There are no “house rules” Christians. We don’t get to make up our own rules. They’re given to us, not left up to us.

13. So why do we play by his rules? Because he created the world, he put the stars and the planets into motion, he gave us life, he formed relationships, he created love, he told us how to have a relationship with Him, he loved us to much he gave us Jesus, he knew we’d need him so he gave us the Holy Spirit, he’s smarter than we are and he’s offered us eternal life in Heaven for those who trust him and live for him.

14. Invitation to those who want to “submit” to God’s rules … in order to enjoy the blessings of God’s gifts.