LESSON 2 IDOLS WE NEVER KNEW WE HAD— SUCCESS We all want to win. We all want validation in life. Why? Who hasn’t played a board game or party game with a supposed grown-up who, when she performs poorly, whines, complains, and pouts like a baby? Subtly, loss communicates to this person that she hasn’t learned enough in this life to be considered “smart.” We’ve played softball with the middle-aged guy who takes things WAY too seriously and is an embarrassment to everyone present. Subtly, loss communicates to this guy that he’s slowing down, deteriorating, and maybe never was quite as good as he thought, that (at least in his own mind) he’s a loser and maybe always has been a loser. These may be simplistic examples, but this desire for success exists in more complex forms that are very real in many of our lives. Every human assumes success should be part of his or her world. Perhaps this is a holdover from creation, where prosperity, abundance, and satisfaction were the norm. But, with the world’s collapse into sin, this is no longer the case. We really have a hard time believing that in this world the evil ultimately outweighs the good. But it’s true. That’s why we all eventually die. That’s also why God eventually will destroy this planet in its current form. The only reason God preserves it for now is for the sake of his people, whom Scripture calls the “salt (that is, preservative) of the earth” (Matthew 5:13).
Matthew 16:21-26 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, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life. 22 Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. “Never, Lord!” he said. “This
shall never happen to you!” 23 Jesus turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling
block to me; you do not have in mind the concerns of God, but merely human concerns.” © 2016 Northwestern Publishing House. All rights reserved. Reprinted by permission.
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