Who's In Control?

Do you know what this is? Sure you do. It is a remote control. Some of you may have a TV that has a remote control. When you are watching TV, you can turn the TV off or on, change channels, and adjust the volume. 

Let’s see how well you respond when I click one of these buttons on the remote. I will click it and call out what it is and you can act out what you think that would look like. Ready?

Power On

Play

Changing channels

Volume up

Mute

Fast forward

Rewind

Slow motion

Pause

Power off

Wow, you all did a great job following the commands of the remote control. 

Do you know what? There are some remote controls that can do much more than that. I have seen some remote controls that can control up to fifteen different things -- they are called universal remote controls. If you have a DVD player, it can control that too. You can go fast forward, slow motion, reverse, or pause a movie while you go and get a snack. When you have a universal remote control, you are in complete control. That's amazing, isn't it?

In our Bible lesson today, Jesus showed people His amazing control of everything around Him. It was on the Sabbath day and Jesus went to the synagogue and began to teach. There was a man there who was possessed by an evil spirit. When Jesus went near him, the man cried out, "What do you want with us, Jesus? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are; you are the holy one of God."

"Be quiet!" Jesus said. Then He spoke to the evil spirit, "Come out!" Do you know what happened? The evil spirit did exactly what Jesus commanded. It came out of the man.

The Bible tells us that the people were amazed. They looked at one another and asked, "What's going on here? Even evil spirits obey his orders." There was power in the words that Jesus spoke that day. On that day, Jesus came in and took control of the life of that man. His life would never be the same!

Jesus wants to be in control of your life, too. He wants to be in control of the plans you make, the words you say, the things you do, and the places you go. Why? Is He a control freak? No! He wants to be in control because He wants what is best for you. The Bible tells us that God has a plan for us. It is a good plan that will give us hope and a bright future, but we will never see that plan work unless we allow Jesus to be in control.

Dear God, we want Jesus to be in control of our life. We know that He wants what is best for us and that is what we want too. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.