To listen to this Sunday's sermon, click here.
THE TRUTH ABOUT GOD
Exploding The Myths That Make Us Miserable - Part 2 of 6
07-17-11 Sermon
I started a series last week that I’m calling “Exploding The Myths That Make Us Miserable.” There are things that happen in your life, and the way you interpret them determines whether it makes you a bitter person or a better person, and that your beliefs do make a difference. We are exposing some myths that the world has taught you ‑‑ myths about yourself, myths about life, myths about the future, and, today we’re going to look at myths about God, because the way you see God actually affects the way you see yourself. You’re made in God’s image, and if you have a warped image of God, you’re going to have a distorted image of yourself.
Now, what is God really like? Well, when Jesus came along, He exploded all of the myths, all the misconceptions, all the stereotypes about God. Because, up to that point, God had been seen primarily as someone who’s distant, someone who is aloof, who is powerful but isn’t close and personal. And, Jesus taught that the number one way we can think of God is to think of God like a father. In fact, He used the term “father” over a 150 times in the Bible. He says, “God is our Heavenly Father; He’s our Father in heaven.”
Now, the problem with that is that for some people, father brings up all kinds of painful memories. It’s not a positive term for many people. They think of someone who was aloof, or distant, or uncaring, or unconcerned. They think of a father who wasn’t there when they needed him. And so, the question really becomes: What kind of father is God? What is He really like? You see, if you have a misconception about what God is really like, you will find yourself worrying about things that you don’t need to worry about if you don’t know what God’s really like. You’ll find yourself feeling guilty in situations you shouldn’t feel guilty in. You’ll find yourself carrying burdens and fears that you don’t need to carry ‑‑ all because you misunderstand what God is like.
Some people say, “Well, I don’t believe in God.” Whenever you hear that, ask them, “Please describe the kind of God you don’t believe in,” because I have often found out they don’t believe in some myths about God. Specifically, there are four myths that are very common today. If you buy into any of these myths, it will rob you of so much happiness in life. So, this morning I want us to look at these and apply the truth; compare it to what Jesus says about God.
Now, let’s look at the first one:
1. Myth #1: “God Is Unreasonable.” Now this myth goes kind of like this, “God places so many demands on my life. There is no way I could possibly do them all. He’s too strict. He’s unreasonable. He’s unrealistic. All He wants me to be is a good and boring person. He doesn’t want me to have fun. He’s a kill-joy. He’s a sourpuss.” And that God is kind of like some Puritan grandfather who sits up in heaven with this scowl on his face looking down on us, waiting for somebody to have a moment of fun so He can say, “Stop that,” or waiting to say “No” to us all of the time. This is not a new myth. In fact, it’s the first recorded words of the devil in the Bible. Back in Genesis when God created the Garden of Eden, the perfect environment.
Now, notice what God says in Gen. 2:17 (CW): (God) “You may eat of every tree in the Garden, but there is ONE tree I don’t want you to eat of . . . .” Now, Satan comes along a little while later in Chapter 3 and he says to Eve, (Satan) “Did God really say that you must not eat fruit from ANY tree in the garden?” Do you catch the shift here? Do you see what he’s done? He’s switching the truth for a lie; he’s reversed it. God had said, “There’s just one you can’t eat,” and Satan says, “No, God is saying there’s none you can eat.” He’s turned it around. He’s trying to make God appear unreasonable.
God is not unreasonable. The Bible says, The Truth is God Is A Compassionate Father. That means He is motivated by love. Everything that God does, even when He says “No” to certain things, He does it because He loves you. Ps. 145:9 says, God is good to everyone, and his compassion is intertwined with everything he does.” He’s loving, He’s kind, He’s generous, and everything God does for you, He does out of compassion because He loves you. Everything you have in life is a gift from God. In fact, if it weren’t for God, you wouldn’t have anything; you wouldn’t even be alive. So, everything you have in life is a good gift and God says, “I want you to enjoy these gifts, but I don’t want you to abuse them. I don’t want you to misuse them because you’ll get hurt.”
Don’t you think it would have been a whole lot better if people had followed God’s prescription? Lam 3:22 (LB), “God’s compassion never ends. It is only his mercies that have kept us from complete destruction.” You see, God knows what He’s doing.
Would you write this down: Any time God says no to me, it is because He loves me. It’s because He wants what’s best for me. Not because He’s a miser, an ogre, or a sourpuss, or a kill-joy, but because He really does care about you. You see, Satan’s goal is to convince you that obeying God and having fun are mutually exclusive; that they’re opposites. And then he adds, “God doesn’t love you. He wants you to be miserable. He wants you to have no fun. He wants to take away all of your joy.” Now, if you think that God doesn’t want you to be happy, you have been duped by the devil. Look at these verses, Ps 37:4 (NIV), “Delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart.” Does that sound like He’s being unreasonable? No. Does it sound like He’s a kill-joy? No. Look at the next one: 1 Tim 6:17 (NIV), “. . . God richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment.” Does that sound like a kill-joy? No. He created the world for you to enjoy. Rom 8:32 (LB), “Since he did not spare even his own Son for us . . . won’t God also surely give us everything else?” Does that sound like somebody who wants to make your life miserable? No. Ps 84:11, “No good thing will he withhold from those who walk uprightly.” In other words, God will not hold anything back from the child who wants to obey and do what’s right. God is a compassionate father. He loves to give gifts to you. He loves to give gifts to His children. Over 20 times in the Bible He says, “Ask. I want you to ask . . . ask and it shall be given . . . seek and you’ll find . . . knock and the door will be open.” He says, “Ask that your joy will be full.” One time Jesus said this, “If you’re being an imperfect parent, know how to give good gifts to your kids. Don’t you think your perfect heavenly Father wants to give good gifts to you if you’ll just ask.” So, God is not unreasonable, but He is compassionate. And, for every “No” that He says, there are a thousand “Yes’.” He’s not a God of prohibition, He’s a God of permission and He wants you to be happy.
The second myth is:
2. Myth #2: “God Is Unreliable.” Now, this one says that God cannot be trusted, that He’ll lie to you, that He’s inconsistent, that He’s fickle, that He changes His mind, He acts one way one day and one way the next day and so you really can’t figure out whether God likes you or not because He won’t tell you the truth. And, again, this is as old as the Garden of Eden. Notice this verse, Gen 3:3‑5 (LB), (Eve) “God says we must not eat it (that tree) . . . or we’ll die.” (Satan) “That’s a lie! You’ll not die! God knows very well the instant you eat it you’ll become like him . . . .” Now, you can understand from this that there are two phases in temptation ‑‑ any time you’re tempted it’s going to happen in two phases. Phase One is doubt; Phase Two is deception. The way the devil tempts you in any area of life is this: First, he tries to get you to doubt what God has said. He’ll do this, “Did God really say this is wrong?” Or, he’ll say, “Did He really mean it when He said it,” or “Maybe He meant it then but maybe doesn’t mean it now.” And so, he tries to get you to doubt the truth of God’s word. And then he will offer his own lie, which says, “It can’t hurt anybody . . . nobody will ever know . . . everybody does it . . . just this once,” etc., etc., etc. And, he offers his lie ‑‑ doubt, then deception ‑‑ and the result is destruction; you reap what you sow. The truth is that God is reliable; in fact, God is a consistent father. He’s not only compassionate, but He’s consistent. He can be counted on to always act the same way towards you. Rom 11:29 (NCV) says this, “God never changes his mind about the people he calls and the things he gives them.” He never changes His mind about you.
Now, listen, maybe some of you grew up with unpredictable fathers. A guy said one time, “I never know if my dad’s going to hug me or slug me. I don’t know if he’s going to be silent or violent. I don’t know if he’s going to be tender or tough. If he’s going to accept me or reject me.” And, maybe some of you grew up with parents that were very inconsistent in their attitude towards you and inconsistent fathers produce insecure kids. The problem is that you may have taken that image of your earthly dad and you’ve put it over on to your eternal, heavenly Father, and you think that’s the way God treats you. You think one day God’s happy with you; the next day, He’s sad. One day He likes you and the next day He’s going to kick you. Well, how much time do you want to spend with somebody who’s inconsistent? You don’t want to spend any time with them and that’s why you tend not to want to pray because you don’t know if God’s going to like you or not. Listen, God does not get moody; He is consistent. God doesn’t have bad hair days. He’s not temperamental. He doesn’t wake up grumpy some mornings. He’s always consistent. In fact, turn your notes over. Rom 11:29 (LB), second half of the verse, “ . . . God will never go back on his promises.” It says He’s absolutely reliable.
A study once that said the number one reason kids rebel against their parents is because of resentment, and the number one cause of resentment is broken promises. “Dad, you promised you’d do this.” “Mom, you promised you’d do that,” and a broken promise leads to resentment and resentment leads to rebellion. God isn’t that kind of a father who says he’ll do something and then doesn’t do it. You can count on it. In fact, one thing you can always count on is, God’s love for you is never going to change. Notice this verse here, Ps. 59:10 (LB), “My God is changeless in his love for me.” You can always count on it. When everything else is changing, you can count on this: God will never stop loving me. God will never, never, never stop loving me. It doesn’t matter what I do, where I am, what happens to me, or through me, or in me, God will never stop loving me. Why? Because He’s compassionate, but more than that, He is consistently compassionate. He doesn’t waiver. He doesn’t love you one day and then hate you the next day. He’s consistent and no matter what happens, He’s compassionate and consistent.
Now the third myth is this:
3. Myth #3: “God Is Unconcerned With Me.” And this is a big one that will cause you a lot of unhappiness if you buy into it. This one says, “God is unconcerned with me because I’m insignificant. I don’t want to bother God with my problems because He’s got to deal with much, much bigger problems. He’s got world situations, war, and famine, and earthquakes, and crises around the world, and starving children. My problems are so petty and so insignificant, God couldn’t be interested in me. He’s too busy, I don’t want to bother him.” And then of course, the devil comes along and whispers in your ear, “Who do you think you are? You’re coming to God and praying, bringing your problems to God. You’re worthless. Why would God care about you?” That’s what he says. He says, “You’re a zero, you don’t matter, you’re insignificant, you don’t count.” Now, that is one of the most destructive myths out there and Satan loves to perpetrate it on you. And, if you buy into it, it will make you miserable ‑‑ that God is unconcerned. What is the truth? The truth is, that God is a caring father. He’s caring and close. Matt 10:29 (NCV) says this, “Not one sparrow can fall to the ground without your Father knowing it.”
Now look, if God cares about little dinky birds and not one of them falls out of its nest onto the ground without God taking note of it, don’t you think He is intimately aware of every detail in your life? Don’t you think you can count on the fact that He’s interested in every part of your life? You see, He doesn’t go on overload; God has the ability to care deeply about everything because He’s God. If you think He’s unconcerned about you, you’ve got a misconception ‑‑ a myth- about God. He is concerned about every single detail of your life and that’s why He wants you to talk to Him about it. He wants you to talk with Him. You see, nothing is too small or insignificant for God to care about ‑‑ He cares even about sparrows ‑‑ if you’re continually under His watchful eye. Look at the next verse, Matt 10:30‑31 (NCV), “God even knows how many hairs are on your head. So don’t worry. You’re worth much more than many sparrows.”
Do you realize how much God says you’re worth? If you don’t realize how much God says you’re worth, you will experience a lot of depression in life. You know, psychologists tell us that the number one root of unhappiness is confused identity. That when you don’t really know who you are, it causes a lot of problems. In fact, most people have very little idea about who they are and they don’t even like the little they do know about themselves. The issue of identity is this: Who am I? Do I matter? Does my life count? Does my life have value? Am I worth anything? Who am I?
Psychologists also tell us that your identity comes largely from what you think your parents thought of you, particularly your father. So, for instance, if you had a father who said you would never amount to much, then you would tend to build your life on that. If you had a dad that said to you, “You’re so incompetent, you’re so clumsy,” then you would tend to act that way the rest of your life; that we set ourselves up by what we think our dads think of us. That’s what psychology says. But, God says it really doesn’t matter so much what your parents think about you because they’re imperfect; they make mistakes. What really counts is what your Heavenly Father says about you because that’s the truth. And the truth is, God says you’re worth a lot. You see, you don’t need everybody’s approval in life to be happy. What you do need to be happy is the truth. And, the truth is, God says, “You’re valuable; I care about you.”
God is not watching you from a distance; He’s watching you up close and personal. He’s with you everywhere you go. He’s not out there distant ‑‑ you may not want Him to go with you everywhere you go ‑‑ but He’s with you everywhere you go.
Notice what Jesus said in John 14:23 (NCV), (Jesus) “If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching. My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.” God says, “I want to live with you.” In fact, He doesn’t just want to live with you; He wants to live inside you. He says, “I’ll put my Spirit in you.” You don’t get any closer than that. God is not just a caring, compassionate, consistent father; He’s a close father; He’s never away from you. Now, the result of that is if God’s with me all of the time, I really don’t need to worry. Look at this verse, Matt. 6:33 (NCV), “Don’t worry ‘What will we eat . . . or drink . . . or wear?’ People who don’t know God keep trying to get these things, and your Father in heaven knows you need them. The thing you should want most is God’s kingdom and doing what God wants. Then all these other things you need will be given to you.” He says you don’t need to worry. God’s with you. He’s with you all of the time. He’s compassionate, consistent, caring and close so you don’t need to worry. When you worry, you’re acting like an atheist; you’re pretending like God doesn’t exist. Quickly, the fourth myth about God is:
4. Myth #4: “God Is Unpleasable.” Some of you may have had unpleasable parents and you’ve put that idea over onto your Heavenly Father. You had parents that felt you were never quite good enough. If you got C’s on your report card, they wanted B’s. And, if you got B’s, they wanted A’s. If you got A’s, they wanted straight A’s. And, you got the impression that you never were quite good enough to please your dad or your mom. And, if you straightened up your room, they came in and straightened it up a little bit more. And, if you hung up your clothes, they came in and hung them up a little bit better. It was just never good enough. And, some of you think that’s the way God is ‑‑ that God is always disappointed in you. That He’s always discouraged, that you’re always letting Him down.
Now, if that’s really what you think about God, is it any wonder why you don’t want to talk to Him? Do you like hanging out with people that you feel are always disappointed in you? No. And, if that’s really the way you think God is toward you, you’re going to reject Him; you’re not going to spend time with Him. Some of you have figured it this way, “God is perfect and on a scale of 1 to 100, He’s up at 100 and I’m not; therefore, I’m always letting God down.” God says, “You’re not letting me down because you’re not holding me up.” So, what is God like? Is He really unpleasable? No. The Bible says that He’s a gracious Father. A gracious Father means He acts in grace. That means that He gives you what you need, not what you deserve. If we all got what we deserve, none of us would be sitting here right now. But, He gives you what you need; He’s gracious.
You say, “What must I do, God, for you to accept me?” The answer is: Nothing. There is nothing you can do to be acceptable, you simply accept what God has already done for you ‑‑ that’s called grace. 1 Cor 6:11 (LB) says, “. . . God has accepted you because of what the Lord Jesus Christ and the Spirit have done for you.” You know, we all want to be accepted in life and so we wear certain clothes, and act a certain way, and try to get certain awards on our shelves, and try to accomplish something with our lives so that we will be accepted. What do you have to do to be accepted by God? Nothing, just accept His gift of acceptance through Christ because acceptance is not based on your performance, it’s based on God’s character, that He’s a gracious God. Did you know that the Bible teaches that even before you were born, God already knew every sin you were going to commit? When God made you, He gave you freedom of choice. He knew you were going to make some stupid choices in life, some dumb choices. That’s called Sin ‑‑ when you choose to do the wrong thing rather than the right thing. God already knew you would sin even before you were born.
And, the Bible says Heaven is a perfect place and only perfect people get to go there, because if imperfect people were allowed into Heaven, it wouldn’t be perfect anymore. That means you don’t stand a chance of working your way into Heaven, and neither do I. So, God came up with a plan. Notice Eph 1:4 (LB), “Long ago, even before he made the world, God chose us to be his very own through what Christ would do for us; he decided then to make us holy in his eyes, without a single fault ‑‑ we who stand before him covered with his love.”
Let me just say something that will shock you: God is never disappointed in you. You say, “How could that be? I disappoint myself.” That’s because you don’t know yourself. Disappointment means something has to happen that you didn’t expect. God already knows all of the dumb things you’re going to do in life; He already knows the sins you’re going to commit, so it’s not like He’s not expecting it to happen. Because He’s given you a free choice, He already knows the stupid choices you’ll make. So, when it happens, He’s not disappointed because He already knew. But, He is a gracious, forgiving God.
Nobody’s perfect. Do you agree with that? So, the Bible says we all fall short. Some fall shorter than others, but we all fall short. So, God’s plan was He sent Jesus to make up the difference, however much that is in your life. Does that make sense? He sent Jesus to make up the difference so you get into Heaven on His ticket. That’s what God wants to do. How can I be pleasing to God? God is not unpleasable, He’s a gracious God. How do I please Him? Notice Rom 3:22 (LB), “God says he will accept and acquit us ‑‑ declare us ‘not guilty’ ‑‑ if we trust Jesus Christ to take away our sins . . . no matter who we are or what we have been like.” And you say, “Oh, Frank, but you don’t know what I’ve done.” It says, no matter who we are or what we have been like if we accept His Son. Now, God wants you to have a relationship with Him so He’s done all He could to make it possible. He sent His Son to die for you. He wants you to have a father-child relationship to Him. This is so important because if you don’t understand it, your foundation is off for everything else in your life.
Maybe you grew up with a parent who was unreasonable, or you had a parent who was unconcerned or unreliable, or unpleasable. Or, maybe you grew up with a parent who hurt you. I want to say to you, I’m sorry. I’m sorry that you hurt, but you have a Heavenly Father who will never hurt you, never ever hurt you. He wants to be that father that maybe you never had; He is a compassionate Father. Everything He does towards you, He does because He loves you. Even when He says no, it’s because He loves you; He’s motivated with compassion. He wants to be a consistent Father. He is a consistent Father. He’ll never lie to you; He’ll never abuse you or use you. He always keeps His promises, He always does what’s best for you. He is a Father that is close and is caring and when you fall off the jungle gym of life, and you can’t put on the shoes of life, He’s there to help you out and it’s no big deal to Him; it’s no bother. But, He does it because He loves you and He’s a gracious Father. And, no matter who you are or what you’ve done, He will forgive you and accept you and love you like you’ve never been loved by anyone.
Now, is God everybody’s Father? Is everybody a child of God? Well, yes and no. When you talk about, “Did God create everybody?” Yes, He created everybody. But, does He have a relationship with everybody? No, He does not. Would you agree that there is more to being a father than just creating a kid? Oh yes, there’s a lot more to being a father than just fathering a child. And, while God is the Creator of everybody in this room, He’s not everybody’s Father right now, only unless you’ve said, “God, I want to be a part of your family” ‑‑ that’s a choice. Jesus said, “No one comes to the Father, except through me.” You need to say “I want Jesus Christ to come into my life and I want to develop a relationship with God, the Father.”
Let’s close in prayer. Why don’t you say this:
Dear God, I want you to be my Father and I want to be a part of your family and I want to learn to depend on you the way a child depends on a father. Thank you that you are compassionate; that everything you do towards me is out of love. That even when you suggest and demand limitations, it’s for my own protection. Thank you that you’re a consistent Father; that you always do what’s best for me, that you always keep your promises, that you never change your mind about me, that you’re not fickle, that you’re consistent in your love. Thank you that you’re caring and that you’re close and you’re here to help, you’re not distant and aloof, but you’re intimately interested in every detail of my life. And, thank you that you’re gracious. That you forgive and accept me when I blow it. Thank you for sending Jesus to make up the difference between me and perfection and I do trust in your Son. In your name I pray. Amen
No comments:
Post a Comment