1 - God is whatever we want Him to be - Ex. 3:13-14 (Romans 1:18-32)

Transcription

1 1 1 - God is whatever we want Him to be - Ex. 3:13-14 (Romans 1:18-32) Good morning and welcome to FBC as we begin a new series of sermons we are calling Distortions. Actually, it is an extension on our last series. If you will remember, as we closed out our last series called Battlefield Basics, we were calling attention to the demonic lies that keep us in bondage. These lies are the foundation and weapons of the enemy as he occupies strongholds in our lives. Now, the father of all lies is named Satan, and his best lies are distortions of the truth. There is just enough truth in them to tempt us to accept them hook, line and sinker. The tad of truth is the bait, but the hook is the lie, and that is what enslaves us. So now we are going to look at some of Satan s best lies. What makes this so important to us is that these lies have been elevated to the level of absolute truth in the world around us, and now they are making their way into our churches. These are lies many Christians now hold to be true. Many of the epistles in the latter part of our New Testament were dedicated to confronting hypocrisy and presenting truth. In that spirit we present these sermons. As we begin I want to take us deep in our Bible, deep into the Old Testament, and read again how God revealed Himself to Moses, and through him to all mankind. READ from Exodus 3: Then Moses said to God, Indeed, when I come to the children of Israel and say to them, The God of your fathers has sent me to you, and they say to me, What is His name? what shall I say to them? And God said to Moses, I AM WHO I AM. And He said, Thus you shall say to the children of Israel, I AM has sent me to you. PRAY The first lie I want you to consider with me is this: God is whatever we want him to be. Let me tell you how I encounter this lie. You will find yourself in a conversation about evil, or suffering, or some controversial religious subject, and someone will say something like this. Well, my idea of God is. Or maybe it will be, My God would never do. What they are doing is telling you about the god they have created in their own mind; how he acts and what he is like. It may have no reference point to the God of the bible at all. Now let me assure you that this in not a new phenomenon. Man has been doing this for as long as we have historical reference. Even while Moses was up on Mount Sinai receiving the Ten Commandments, Aaron was down below creating the Children of Israel a god they could control, one in a image they could relate to. Creating idols to take the place of the biblical God is an old tradition of man. 1 - How we create God in our image I remember hearing Art Linkletter interview a little boy. He asked, What are you drawing? The little boy answered, I am drawing a picture of God. Art responded, No one knows what God looks like. To which the boy replied, They will when I m finished. That precious little fellow was doing what we often do: We create God in our image. We make Him to be whatever we want him to be. In most cases he looks a lot like us! For modern Americans we want a god who is more tolerant of our sins, less demanding, and less judgmental than the God of the Bible. Because we have been nurtured on consumerism, we go shopping at today s spiritual supermarket, creating a deity that is best suited for our tastes. This cafeteria image is very important to us. I get to choose based on my own desires. I remain in charge. My god is a combination of all my personal delicacies, and he doesn t ever question my actions or hinder my desires. I make the selections, and form the conception of God that is just right for me. Let s take a moment to consider some of the gods that have been created by the hands of modern man. 2 - The God of my health and wealth

2 Given our preoccupation Americans with success, money, and pleasure, we should not be surprised that a special Western God has emerged in the last decades. This concept of God supposedly is drawn from the Bible, but it reflects American capitalism and greed more than a serious consideration of the Scriptures. I think it would be difficult indeed to convince the martyrs of church history that they totally misunderstood God. Rather than suffer and die, it was actually their God given right to be healthy and prosperous! The God of my health and wealth is the god of the West, the god of capitalism, the God of consumerism. This is the name it claim it mentality that pervades religious media today. In point of fact, the Word of God can be proclaimed in all cultures at all times and in all circumstances. What we say about God rings true in times of war or peace, poverty or health, life or death. In reality, this god of health and wealth is not supported by the Bible but is a skewed interpretation that has left thousands disillusioned in his wake. It is a distortion, like all these lies we are presenting. How can we believe in such a god when Jesus said, Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the son of man has no place to lay his head. (Matt. 8:20) Certainly the Son of God, the Prince of Heaven would have had a palace, reclined on silk sheets, and eaten the best of delicacies right? If he was the god of health and wealth, he would never have suffered and died! Or he misunderstood God s plan for his life which is even more blasphemous! And what about Paul, writing from prison, when he said, I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. (Phil. 4:11) Contentment is the antithesis to the health and wealth, name it claim it lie that is hawked before gullible and often biblically illiterate masses. 3 - The God of my emotional need In our therapeutic culture, where all of us are allegedly either recovering or in denial about something, we have exchanged the language of scripture for the language of Psychology Today. Sin is redefined as a lack of self-esteem. Back in the 80s Rev. Robert Schuler wrote, What we need is a theology of salvation that begins and ends with the recognition of every persons hunger for glory. His followers have kept that image of God alive for decades. This theology suggests that God, if He is worthy of my attention at all, exists to give me the unconditional acceptance I deserve. In fact, His job is to affirm who I am. My great need is not to repent, but to be comfortable with my true and unique personality. I remember a time that we believed that man lived to glorify God. Now god, if he exists, does so only to serve man. 4 - The God of my sexuality whatever it might be at the moment I have had people explain away their adulterous affair by saying, Well, you know, God wants me to be happy. I always ask them where they find that in the Bible. There is a lot said about joy but not that much about temporary happiness. I have had porn addicts tell me, Well, God gave me these sexual urges and needs, and I have to satisfy them. Absolutely, in the bonds of holy matrimony! Even a decade ago, definitely two decades ago, I would never have thought we would be facing the situation we are in today with modern gender dysphoria (which is still clinically defined as gender identity disorder. It is a disorder!) And yet it is one that society is being forced to accepting as normative and required to accommodate. Did you know that Facebook now has 71 different gender classifications? And I thought there were only two! Let me quote, Last year we were proud to add a custom gender option to help people better express their identities on Facebook. We collaborated with our Network of Support, a group of leading LGBT advocacy organizations, to offer an extensive list of gender identities that many people use 2

3 to describe themselves. After a year of offering this feature, we have expanded it to include a free-form field. As Lady Gaga proudly proclaims, I'm beautiful in my way, 'cause God makes no mistakes. I'm on the right track, baby I was born this way. In point of truth, this is the effort to refashion God according to our own desires and pleasures. This is the view that God approves of my sexual lifestyle, no matter what it might be. There is a growing consensus where people who are committed to non-biblical expressions of sexuality who have reinterpreted the Scriptures to justify their illicit sexual relationships. They worship god, confident that their sexual preference is of no consequence to him. Scripture twisting is one of Satan s favorite hobbies. Don t be fooled by his folly. 5 - The God of my creation This is the notion that God is whatever I want Him to be. Rather than His being the Creator and me being His creation, I create God in whatever image I want Him to be. A classic illustration of this strange thinking is in the writings of Neal Donald Walsch, specifically his book Conversations with God. In his book he quotes God throughout (not the biblical God but his unique construct of god). Rejecting all authoritative references, like the Bible, Walsch quotes God as saying, Your will for you is God s will for you. You are living your life the way you were living your life. And I have no preference in the matter. This is the grand illusion in which you are engaged; that God cares one way or the other what you do. I do not care what you do! And I know that is hard for you to hear! When asked about truth, Walsch quotes God as saying, Listen to your feelings. Listen to your highest thoughts. Listen to your experience. Whenever anyone of these differs from what you ve been told by your teachers, preachers, or read in books, forget the words. Words are the least purveyor of truth. And yet Walsch quotes thousands of words from his god to explain who he is and what he thinks! To no one s surprise, this god is exactly everything we want him to be. This god defines no sin, offers no reproof, and renders no judgment. In fact there is no right or wrong at all! Walsh adds, We keep cows for milk, sheep for wool, and god to give us affirmation and acceptance. In light of these gods of my own creation, the Bible says, Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil; who put darkness for light, and light for darkness; who put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter! Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes, and prudent in their own sight! (Is. 5:20) To those who would create god in their own image, the Apostle Paul writes, For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, because what may be known of God is manifest in them, for God has shown it to them. For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse, because, although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Professing to be wise, they became fools, and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like corruptible man and birds and four-footed animals and creeping things. (Rom. 1:18-23) The idols (gods) of our health and wealth, emotional needs, sexual preference and such are really idols of own creation. They exist only in our mind and not in reality at all! These are lies, distortions of the truth, and must be exposed by the God of all Truth, the Lord of Truth (Jesus), Spirit of Truth and the Word of Truth. The great deceiver must have the truth shoved in his face so that the ridiculousness of his lies can be exposed. Idols do not judge us but neither can they redeem us! So how about the true God? He is 3

4 6 - The God Who Hides and Seeks We need to admit right off, even though God reveals Himself to us in the bible, there is much about Him that we do not and cannot know. However, there is much there to give us a very clear picture of The One True God. Let me make a bold statement here. I know it to be truth upon the Word of God. Here it is God is Who He says He is! He is not whoever or whatever I want Him to be. He is who He says He is! When Moses asked God His name, He said, I am Who I am. (Ex. 3:14) He said, I am Who I am and not who you want me to be. We must stop trying to construct an image of God from the bottom up, and except His selfrevelation. When we do we encounter God Who is majestic and mysterious and holy and merciful. We find the One who is able to quench our raging thirst for Him, and those who drink long at the living water are not afraid to say they have found the Truth. A genuine study of the biblical God is counter-cultural. He stands in sharp contrast to all opinions from today s spiritual smorgasbord. To be biblical about God is to be controversial. It is to challenge the cultural myths that have developed over the generations. But we find in the Bible a God who will not leave us for forsake us. We find a God who so loves us that He will not stop pursuing us until He finds us. He is the God Who hides and seeks. The God of the Bible is a God who hides. Truly you are a God who hides himself, O God and Savior of Israel. (Is. 45:15) Martin Luther was right when he said that, Even when God reveals Himself He still remains hidden, but thankfully always near-by. God is always going to be unknowable to us in His entirety. For thus says the High and Lofty One Who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy: I dwell in the high and holy place, with him who has a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones. (Is. 57:15) For those who are wanting to know what God is really like look to Jesus! God revealed Himself most perfectly in Jesus. God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, has in these last days spoken to us by His Son, whom He has appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the worlds; who being the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person, and upholding all things by the word of His power, when He had by Himself purged our sins, sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high (Heb. 1:1-3) Jesus is the most perfect revelation of Who God is. Jesus Himself said, He who has seen Me has seen the Father (John 14:9) And just in case you missed it, He added, I and My Father are One. (John 10:30) He is God in the flesh for all mankind to see. You don t have to wonder you can know exactly who God is and what He is like. Come to Jesus! The God of the Bible is a God who seeks. Read with me from John 10:7-16. Then Jesus said to them again, Most assuredly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep. All who ever came before Me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not hear them. I am the door. If anyone enters by Me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture. The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly. I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd gives His life for the sheep. But a hireling, he who is not the shepherd, one who does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees; and the wolf catches the sheep and scatters them. The hireling flees because he is a hireling and does not care about the sheep. I am the good shepherd; and I know My sheep, and am known by My own. As the Father knows Me, even so I know the Father; and I lay down My life for the sheep. And other sheep I have which are not of this fold; them also I must bring, and they will hear My voice; and there will be one flock and one shepherd. 4

5 God as revealed in Jesus is the Good Shepherd of those the Father has given Him. As such, He is the God who seeks. He is the Good Shepherd who will leave His flock safe while He seeks after one who is lost. What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he loses one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness, and go after the one which is lost until he finds it? And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing. (Luke 15:1-5) Though we cannot know all there is about God, we can know that He loves us and is seeking to have a relationship with us. So much is that His desire, that He gave His very life to save us and bring us to Himself. Don t be satisfied with those distortions of the Truth. Come to know the God of the Bible! Those who accept the Lord as their Savior find a place at His Table of Celebration. A personal response move to Lord s Supper 5