Dealing With Our Broken Lives

Part 2: Our Distorted Concepts of God

The Problems of Sin   Sin separates us from God

  But God is our only source and basis of spiritual and emotional security

  'For in him we live and move and have our being.' (Acts 17:28, NIV)

  ‘Thou hast created us for Thyself, and our heart is not quiet until it rests in Thee.’ - St. Augustine

  ‘There is a God shaped vacuum in the heart of every man which cannot be filled by any created thing, but only by God, the Creator, made known through Jesus’ - Blaise Pascal

The Problems of Sin   Sin leads to broken relationships

  With God

  With ourselves   The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond

cure. Who can understand it? Jeremiah 17:9 (NIV)

  With others

  With the world

As a result of the broken relationship with God, we now look for meaning and significance in people and things around us

“I would say that the greatest weakness in the church today is that many pastors keep looking over their shoulders for the approval of men. But as soon as pastors become slaves to human opinion, trying to please human beings instead of God, the message of Christ is compromised. No man-pleaser preaches the whole counsel of God.” – Dr. R.C. Sproul, in Five Things Every Christian Needs To Grow

The trouble with the rat race is that even if you win, you're still a rat.

 Unrealistic expectations - Depression

 Unfulfilled goals - Anger

 Unacknowledged emotions - Bitterness

Who am I?

We won’t know WHO we are until we know WHOSE we are

– Selwyn Hughes, Your Father, My Father

(Every Day With Jesus, Nov/Dec 1997)

See, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands; your walls are ever before me. (Isaiah 49:16, NIV)

“I am God’s child, God is my Father, Jesus is my Savior, the Holy Spirit is my Comforter, Heaven is my home, the Bible is my guide, the angels are my companion"

GOD Encode the Good News

Loving & Caring

Good & Merciful

Steadfast & Reliable

Uncondi-tional Grace

Present & Available

Giver of good gifts

Nurtur-ing & affirming

Accept-ing

Holy, just, fair & impartial

Unhealthy human relationships, betrayals, past religious experiences, etc

# # # # # # # # #

Decode the bad news Hate-ful & uncon- cerned

Mean & unfor-giving

Unpredita-ble & untrustworthy

Condi-tional Approval

Absent when needed

A “Killjoy” Critical & unpleasable

Rejecting Unjust, unfair, partial

Distorted Perception of God, Others and Self

Erratic, inconsistent emotional & behavioral pattern, etc

Unchosen: Fallenness of man Inheritance Environment Accidents and Tragedies Sicknesses

Chosen: Wrong, sinful choices

Fear, guilt Resentment, Rebellion,

(Adapted from Redeeming The Past – by David A. Seamands)

Some Distorted Concepts of God

  A god who keeps an accounting of what we do, waiting for us to step out of line, a “policeman”

  The “sitting bull” god – relaxes in a yoga position on cotton candy, up on clouds, expecting burnt offerings and homages all day   Previous religious experience prior to conversion   Chinese ancestral worship

Some Distorted Concepts of God

  A god who is withdrawn, cold, distant, too busy running the galaxies to get involved in our petty problems.   Earthly father who is too busy with other things

  E.g. reading newspaper, hiding behind the computer screen

  The Pharoah God – unpleasable taskmaster, ever increasing in his demands, “making more and more bricks”

If you want to know how well a person understands Chris5anity, find out how much he makes of the thought of 

being God’s child and having God as his Father ‐ Jim Packer 

Adapted from Your Father and My Father, Every Day With Jesus, Nov/Dec 1997 by Selwyn Hughes

Do I believe God is good?

One cannot get very far in the Chris2an life carrying the suspicion that God is not good…… 

If we cannot trust God because of the past, how will we ever be able to trust Him for the future? 

Adapted from Your Father and My Father, Every Day With Jesus, Nov/Dec 1997 by Selwyn

Hughes

WRESTLING WITH GOD…………..

26 Then the man said, "Let me go, for it is daybreak.” But Jacob replied, "I will not let you go unless you bless me."

27 The man asked him, "What is your name?” "Jacob," he answered.

28 Then the man said, "Your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel, because you have struggled with God and with men and have overcome.”

30 So Jacob called the place Peniel, saying, "It is because I saw God face to face, and yet my life was spared."

31 The sun rose above him as he passed Peniel, and he was limping because of his hip.

Genesis 32:27-32 (NIV)

Your name will no longer be ……… but ………..

………and he was limping because……….

The fact that Jesus came to earth where he suffered and died DOES NOT REMOVE pain from our lives. But it does show that

God did not sit idly by and watch us suffer in isolation. He became one of us….All our questions about God and suffering, should, in

fact, be filtered through what we know about Jesus.

Where is God When It Hurts? – Philip Yancey

Christian faith does not offer us a peaceful way to come to terms with death….it offers instead, a way to overcome death.

Christ stands for Life, and his resurrection should give us a convincing proof that God is not satisfied with any “cycle of life”

that ends in death. He will go to any extent – and he DID GO any extent – to break that cycle

Where is God When It Hurts? – Philip Yancey

Trus5ng  ourselves  to  a  God whom we consider could have prevented, and  indeed,  should have  prevented  some  hurDul experience we went through in the past is not easy, but it  is a vitally important first step 

A God who is wise enough to rule the universe, is wise enough to watch over his child, Job, regardless of how things seem in the

bleakest moments.

A God who is wise enough to create me and the world I live in is wise enough to watch out for me

Where is God When It Hurts? – Philip Yancey

We often question God when things go wrong but we seldom thank Him when things often go right and well

If we demand that God interfere when things are about to go wrong, then we must give Him the right to interfere when things

are about to go right

As he went along, he saw a man blind from birth. His disciples asked him, "Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?" "Neither this man nor his parents sinned," said

Jesus, "but this happened so that the work of God might be displayed in his life....."Go," he told him, "wash in the Pool of

Siloam" (Joh 9:1-7 NIV)

Suffering involves two main issues:

- The cause (WHO SINNED?)

- The response (GO….WASH….) Will you?

There in the garden of tears My heavy load He chose to bear; His heart with sorrow was torn,

Yet not my will, but Yours he said.

Come see His hands and his feet, The scars that speak of sacrifice Hands that flung stars into space

To cruel nails surrendered

Do I believe God is good?