Sermon Central
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Clearing The Air: Misconceptions About God Series
Contributed by Jason Cole on May 9, 2008 (message contributor)
Summary: Clearing up common misconceptions people have about God the Father. These misconceptions often shape people’s lives and decisions. This message discusses four misconceptions.
Clearing the Air: Common Misconceptions about God
Introduction:
In our society today there is a lot of confusion about different things. More than anything else there is a lot of confusion about spiritual things. People listen and hear various different things about God and the Bible and they have these misconceptions that they have picked up throughout their life. I believe people in this world are greatly confused about God. They are confused about God because of all the varying different things they hear. They go to school and hear that they were not created by a God, but they came into existence by chance. They cut on the television and they hear people attempting to deny God. Then they hear another crowd that says that there is a God. Many people come into the church with the best of intentions, but often times they carry with them many of those misconceptions about God that the picked up along the way, perhaps from school, perhaps from their parents misconceptions imparted to them, perhaps from television, or perhaps even from some other church that didn’t teach the whole truth. Those misconceptions are not defeated easily. Those misconceptions tend to often times shape people’s lives and dictate the choices they make. The problem is that decisions and choices based on a false assumption can only lead one down a rocky path.
I believe God is greatly misunderstood in our society. There are many people who know some things about God, but there are many people that do not know the God of the Bible. This morning I want to clear the air about something. This morning I want to clear up some common misconceptions that people have regarding our God. The best place to go to find out about God is not the television, it is not the History Channel, and it is not the new popular book. The best place to find out about God and what He is like is His Word.
Text: I Timothy 6:1-16
I. God Is Not A Schizophrenic
I have heard many people attempt to say that the God that we worship, the God of the Bible is the same God as the God of other religions; we just call him by a different name. They want us to believe that Allah, Buddha, and the God of the Bible are one in the same.
Schizophrenia is an awful mental illness. It is sometimes called “multiple personality disorder”. Many mass murderers have claimed to have had some former of multiple personalities. Those different personalities that people have can possess totally different personalities and be just as different as any two people, they just happen to reside in the same body. I don’t understand the physiology behind such a sickness, but I do know that it is a dangerous thing if not kept in check.
Many people have attempted to make God out to be this great Schizophrenic. Perhaps it stems from the fact the people do not want to think that many people around the world are worshipping a false god, but I am here to tell you that there is only one True God. If there is only one true God That one God is not Muhammad, he is not the Allah of the Muslims, he is not Buddha, he is not the Dalai lama, he is not some idol worshipped in a remote village, he is not one of the pagan gods of Rome or Greece, he is not mother earth, he is not the pope, nor is he any person alive today. Moreover, it means that all those others are not gods at all; but rather false gods made up in the minds of man. There is one true God. He is the God revealed in the Bible. He is the God who created the Heavens and the Earth. He is the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. He is the Great I Am. He is the same God who led Moses and Israel out of Egypt. He is the God who became flesh in the person of Jesus. He is the God who reigns in Heaven to this day.
None of those other so called gods are even close to equaling our God. They do not equal out God in His power, they do not equal our God in His holiness and goodness, and they don’t equal our God’s ability to save. In fact, there is no other god that has any power, or any goodness, or the ability to save.
One of the problems that have always existed was people promoting false gods as of equal to the one true God. The Jews fell into that trap many times over. However, God went at great lengths to show that He is greater than those manmade gods. I seem to remember a story about a man named Elijah proving to the prophets of the false god Baal that there was only one true god and Baal was not Him.
