Nobody Likes A Wishy Washy God

NOBODY LIKES A WISHY WASHY GOD

1 Sam. 15:29; Ex. 32:14

INTRODUCTION

A. HUMOR

1. JOKE. Two convicts were working on a chain gang. "I heard the warden's daughter up and married a guy down on cellblock D," the first con says to the other. "The warden's mighty upset about it too."

"Why?" asks the second prisoner. "Because she married a con?" "No. Because they eloped."

2. JOKE. Nicholas Banks tells that his dad was summoned to the hospital, where he is an anesthetist. As he raced toward the hospital, a police patrol car sped up behind him—lights flashing, siren blaring.

So Dad hung his stethoscope out the window to signal that he was on an emergency call. Within seconds came the policeman's response: a pair of handcuffs flapping outside the police car window.

B. TEXT: Does God change His mind?

“The Glory of Israel will not lie or change His mind, for He is not a man that He should change His mind.” 1 Sam. 15:29.

Exodus 32:14 – “So the Lord changed his mind about the harm which He said He would do to His people.”

Seems like a contradiction, but it’s not. What’s the explanation?

C. THESIS

1. People today want to make God over into an image like themselves. The Bible says that when people invent their own God, they fashion it after things they are already accustomed to.

2. Rom. 1:23 says that day "changed the glory of the un-corruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and four-footed beasts, and creeping things."

3. So it doesn't come as a surprise that when people think of God, they want him to be like them: fickle, congenial, compromising, cooperative, compliant.

4. So when they hear verses which says "God relented" (32X), they think God changed his mind.

5. Be honest, NOBODY WOULD REALLY WANT A WISHY WASHY GOD ANYWAY. WHY?

a. Because most everybody likes honesty, being straight forward, telling it like it is. We like it in people, and of all beings, we would expect it from the true and Living God.

b. Do we want a God who is afraid of US or who is really worried about what WE THINK of Him? How ridiculous! God, the creator of the universe and self-existent, wouldn’t pander to a rodent creature of time.

c. He would speak the truth. He would be the one voice that stood out above the rest and was impartial and absolutely truthful.

d. The true God would not be like a windsock politician who has no backbone or moral compass. God’s not that way.

6. Does God change His mind? Yes, in two ways.

a. He can be moved by pity to not carry out His sentence on those He loves. “And God sent an angel to destroy Jerusalem. But as the angel was doing so, the Lord saw it and relented concerning the disaster and said to the angel who was destroying the people, “Enough! Withdraw your hand.” The angel of the Lord was then standing at the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite” 1 Chr. 21:15.

b. He can be persuaded to change a decision He’s made, if a favored one intercedes. King Hezekiah was told to put his house in order, because God had determined that he it was time he died. Hezekiah interceded with the Lord and was given an additional 15 years of life; Isa. 38:1, 5.

7. Since God does change His mind, how can we influence Him to do so?

I. HOW CAN YOU INFLUENCE GOD?

A. NOT BY PHYSICAL FORCE

1. We have power with God, not against God.

2. No creature has any power against God.

3. The strongest men or angels, or confederations, cannot touch God.

4. We are foolish if we resist Him. You can’t possibly prevail against God; It's crazy to think you can.

B. NOT BY STEPPING OUT & ‘OBLIGATING’ GOD TO BAIL YOU OUT

1. Some people think that they can force God’s hand by putting themselves in a place where they have to have His help or disaster will happen. God will somehow be obligated to rescue them.

2. Churches take out big loans and expect God to make the payments! Christians can marry a non-Christian and expect God to save their spouse afterward.

3. If we do something without the direction of God or against the direction of God, how can we expect God to be obligated to intervene?

4. This is no different than when the devil set Christ on the pinnacle of the Temple and encouraged Him to jump, because the Scriptures promises that God would dispatch His angels to catch Him. What did Jesus answer? That that was “tempting God” or “putting God to the test.”

5. In such situations, God is not obligated to help us; it’s tempting God!