Negotiating with God
The title for this mornings message is Negotiating with God. I must admit straight out that I am not a great negotiator. My wife would give me very strict instructions to keep my mouth shut when we went looking for a new car or any other major purchase.
Having grown up in the house of a professional salesmen I tended to always side with the salesmen and not my wife. A big mistake, usually expensive, in more ways than one. I have gotten a little better at negotiating but it has cost me a fortune over the years.
I have studied negotiation and dispute resolution as part of my Human Resources courses at community college. I did pretty well at that course now I just needed to learn to apply what I was taught. One day while I was in class I came to realize how often we tend to negotiate with God.
Please turn with me in your bibles to Genesis Chapter 18:23-33. Here we see the first recorded negotiation between God and man. It happens to be Abraham who is concerned about God pouring out his wrath on Sodom and Gomorrah.
There are basically only two kinds of negotiation that you can undertake, one is a win lose situation where one party will give up something which benefits the first party. Its called Distributive Bargaining any gain I make is at your expense. The other is called Integrative Bargaining which means that we have a win win situation.
Lets look at the negotiations Abraham undertakes. Abraham begins with acknowledging his own unworthiness to even begin to think that he (a man made from the dust of the ground and ash Vs.27) could negotiate with the Living God.
But still he feels the need to intercede on behalf of these people he has lived near. Abraham obviously has a close relationship with God and feels comfortable enough to pose the question.
Wilt thou destroy the righteous with the wicked in verse 23.
Its a good question. Its almost comical as Abraham barters his way through the situation always seeking the goal of restraining or removing Gods wrath.
Abraham starts with 50 righteous souls and works his way down to 10. All along the way Abrahams entreating God, and affirming his status as a lowly human being and begging Gods kind indulgence. Oh let not the Lord get angry, Vs.30.
Then we see God leave the negotiating table and went His way. Abraham returns to his place understanding he has reached the best of all possible deals with God on Sodom and Gomorrahs behalf.
If God finds ten righteous souls in these two cities combined, Abraham is of the understanding that the cities will be spared.
The next day Abraham wakes to see a cloud of smoke like a cloud from a furnace, a column of smoke. Abraham now realizes that his negotiations were in vain since God could not find 10 righteous souls from the combined population of the two cities.
That is all we get. We do not get information on how Abraham felt or what his reaction was, just that he moved.
So what did Abraham learn? He learned that yes, he could negotiate with God and pose hard questions. He learned that God would keep His word. He learned that not 10 living souls in either of those cities were found righteous in Gods eyes. He learned that God preserved his life for a reason and wanted him away from these people forever.
You might wonder why Abraham entered into this negotiation. He was doing very well making a good living. He probably sold livestock to the surrounding cities. Did Abraham have his own selfish reasons for wanting these cities spared?
Did Abraham genuinely care for the souls of the righteous and unrighteous? I think all these things came into play and Abraham realized what a tragedy was about to fall on these two cities. But for the righteous sake God would not destroy them if only 10 righteous people could be found.
Abraham had a heart for the lost citizens of those two cities and realized that he shared his world with them. But they did not share Abrahams belief in the Living God.
God used Integrative Bargaining here and gained the preservation of Lot and his daughters as well as Abraham and his family at the expense of Sodom and Gomorrah. Abraham and Lot lost their source of income and became dependent on God to provide for them.
They were also physically separated and spiritually separated from the evil of the two cities they once lived near. It was a win win after all. God destroyed the unrighteous and spared and separated the righteous.
For there is none righteous no not one. Romans 3:10
This cold hard fact should grip us all as we realize who and what we are as we come before God. We are all in the same boat. God is not a respecter of persons.
It matters not what you have done, what status you have, whether you go to church, sit as an elder or preach the gospel. You possess no righteousness of your own before God. You stand condemned like Sodom and Gomorrah. The only way to obtain the righteousness required is through Jesus Christ. So what is righteousness?
The dictionary says righteous a just, upright; godly; virtuous; good; honest righteousness.
The bible tells us concerning Abraham in prior chapters, Genesis 15:6 and he believed in the Lord; and He counted it to him for righteousness.
Abraham was spared the wrath of God because he believed in God.
Romans Chapter 3:21-24 NIV
But now righteousness from God, apart from the law, has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by His grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.
For us then righteousness comes from belief in Christ Jesus as our redeemer. That sounds simple enough but one has to wonder what is keeping people from trusting in Jesus Christ. Do they not get the message; is there a cultural barrier or language issue?
What are the obstacles for them in negotiating peace with God?
Some communication conflicts are as follows: non-verbal communications barriers between men and women cross cultural issues, language, and the message itself.
Let me illustrate this for you with the following fictitious story.
About a century or two ago, the Pope decided that all the Jews had to leave Vatican City. Naturally there was uproar from the Jewish community. So the Pope made a deal. He would have a religious debate and negotiate with a single member of the Jewish community.
If the Jews won the debate they could stay. If the Pope won they would have to leave. The Jewish people realized they had no choice but to debate. So they picked a middle aged man named Moishe to represent them.
The Pope asked for one additional rule. To make it more interesting, neither side would be allowed to talk. They could only gesture and use hand signals. The two sides agreed to the terms.
The day of the great debate came. Moshie and the Pope sat opposite each other looking into each others face for a full minute before the Pope raised his hand above his head and raised three fingers.
Moshie looked back at him and then raised his arm and pointed with one finger into the air. The Pope then waved his fingers in a circle around his head.
Moshie pointed to the ground where he sat. The Pope pulled out a wafer and a glass of wine.
Moishe pulled out an apple. The Pope stood up and said. I give up. This man is too good. The Jews can all stay in Vatican City.
An hour later, the cardinals were all around the Pope asking him what had happened. The Pope said; First I held up three fingers to represent the Trinity.
He responded by holding up one finger to remind me that there was still one God common to both our religions.
Then I waved my fingers around my head to show that God was all around us. He responded by pointing to the ground and showing that God was also right here with us.
I pulled out the wine and the wafer to show that God absolves our sins. He pulled out an apple to remind me of our original sin.
He had an answer for everything, what could I do?
Meanwhile the Jewish community had crowded around Moishe. What happened they asked?
Well, said Moishe, First he said to me that the Jews had three days to get out of Vatican City.
I told him that not one of us was going to leave. Then he told me that this whole city would be cleared of Jews. I let him know that we were staying right here.
And then? asked a woman. I do not know, said Moishe,
He took out his lunch and I took out mine.
This funny story illustrates how we need to be clear in what we are in fact negotiating.
So how does God negotiate with us? We have seen how Abraham negotiated with God; now let us look at the other side of the negotiating table
God begins his negotiations with us by making his best offer first. He offers us His son as a sacrifice for our sins. In doing this we escape the wrath of God just as Abraham and Lot did.
We become protected by Gods hand and spiritually separated from the evil of the world. We are promised a prosperity that exceeds our wildest dreams in that we will have everlasting life. We will live out that life in the fellowship and company of God and other believers. We will never know sickness or hurt or want or sorrow. We will receive forgiveness of our sins rather than be judged for them. We will escape like Abraham and Lot.
In order for this to happen we need to bring things to the table we would rather not discuss. We need to bring our sins. Not just the obvious ones but the hidden secret sins that only God and we are aware of.
This is a difficult task for some. For some are like the residents of Sodom and Gomorrah. Some have lived very wicked before God. Some choose to live without any authority over them and call it freedom when in fact it is bondage to sin.
It is a difficult thing to admit you are a sinner. Still the rewards far exceed the cost to the individual. But we wrestle with pride, our culture, our peers, and our own wicked heart.
I can tell you I have entered into such a negotiation. I have had to do all those things and it was not easy. But the fact of the matter was that I knew I was living wrong. I did not really need anyone to tell me, I knew deep within that there needed to be a change.
Search your heart today and ask yourself if you need to surrender in order to be saved. Where do you want to be when Gods wrath is poured out on our sinful world?
Do you want to be in the city with the lost or on the hill looking down like Abraham?
We live in perilous times. We live in prosperous times as well. We have every modern convenience and an abundance of leisure time. We live amongst cities like Sodom and Gomorrah. We profit by living in the shadow of their wickedness.
We make a good living from them but manage to keep our distance. We seem able to tolerate their wickedness as long as we can stay at arms length. It is time we set ourselves apart just as Abraham had to. We can do this by living a Christian life that pleases God. We must not compromise for the sake of maintaining the status quo.
They say that compromise is the art of politics. But I would tell them that God is not looking to get elected.
In our own country they want to pass laws that make it a criminal offense to speak out against a homosexual lifestyle.
It is a law first proposed by Sven Robinson of the NDP. The law would make it a hate crime to say anything against the homosexual community within our society. It would make it a crime to preach against such a lifestyle.
It would in fact make parts of the bible hate literature under Canadian law. These are perilous times. To add further salt to the wound another law that recently passed has made same sex marriages legal in our country.
As it stands the government of the day is unable to undue this recent change. The opposition parties want the law to stand and they have forced it upon the country. Those who oppose the law are not of sufficient numbers to defeat it.
We like Abraham can not find the number of righteous people needed to escape Gods wrath. We like Abraham have been living in the shadow of an evil society opposed to God.
Those who desire this license to sin under the law will find no such license under Gods law. They try to dress up their sinful lifestyle with words such as sexual preference and sexual orientation and lastly alternative lifestyle. The fact is they are living sinfully before God and are trying to convince society that is should be acceptable.
You can not pass laws that say wrong is right. But that is exactly what they have done.
Acts 4:12 neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.
It is time to choose whose side you are on. This war is going to be intense in the coming years, unless we like Jonah, witness to the people of our Nineveh and they seek repentance and turn from their sin.
But to do this we need to be speaking against the sin of society today. We can not afford to be passive observers. We like Jonah cannot run away from our duty as servants of the living God. Christians are going to go to jail in this country for what they profess and believe.
It seems O.K. to believe as long as you do not say it out loud in public. Society wants to keep Christianity quiet. Certain groups within our society are working to accomplish just that.
They want to put Christianity in the closet while they come out.
We need to negotiate with God just like Abraham. We need to plead with God to spare our cities and towns for the sake of the righteous. For the sake of the Christian church we need to ask God to protect us, as we stand faithful to him.
Let us begin our negotiation first as His children, come to Jesus Christ and give up your life, which is separated, from God.
Shun the culture of our times and seek the wisdom that is found in the Bible. Surrender to God and be baptized to demonstrate your willingness to die with Christ and be raised to a new and everlasting hope. Wash your sins away in the blood of the Saviour.
Become a follower of Jesus Christ and believe that he is the way, the truth, the life that God wants us to know.
For those of us who are already saved, we need to be praying about our country and its laws. We need to be speaking out, writing letters, giving our opinions and contacting our elected officials. We need to bring our nation before the throne of grace and beg Gods mercy before we witness his wrath in our time.
God will save us to the mountaintop but ask yourself how many in the city will be lost. How many in this sinful society will go up in smoke if you do not tell them about God and if you do not live a Christian lifestyle.
It is time for us to be different from the world around us. God has made His final offer do you know someone who needs to take it before it is too late?
Let us pray.
