GAMES PEOPLE PLAY WITH GOD
Isaiah 1:13-17
INTRODUCTION
A. HUMOR
1. An avid fan of the Washington Redskins took his dog to a friend’s house for an afternoon of watching their favorite team. The friend was surprised to see the dog, but felt like the dog might be more exciting to watch than the Redskins. He was right!
2. When the Redskins kicked a field goal the dog went crazy. He started barking, he ran around the room, and did several rolls and flips. The friend was amazed.
3. He asked, “If he does that for a field goal, what does he do when they score a touchdown?” The owner replied, “I don’t know; I’ve only had him two years.”
B. MOST PEOPLE LIKE TO PLAY GAMES
1. Football, baseball, soccer, tennis, basketball, board games, card games, computer games, etc. Americans are ‘game-crazy.’
2. In addition to sports games there are a myriad of popular TV game shows we all could name: Wheel of Fortune (Pat Sajak & Vanna White); Jeopardy (Alex Trebek); Family Feud (Steve Harvey); Who Wants to Be a Millionaire (Regis Philbin) (And, yes, that's our final answer), etc.
3. Then there’s Board Games: Monopoly, Trouble, Operation, Chutes and Ladders, Risk, checkers, Chess, Candyland, dominoes, and a million other games. Then there’s crowd or party games where singles or groups of people compete to win.
4. But we must be careful not to carry our tendency of gaming over to God or the things of God. Yet playing games with God is nothing new. Listen to what God says:
C. TEXT Isaiah 1:13-17 (MSG); “Quit your worship charades. I can’t stand your trivial religious GAMES….I’m sick of your religion, religion, religion, while you go right on sinning. When you put on your next prayer-performance, I’ll be looking the other way. No matter how long or loud or often you pray, I’ll not be listening….Go home and wash up. Clean up your act. Sweep your lives clean of your evildoings so I don’t have to look at them any longer. Say no to wrong. Learn to do good. Work for justice. Help the down-and-out. Stand up for the homeless. Go to bat for the defenseless.”
2. Jer. 6:16-20; “I’m visiting catastrophe on this people, the end result of the games they’ve been playing with me.” [MSG]
D. THESIS
1. To many people, religion is nothing more than a game to be played. That’s what I’m talking about this morning: “Games People Play With God.”
2. What are some of the games people play?
I. THE GAMES PEOPLE LIKE TO PLAY
A. LET’S MAKE A DEAL
1. TV Hosts – Monty Hall, Wayne Brady. People dress crazy & act like nuts. OBJECT: Contestants are offered a deal & have to figure out if it’s better than what they already have.
2. It happens in REAL LIFE – we are hit with financial disaster or a rebellious child – and we’re ready to make a deal; “God, if you’ll get my teenager off drugs, then I will _____.” “God, if you get the creditors off my back or save my marriage, then I’ll ______.”
3. BARGAINING – is trying to get God to do something for me in exchange for something I would do. [“I’ll quit drinking; I’ll quit gambling; I’ll start going to church regularly; I’ll start tithing.”]
4. JACOB (Gen. 28:20-24) wanted to cut a deal with God; “If you’ll take care of me, I’ll pay you my tithes.” God does respond to faith if we seek Him, but wrong motives are still wrong motives.
5. The sad thing is, the bargaining chips we use are things we ought to be doing anyway. What people don’t know is that God doesn’t bargain; His promises are all written down in contract form. When we start meeting the requirements, the blessings start flowing.
6. I know of one man who got saved so he could date a Christian woman. God got the last laugh when she ended up moving away and he stayed saved. He had wrong motives, but God worked it for good. Another game people play is…
B. GUESSTURES/CHARADES (crowd game, play at parties)
1. Object: You assume an Identity, then you ask others to identify who you’re impersonating.
2. EXAMPLES IN THE N.T.
a. Simon the Sorcerer Acts 8:13, 20-21. He pretended he was a believer in Jesus. He got baptized and started attending church. But his true colors came out when he offered Peter money to give him the power to work miracles. Peter exposed his false motives: he was only impersonating believers!
b. Ananias & Sapphira, Acts 5:1-2. They also pretended they were very spiritual, giving a large amount of money to the church, but God exposed them as hypocrites who just wanted “spiritual” status. Pretenders.
3. IVAN THE TERRIBLE was as bad as his name sounds. He was a Russian Czar who tortured 1,000s and had 60,000 people killed in one city. In a fit of anger he struck his 27 year old son and killed him. After drunken orgies he would prostrate himself in front of the cathedral altar to repent. When he died in 1584 he had his head shaven and had himself buried wearing a monk’s robe so that God might be fooled and accidently let him into heaven! DO YOU THINK HE FOOLED GOD?
C. HIDE AND SEEK (this is one of my G-kids favorite)
1. Adam & Eve were the first people to play hide & seek with God; they sinned and then went & hid themselves in the Garden of Eden. How many of you know, you can’t hide from God?
2. Some playing this game feel that as long as they can hear God calling, all is well. They skip church and compromise with sin, but every once in a while, they pray, to keep God on the string. They’re playing a dangerous game of chicken and eventually it will backfire on them.
3. King Saul was one of those. He wanted to look spiritual next to the Prophet Samuel, but he was disobedient, filled with jealousy and hate, and even consorted with a witch.
4. You can never win this game against God because you can never hide from Him. “Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths (hell), you are there” Psalm 139:7-8.
D. THE PRICE IS RIGHT
1. The Price Is Right is one of the longest running game shows (48 years in 2019). Hosts: Bob Barker & Drew Carey. The whole show revolves around people guessing the true prices of items displayed, to win cash and prizes.
2. Human society is always guessing the value of things; usually they guess wrong and underestimate the value of the human soul. Jesus said, “And what do you benefit if you gain the whole world but lose your own soul? Is anything worth more than your soul?” Mt. 16:26 NLT.
3. Esau (Gen. 25:33) played this game and sold his birth right for a bowl of beans! Many Christians have sold out their spiritual inheritance in Christ for a few moments of pleasure.
4. Thank God that Jesus paid the right price to redeem us – “you were not redeemed (paid for) with silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ!”
E. SURVIVOR REALITY GAME (since May, 2000)
1. A group of contestants is deliberately marooned in an isolated location, where they must provide food, water, fire, and shelter for themselves. The contestants compete in challenges for rewards and immunity from elimination, until only one remains, the "Sole Survivor"
2. To win this game, contestants must form alliances with other players, anticipate their opponents’ moves; they must bluff and switch strategies faster than their opponents. It’s also a survival of the fittest. It’s a perfect microcosm of how lost people dominate and take advantage of others.
3. But God tells us to do the opposite: 42 Jesus called them together and said, 43 “Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, 44 and whoever wants to be first must be slave of all. 45 For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” Mk. 10:42-45.
4. We’re not supposed to dominate others, but to serve others. That’s how God tells us to play the Game of Life.
II. 3 PROBLEMS OF PLAYING GAMES WITH GOD
A. YOU MIGHT NEVER BE FOUND
1. A boy named Matt was playing "hide and seek" with his sister. She was "it" and he was seeking the ideal place to hide. He climbed under their house and wormed his way through the cobwebs all the way to the other side of the building where he could look out and see his sister still counting to 100.
2. He delighted in the thought that she’d never find him. No one could ever find him here. Then it suddenly struck him – if something happened to him, no one would ever be able to find him there. He would be alone and lost forever.
3. It was suddenly important to him to be found, and he stuck his leg out through the lattice work, hoping that he might be able to trip his sister if she passed by that way. [Jeff Strite]
4. Those who play games with God place themselves in a place where God won’t be looking for them; God isn’t seeking those who aren’t sincere. If we’re “playing,” we won’t ever be found.
B. GOD IS NOT INTO BARGAINING
There’s only a narrow path to salvation. God can’t change that; He can’t compromise on that. We either have to follow God’s directions or we’ll never arrive at eternal life.
C. YOU CAN’T WIN AGAINST GOD
1. We play games because we believe we’re smarter or can out-maneuver our opponents. But that’s not possible with God. He’s not human.
2. He knows where all the winning cards are. He can control the dice. There is no such thing as random chance with Him. He’s not just 5 moves ahead of us, but millions of moves ahead. If we try to play games with God, we will lose!
III. HOW CAN I WIN AT THE GAME OF LIFE?
A. BE SINCERE WITH GOD
1. “You deserve honesty from the heart; yes, utter sincerity and truthfulness. Oh, give me this wisdom” Ps. 51:6, TLB.
2. You can’t be in a committed relationship with someone if they are lying and deceiving you. Nor can God be in relationship with us if we’re dishonest.
3. So the first step toward God is to not hide anything, but to ask God for His help in straightening out your life.
B. TURN AWAY FROM ALL KNOWN SIN
1. The second step is to know that some of our behavior, speech, and thoughts are evil in the sight of God and that if we want to walk with God, we must walk away from them.
2. If we confess and forsake our sins God has promised to forgive our past and make us acceptable before Him (1 John 1:9). What a joy to have all our mistakes wiped out!
C. FIND OUT WHAT PLEASES THE LORD (Eph. 5:10)
1. There’s a lot you don’t know and need to learn. The Creator of the Universe will be glad to teach you, if you’re teachable. He’s given us the Bible as a guide on how to live a life that pleases God.
2. Living for God isn’t hard, but it must be our highest priority. We must read God’s directions in the Bible and follow them. As we do what’s pleasing to God, He will bless all we do and make us prosper.
3. In the Isaiah 1 verses God said, “Go home and wash up. Clean up your act. Sweep your lives clean of your evildoings so I don’t have to look at them any longer. Say no to wrong. Learn to do good. Work for justice. Help the down-and-out. Stand up for the homeless. Go to bat for the defenseless.” These are some of the ways you can please God.
CONCLUSION
A. ILLUS.: JUST TRY CHRIST, AND YOU WON’T LET HIM GO
1. When Ralph Houk was manager of the New York Yankees, baseball schedules were tougher than they are now, with long bus rides and double-headers almost every week.
2. Occasionally a player would get sick of the grind and approach Houk, asking for permission to sit out a game. "I know how you feel," the manager would say genially. "Sure, take the day off, but do me a favor. You're in the starting lineup. Just play one inning. Then skip the rest of the game."
3. The player would honor Houk's request--and almost invariably get caught up in the spirit of the game and play it out to the end. [C. Swindoll, Growing Strong, p. 244.]
4. I’ve found this to be true about Jesus Christ: if you will try Him, you won’t ever want to let Him go. David said, “Taste and see that the Lord is good” Ps. 34:8. Take the “taste test” this morning; you’ll be glad you did!
B. THE CALL
1. How many of you would say, “Pastor, I want to taste and see that the Lord is good - to give God a chance in my life?”
2. How many would be honest, “I’ve not been completely sincere in my walk with God, and I want to start over this morning?
3. Others say, “I want to learn how to please the Lord. Lord, teach me Your ways, how to make you happy.” If that’s you, put your hands up. Let’s Pray.
