Wrong Conclusions About God

WRONG CONCLUSIONS ABOUT GOD

Hebrews 1:1-9

INTRODUCTION

When Joey Barrow was a teenager, his classmates labeled him a sissy. His mother made him take violin lessons, hoping he would “make something of himself.” While his classmates were engaged in rough, tough masculine activities, Joey was taking violin lessons. Hence, everyone thought he was a sissy.Youngsters can be cruel.His classmates openly mocked him.

They were relentless in their ridicule.Then one day Joey was called a sissy one time to many.

This time Joey smashed the boy who had taunted him, smack on the head…with his violin.

But it didn’t help the situation. when the story reached the ears of Joey’s schoolmates, it brought even more laughter and ridicule.

One of the boys, however, did not laugh or ridicule Joey. His name was Thurston McKinney. He was a big, strapping youngster. He invited 18 year old Joey to exercise with him at the gym. As always, Joey had his violin with him even when he went to the gym.Thurston McKinney was a Detroit Golden Gloves boxing champion. The very first time that Thurston invited Joey to spar with him in the ring, Joey clobbered him. Joey flattened him and, needless to say, got to like the boxing ring. Five years later, Joey Barrow turned 23 and he became the heavyweight boxing champion of the world. You know him as Joe Louis. Joey dropped his last name, Barrow, so his mother would not know it was her son they were talking about in the newspapers. The world knew long before she did that Joey Barrow had become the unbeatable Joe Lewis. Indeed, Joey Barrow was anything but a sissy! (172/431)

Joey’s schoolmates thought they knew him. They thought they knew what he was like. How wrong they were!

It is so easy to reach a conclusion or make a judgment about someone and be wrong. It happens all the time. Not only do we reach wrong conclusions about each other, we often reach wrong conclusion about God.We can easily believe things about God that are not true. So many of the perceptions and beliefs that exist today concerning God are, in spite of their widespread acceptance, absolutely incorrect. These incorrect perceptions of God are usually the result of personal pain, national tragedies or even unanswered prayer. When are hearts are broken, our bodies are wracked with pain or our personal and family life is crumbling around us we are often tempted to entertain heretical thoughts. Sometimes natural disasters like earthquakes or hurricanes create within us ambivalent feelings toward God.

At other times the evil acts of hardened men cause us to question God’s sovereignty. The attack upon America with the senseless killing of thousands of innocent Americans has definitely made it easier for many people to reach wrong conclusion. about God. A terrorist act, a natural disaster or a personal loss often becomes the basis upon which some would conclude that God isn’t good or He isn’t all powerful or He just doesn’t care. Others would even say these things prove that God doesn’t even exist! If He was there and if he was good and all powerful, the reasoning goes, He would intervene and prevent personal loss, natural disasters and terrorist attacks. The painful and perplexing circumstances of life on this sin marred planet often give birth to many ideas, feelings and beliefs that are patently false.

If we are to avoid reaching wrong conclusions about God, we must not depend upon our feelings. Feelings change quickly and we know they are not always dependable. So why do we depend upon them to determine what God is like? Neither should we depend upon our reasoning. My reasoning powers tell me that the molecules that make up this wooden pulpit are not in motion. Yet they are in motion. My reasoning powers tell me that all of the words in this Bible cannot possibly fit on this small card, yet they do! Pascal was correct when he said, “the supreme end of reason is to show a man that there is a limit to his reason.” Our reasoning is woefully inadequate when it comes to many facts in the physical realm. It is also woefully inadequate when it comes to the spiritual realm. We cannot depend upon our reasoning powers to determine what God is like or what He expects of us.Our puny, finite minds are incapable of discerning the ways of the infinite Creator of this vast and complex universe.

Speaking of our inability to determine God’s ways, the prophet Isaiah says, “AS THE HEAVENS ARE HIGH ABOVE THE EARTH SO ARE GOD’S WAYS ABOVE OUR WAYS AND HIS THOUGHTS ABOVE OUR THOUGHTS. (55:9). With our finite human minds we are totally incapable of figuring out God.On our own we cannot figure out His often perplexing and mysterious ways. Romans 11:33 clearly states this fact of life when it declares, “OH, THE DEPTH OF THE RICHES OF THE WISDOM AND KNOWLEDGE