Monday 17 December 2018

God is Nice and He Likes You

So, another Christmas approaches and as Christians we celebrate Jesus – God in a human body – coming into our world both in order to save us – but also to show us what God is like. And that is what I’d like to talk about today.

I’ve entitled my talk God is Nice and He Likes You.

This phrase was used by Christian author Adrian Plass, in his book The Sacred Diary of Adrian Plass Aged 37 ¾. He writes; ‘This seemingly insubstantial fact revolutionised my life. I became a Christian when I was sixteen years old, but it wasn’t until I was thirty-seven that I absorbed an essential truth. God is nice and he likes me.’

As Nicky Gumbel points out, “sadly, deep down many people think that God is not that nice, that he does not like us very much and he spends most of his time being cross with us. But this could not be further from the truth.”

You see many many people including many of us like Adrian Plass who have been Christians for years, have distorted views of God.

We can view him as a strict and disapproving Victorian parent who is anxious to point out our shortcomings but rarely gives his approval.

Or we can view him as distant and uncaring, and much too busy to bother himself with our trivial problems and concerns.

It can be particularly difficult for many people to relate to God as a loving Father when their own experience of Fatherhood is less than ideal.

I really struggled to relate to God as a loving Father when I first became a Christian. My own father was a long-haul airline pilot and when I was a small child he’d be at home for a few days and then disappear for a week or so. I didn’t realise it at the time, but this made me feel subconsciously insecure.

And then when I became a Christian, I projected this insecurity onto God and was fearful that he might leave me.

By the grace of God I have now learned that he won’t leave me. In fact once we have invited him into our lives, Jesus promises - “I will always be with you. I will never leave nor forsake you.”

The problem is that our distorted views of God really affect how we relate to him. So, this morning I’d like to look at what God is really like and how ideally he wants us to relate to him.

So, what is God really like? – well to find out we need to see what the bible says and I want to start with our Old Testament reading, Psalm 103 and verse 8 which tells us;

“The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.”

God is full of love and compassion and he longs to be gracious to us. He overflows with mercy and forgiveness towards us.

And we read in verses 13 and 14; “As a father has compassion for his children, so the Lord has compassion for those who fear him. For he knows how we were made; he remembers that we are dust.”

He understands that as humans we are weak and flawed. He knows we get stuff wrong. And his heart isn’t to condemn us for it but as we confess it, to forgive us and help us do better next time.

Do you realise that God is never surprised by our sin? He sees the future and knows exactly what we’re going to do even before we do it.

And when he accepts us as his children he does so with the benefit of hindsight. Nothing we do is a surprise to him.

The bible tells us that as his children, God loves us with an everlasting love, a love that will not be withdrawn. And thankfully his love for us is not dependant on our performance as Christians but on the completed work of Jesus on the cross for us.

So, as Christians we have security with God – but this security isn’t a licence to sin. The bible tells us God cannot be mocked and we reap what we sow. We will reap what we sow in other people’s lives.

As a wise parent, God also disciplines us. As the writer to the Hebrews tells us, God disciplines us for our good in order that we may share in his holiness.

But again, he only does this if its really necessary. He’d much rather we walked through life with him in such a way that he wouldn’t need to discipline us.

We see God’s love for us most clearly of course in the life and death and resurrection of Jesus. As Jesus tells us in verse 9 of today’s gospel reading; “Whoever has seen me has seen the Father.”

So, as we look at and read about Jesus, we see God. And we see him healing people and forgiving people and inviting people to join and follow him. We see him befriending outcasts and having compassion on those who cross his path.

He doesn’t meet people with a disapproving frown but with open arms.

Supremely of course he opened his arms out widely on the cross and took upon himself our sin and our guilt so we could be entirely forgiven and free from fear of condemnation.

If you’re a parent you will know that when your children are sick or ill you would gladly take that sickness or illness from them and suffer it yourself.

Well that is how God feels about us. He sees our sin and the pain and hurt it causes us - and he wants to take it and bear it for us – which is of course what he did for us on the cross, because he loves us.

Now as I’ve said, it is important that our view of God is based on how he reveals himself in the bible and if you read the bible – especially the Old Testament – you cannot fail to see that God hates sin and that he judges sin.

But what we need to realise is that the reason God hates sin is because he loves people passionately and sin wrecks and spoils people’s lives.

Sin grieves him because he cares for us so much.

I know a lady with a son who was a heroin addict. And she loved her son dearly – but she hated drugs and what they did to him.

God loves each person that he has created – but he hates what sin does to us – because it breaks his heart.

And because he is perfectly just, as we remind ourselves in this season of Advent, he will one day – when Jesus returns - hold people to account for their part in harming and hurting themselves and others.

However, he would much rather forgive us than condemn us. As Jesus said; “For I did not come to judge the world, but to save the world.”

But this can only happen as we repent – as we acknowledge our part in causing pain and hurt and then seeking with his help to turn from it.

Another common misconception that people have about God is that he is somehow removed and distant from our suffering. But did you know that God feels our suffering acutely?

I remember several years ago when our neighbour and his wife’s marriage was breaking up. This couple’s teenage daughter used to come round to our house to escape the arguments and tensions in her house, and Mary my wife was brilliant with her.

Mary told me one evening that she could really feel God’s love for this girl and her family. I said something like – “that must be nice.”

But Mary said “actually it isn’t.” I said “what do you mean?” And she said – “Well mixed with the love that I feel, I can also feel something of the pain in God’s heart at the break up of this family.”

Although this family weren’t Christians, God still loved them very much and the marriage break-up was grieving him because it wasn’t what he wanted for them. Can you imagine the pain in God’s heart at all the suffering in the world?

At a Christian camp Mary and I went to several years ago, an Argentine pastor from Buenos Aires shared seeing the city through God’s eyes in a vision that God gave him. After a while he had to ask God to stop showing him the city – because he couldn’t bear the pain in God’s heart at what he was seeing.

Psalm 34 tells us; “The Lord is close to the broken hearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit.”

So, God isn’t detatched from our suffering. Far from it – he is close to us in it, and longs with our invitation through prayer to help us through it.

FFald-y-Brenin is a Christian retreat in Pembrokeshire in Wales where God has been doing amazing healing miracles, but according to Roy Godwin who runs it – the greatest healing they see occurs as people come to know God as he really is – as a perfect, loving, gracious and compassionate Father.

In his book the Way of Blessing, Roy shares how as he went to bed one night, God told him; “I want my people to be people who come for hugs and I want them to call me father from their heart.

I want to be able to speak to them by name and tell them how much I love them, how much I delight in them. I want to grow that relationship.”

You see God really, really loves people. He really, really loves you. He created each one of us for a relationship with Him. And because of Jesus’s sacrifice of himself on the cross – we can come into his presence and enjoy that relationship without fear.

Yes, we will sin, but God’s righteous anger at our sin has already been borne by Jesus on the cross. He is like a lightning conductor if you will. He has deflected it onto himself on the cross.

So, we can approach God with confidence and without fear. And we can be completely open and honest with him. We can call him Abba, daddy, and share our deepest hopes and fears and the prayers on our heart.

Lord I’m really struggling at the moment with great Aunt Doris. I find her so annoying. Please help me to be patient with her.

Or Lord I feel so weak in my Christian life and I keep doing things I know I shouldn’t. Please help me to be stronger.

We don’t need to put on masks for fear that if he knew what we were really like he’d reject us.

He does know what we’re really like and that is the person he loves. He loves us as we are, with all our flaws and weaknesses although of course he wants to help us change into kinder more loving people – who reflect the character of Jesus.

Yes, we need to acknowledge our failures and shortcomings and confess them to him – but as we confess them with a heart that is willing to change, he forgives us.

Whoever you are sitting here this morning God knows you inside out. He knows everything about you – even what you’re thinking as I’m speaking - and he wants a relationship with you.

And if you haven’t already done so you can start that relationship now.

You can come to him exactly as you are although you will need to say sorry for pain and hurt you’ve caused to him and others. And then simply invite him to come by his Holy Spirit - the spirit of Jesus -to live in your heart and life.

And as you do this you won’t be met with a frown – but with compassion and understanding and big strong loving arms to welcome and help you.

I’d like to close with a time of prayer. I’m just going to read a few words I’ve written which I believe reflect what God wants to say to you this morning. So, close your eyes and listen to these words and then in a few moments of quiet - draw close to your loving heavenly father and share whatever is on your heart with him.

‘My dear, dear child. I love you so much – which is why I died for you. I see all your struggles and all your fears and I hear your prayers.

I am not angry or disappointed with you. Far from it. What I really want is for you to come close to me and to be completely honest about your life.

So, come and share your heart with me now in these few moments of quiet. Come close to me and allow me to love and help the real you.’