Sabbath 1-23-2016 Edgewater Seventh Day BAPTIST Pastor Keith “Playing God” Genesis 3:1-6

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Sabbath 1-23-2016 Edgewater Seventh Day BAPTIST Pastor Keith “Playing God” Genesis 3:1-6

 

 

Does anyone know the holiday on January 9^th? Its “Play God Day”. According to cute calendar. Com, “The day encourages you to do something nice for someone to make someone’s day better and brighter. On this day you don't have to perform miracles, it is enough to do something simple.” On days of the year . com, “The concept of Play God Day is pretty simple. What would you do if you were god for a day? If you were god how would you change the world? If you had the place of the higher being you could set right all the wrongs you see in the world - and that is the theme and purpose for this day.”

Kind of a strange “holiday” – but, any day that is dedicated to encouraging people to “do something nice for someone else” can’t be all bad. But you know, most people don’t need any encouragement in “playing God.” It’s a natural human tendency…and we see the 1st shadow of that tendency way back in the Garden of Eden when Eve was tempted by Satan. Satan cunningly began to put doubt in Eve’s mind: “Did God REALLY say…” and then he directly accused God of lying: “you shall not surely die … God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God...” Genesis 3:5. And then… “when (she) saw that the fruit of the tree was … desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it…” Genesis 3:6. The temptation appealed to Eve because she WANTED to become like God!!! We tend to want to do things OUR WAY. And it’s almost like this is hard wired into us from birth.

An old sailor repeatedly got lost at sea, so his friends gave him a compass and urged him to use it. The next time he went out in his boat, he followed their advice and took the compass with him. But as usual he became hopelessly confused and was unable to find land. Finally he was rescued by his friends. Disgusted and impatient with him, they asked, "Why didn't you use that compass we gave you? You could have saved us a lot of trouble!" The sailor responded, "I didn't dare to! I wanted to go north, but as hard as I tried to make the needle aim in that direction, it just kept on pointing southeast." The old sailor was so certain he knew which was north that he stubbornly tired to force his own personal persuasion on his compass.

We have a tendency to want to decide our own direction… to make our own decisions. Another way that we “play God” is that we have a tendency to want to punish the ones who don’t see things our way. In Luke 9:53-54 we read: “… (Jesus and the Disciples) entered a village of the Samaritans... But they did not receive Him, because His face was set for the journey to Jerusalem. And when His disciples James and John saw this, they said, ‘Lord, do You want us to command fire to come down from heaven and consume them, just as Elijah did?’ But He turned and rebuked them, and said, "You do not know what manner of spirit you are of.”

James and John wanted the privilege of calling down fire from heaven. They wanted to play God. We have a tendency to want to put ourselves in the place of God. Like when a car pulls out in front of you… Fire from heaven! When someone is inconsiderate of our feelings… BOOM! But then when calling down the fiery wrath of God doesn’t work, we sometimes resort to an alternate method: we go around and TELL everybody else about how terrible that other person is. And when we tell others about how terrible that other person is… we PLAY GOD. James 4:11-12 tells us: “Brothers and sisters, do not slander one another. Anyone who speaks against a brother or sister or judges them speaks against the law and judges it. When you judge the law, you are not keeping it, but sitting in judgment on it. There is only one Lawgiver and Judge, the one who is able to save and destroy. But you —who are you to judge your neighbor?” How many Lawgivers and Judges are there? (ONE) And that Judge is GOD.

But Jesus taught us that there is a better way to deal with folks who annoy and irritate us: you don’t talk about them behind their backs to others… you talk to the person who’s offended you. In Matthew 18:15 Jesus said: “If your brother sins against you, go and show him his fault, just between the two of you. If he listens to you, you have won your brother over.” So, if someone sins against me, what am I supposed to do? GO Directly TO THEM! Do not pass “go”. Do not collect $200. DO NOT talk to your neighbors about it. Go to the one who has offended you. On the flip side, in the Sermon on the Mount Jesus taught: “if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled to your brother; then come and offer your gift.” Matthew 5:23-24

So, if I have sinned against you, what am I supposed to do? I’m supposed to go to you! And if you have sinned against me, what am I supposed to do? I’m supposed to go to you! So, whether you’ve sinned against me, or I’ve sinned against you, I’m supposed to go to you and make things right. The Bible actually tells us to become “like God”. Rather than playing God, we should become “like” God. Paul writes: “Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ.” 1 Corinthians 11:1 ESV. In other words, Paul sought to imitate Christ. He wanted to be like Him - to be LIKE God. And he encourages the readers to do the same thing.

When someone started this “Play God Day,” that’s really what they had in mind. Their idea was to encourage people “…to do something nice for someone to make someone’s day better and brighter.” But you can’t imitate just ANY God to get that done. The gods of all other world religions are cold, and impersonal. Those gods never set the example of how we should live. Philippians 2:3-8 tells us: “Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others. Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made Himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled himself and became obedient to death— even death on a cross!”

Jesus is the God we can imitate. In fact, Jesus said that was part of the reason He came: “.. the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many." Matthew 20:28. So if you’re going to Play God... you need to imitate Jesus Christ. If you’re going to play God, you need to understand that: He’s GOD, and we’re Not. He’s in charge and we’re Not. Romans 10:9 says: “That if you confess with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.”

In order to be a Christian you need to confess that Jesus is LORD. In the days of Jesus, if you called someone your Lord, it meant they owned you. They were the Master, you were the slave. So, if you declare that Jesus is your LORD…you’re saying that He owns you. He owns everything you have. Your car, your house, your bank account. He owns your spouse, your kids your grandkids. HE OWNS YOU!!! He’s God and you’re Not. In Isaiah 45: 22 God says it this way: "Turn to me and be saved, all you ends of the earth; for I am GOD, and there is no other.”

Many of us call ourselves Christians, but Jesus is not the Lord of our lives. We say we serve Him, but then we live our lives just like everyone else. Some of us sit on the couch and watch 6 hours of TV every day, but never crack a Bible to read of the One who created heaven and earth! We stay in communication with our Facebook friends, but how often do we speak to our Heavenly Father in prayer. We confess Christ with our lips, but little change is made in the heart. We proclaim, “Jesus is KING!” And then live comfortably and willfully in sin and disobedience. When we surrender our will to the will of Christ, we CAN conquer the sinful tendency we have to “play God” in our lives. It’s only when Jesus is THE most important thing in our lives that we can step down from the throne in our own hearts and make Him our King and then our lives will be honorable before GOD.

 

AMEN