Don't Believe the Lies About God

Dr. Jeff Schreve: The Bible says about the devil, he deceives the whole world. He is a master liar and a master deceiver, and doubtless there's people and they believe lies about God. They believe that God is mean, that God is cruel, that God is sadistic, that God doesn't come through, that God is not worthy to be trusted, that God has an angry disposition, that God has a hair-trigger temper, that God is looking to find somebody having fun so he can stamp it out. That's what so many people believe about God. Hey, will the real God please stand up?
Larry Nobles: God is good and he longs to bless his children. But what can we learn about God through his blessings? This is from his heart with Pastor Jeff Schreve and today we begin a series from Pastor Jeff that will bless your socks off. That is, of course, if you're on blessing ground already. It's called Do You Want to Be Blessed? How to Experience the Goodness of God. Now Pastor, I would suppose that everyone wants to be blessed, so what are you talking about here when you ask the question, Do you want to be blessed? What do you think people need to hear?
Dr. Jeff Schreve: Well, people need to hear that God is a good God and God doesn't want to steal all their fun. He doesn't want to you know, God doesn't sit in heaven on a throne with a a bag of thunderbolts in one hand and a big billy club in the other hand finding people having a good time and ready to break it up. God is a good God who wants to bless his children and he wants to fill us with joy and peace and power and good things. He's a good father and just like good fathers out there in in the audience, they they want to be good to their children and do things for their children. Well, so does God. And so we're going to look today and see how we can get in on the goodness of God and experience the blessings that he has for us. And it 's not just monetary, it it's so much more than that and it's the things that God wants to do inside to help us know him better.
Larry Nobles: Well, one thing is sure, as we get to know him better, we'll grow to appreciate the depth and breadth of God's grace. It's beyond amazing. Let's get into the first message from the series, Do You Want to Be Blessed? How to Experience the Goodness of God. If you're able, open your Bible to the Old Testament book of Numbers, chapter 6 and turn to verse 22. And our first lesson in this series is entitled, Will the Real God Please Stand Up?
Dr. Jeff Schreve: In 1956, a new game show, television game show hit the airwaves. It was called To Tell the Truth. If you're younger, you probably have never seen it before. It was a very popular show and this is how the show worked. You had a celebrity panel of four celebrities and they were like the judges and you had three people that came before them and sat in these three chairs and they would tell a little bit about this one person who had done something, had a unique occupation or had done something, some experience that was really unique and special. And all three of the people that stood before the judges, they claimed to be that one that had that unique occupation or that unique experience. I think the most famous person that was ever on to tell the truth was a man named Frank William Abagnale. They did a story about him called Catch Me If You Can. Some of you had seen that movie. Frank William Abagnale was a con man. He was a scam artist. He was on to tell the truth and all three of the guys came and he had two imposters with him and he was there and you remember how the show worked? The first first person would say, I am Frank William Abagnale. And then the other person would say, I am Frank William Abagnale. And then the real guy would say, I am Frank William Abagnale. And the way the show worked is that the two imposters tried to trick the judges so that they would think that they were the real guy. It was a fun show. It was a little friendly deception. And at the end of the show, at the end of the time, the judges would pick who they thought was the real one. And then you always had the host. Joe Garagiola was the host of that show. And I remember on that one episode, it's on YouTube. You can watch it. He said, Will the real Frank William Abagnale please stand up? And then you have the three guys seated and one looks over at the other guy and they're playing around like, oh, who is it? And then finally the real guy stands up and then the judges are like, oh wow, we didn't get it right. On his episode, nobody got it right. They all thought it was the other two guys. The real Frank William Abagnale, he had scammed them again. They didn't even know it was him. He's a scammer. There's a friendly a game of friendly deception. Now listen, in the spiritual realm, the devil does the same thing. Although it's not friendly deception, it is deadly deception and he does it with God. He wants to get you to believe in an imposter God. He wants to get you to think things about God and believe things about God that aren't true. And for you to say, well, that is God and that's not the real God, that's an imposter God. The Bible says about the devil, he deceives the whole world. He is a master liar and a master deceiver, and doubtless there's people and they believe lies about God. They believe that God is mean, that God is cruel, that God is sadistic, that God doesn't come through, that God is not worthy to be trusted, that God has an angry disposition, that God has a hair-trigger temper, that God is looking to find somebody having fun so he can stamp it out. That's what so many people believe about God. Hey, will the real God please stand up? We're starting a new series today on blessings. I've entitled it, Do You Want to Be Blessed? How to experience the goodness of God, how to get in on the goodness of God. And for the very first message, we want to look at the character of God. Will the real God please stand up? God is such a good God. Don't ever believe lies about God. God is good. Look what it says in Psalm 34 verse 8. Oh taste and see that the Lord is good. How blessed, how happy, how fortunate, how much to be envied is the man who takes refuge in him. You mark it down and burn it in your brain and burn it on your heart. The real God is a good God who longs to bless his children. The real God is a good God who longs to bless his children. Now we're going to look at the classic blessing passage today in Numbers chapter 6. So if you have your Bible, turn to Numbers chapter 6 and I'll begin reading in verse 22. God wants to speak to your heart and to mine today as we look at this wonderful passage. Number 6:22, Then the Lord Yahweh Lord is in caps and anytime you run across l o r d all in caps, that's God's special covenant name Yahweh y h w h in the Hebrew. Then the Lord spoke to Moses saying, Speak to Aaron and to his sons saying, Thus you shall bless the sons of Israel. You shall say to them, The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make his face shine on you and be gracious to you. The Lord lift up his countenance on you and give you peace. So they shall invoke my name on the sons of Israel and I then will bless them. This is such a wonderful passage. It's God telling Moses to tell Aaron Aaron who was the priest. Moses was the prophet, Aaron was the priest and his sons were part of the Aaronic priesthood. They were the priests. They were to bless the people on behalf of God. Now from this passage, we get insight into the character of God, into the heart of God so that the real God stands up in our minds and in our hearts so that we understand who the real God is. It breaks all sorts of lies and deceptions that the devil tries to put in our minds about God. Now I want you to notice with me six insights into the character and the heart of God. And we are going to go through these fairly quickly so you keep up. What do we learn about God from this blessing? Number one, we know that God is a good God who wants to bless you. Very simple, very straightforward, but very obvious. God is a good God who wants to bless his children. Look at it again. He says, The Lord spoke to Moses saying, Speak to Aaron and to his sons saying, Thus you shall bless the sons of Israel. Now God is not giving them a suggestion. He's not thinking, You know Moses, I was kind of thinking about this. Might be a good idea to every now and then have Aaron say this to the sons of Israel. No, this is what Aaron is supposed to say. He shall bless the sons of Israel and he shall bless them in this way. It's a command given God to Moses to tell Aaron, Do this to my people. Now why would God do that? Why is he saying that? Why is he commanding this blessing? Because God wants to bless his people. God longs to bless his children. That's a desire in God's heart to bless. Now the Hebrew word for bless is the word barak b a r a k barak. It's used 171 times in the Old Testament. It means if you look it up, barak means to bless. Barak literally means to kneel. And it means when it talks about to bless, to bring a gift, a benefit, to give something of value to someone else. And it's a beautiful picture as God blesses his people that the great king of the whole universe would bend down. He would kneel down to give a benefit to his people. That's the word barak. Now the Bible also uses a different word in the Old Testament for bless. It's the word esher. And that's the word that's used in Psalm 34 verse 8 to oh taste and see that the Lord is good. How blessed esher which means happy, which means fortunate, which means to be envied. In the New Testament, the word to be blessed is the word makarios. And that word means happy. Jesus preached the sermon on the mount, the beatitudes. Blessed, happy are the peacemakers. Happy are those who are pure in heart. He has all these different things that he says. Hey, you know what? A big part of this blessing, this thing that God wants to bestow to you and me, a big huge part of that is happiness. God wants happy kids. Doesn't that sound like something that you would want if you were God? I mean, you have kids, right? Many of you have kids. Do you like to have happy kids? Who likes to go on a long trip in the summer with unhappy kids? Has anybody ever done that before? We Debbie and I have done that before, long trips in the car with unhappy campers. It's whining, it's griping, it's Are we almost there yet? I got to go to the bathroom. I'm car sick. Blah blah blah. She's touching me. You know what dads do when that goes on, what I did as a godly dad? I prayed the prayer of Elijah. It is enough, oh Lord. Please now take my life. I mean, it just be that kind of deal. We want happy kids. God wants his kids to be happy. Oh, but don't get don't get off here. Some people in a bad marriage, they say, well, you know, God wants me happy. Pastor Jeff said God wants me happy and so what would make me happy is to divorce my uh spouse and marry somebody else. That would make me really happy. Happy people are holy people. Happy people are those who take refuge in the Lord. Happy people are those who obey God. Happiness and holiness go together. And if you want to be happy, don't disobey God. Do what God says. And God says, My ways will make you happy. So that's the very first insight. God has a good heart and the good heart of God wants to bless his children. He wants you to be happy.
Larry Nobles: You're listening to From His Heart with Pastor Jeff Schreve. And he'll continue the message, Will the Real God Please Stand Up? In just a moment. It's from his series, Do You Want to Be Blessed? Did you know that people can't experience that blessing more often than not because they are eaten up with guilt? It's a terrible feeling that so many people live with every day. Guilt about sins of the past or things they wish they would have done, but time has passed by. Jesus said, And you shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free. That 's John 8:32. The truth is God's grace goes beyond amazing. And when we receive him as Lord, his love for us is unimaginable. It is boundless. We want to help you know that kind of love and rest in it by offering you Pastor Jeff's seven lesson series Beyond Amazing. Understanding the grace of God. It's our gift to you this month for your support of any amount. And Pastor Jeff will address how your guilt is keeping you from being blessed by God and fully receiving his gift of grace. For your support of any amount today, request Beyond Amazing when you call 866-40 Bible 866-40 Bible or go online to fromhisheart.org. Request yours and then you'll be more in tune with the goodness of God. Now let's get back to the second part of the lesson today. Will the Real God Please Stand Up?
Dr. Jeff Schreve: Second insight. God wants to give you protection and care. The Lord bless you and keep you. Keep you. The word for keep in the Hebrew is an interesting word shamar s h a m a r shamar. It literally means to hedge about with thorns. It's a picture of being protected and being watched over and being cared for and attended to. It's the picture really keep shamar. It's the picture of a shepherd who keeps his sheep. Jeremiah 31 verse 10 says, The Lord will keep us as a shepherd keeps his flock. And the word that's used there in Jeremiah is the word shamar. The Lord keeps us. He protects us. He hedges us in. He watches over us. He provides for us as a shepherd does his sheep. The Lord Jesus said of himself, I am the good shepherd. And I lay down my life for the sheep. For so many people, their favorite verse in the Bible is Psalm 23 verse 1. The Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want. The Lord shepherds me. The Lord keeps me. The Lord provides for me. God wants to do that. That's in his good heart is to provide and protect and to care for his own, to pour that out on you, his protection and his care. I remember the first sermon that I ever preached. It was in a church in Tomball. First time I had ever preached on a Sunday morning. Let me preface that or qualify that. And uh at this church, it was so cool. In their baptistry, we have that beautiful mosaic thing, whatever it is, but it's really pretty, different colors. It's supposed to be like the face of God and and I love that picture because it 's a picture of the good shepherd who lays down his life for the sheep. And the sheep that he holds to his heart. The Lord keeps me. He wants to do that for me. Isaiah 41 says this, He will feed his flock like a shepherd. He will carry the lambs in his arms, holding them close to his heart. He will gently lead the mother sheep with their young. God wants to bless you. He wants to make you happy. And God wants to keep you, to give you protection and care. And then it says in verse 25, The Lord make his face shine on you. Insight number three. God wants to make his face shine on you. He really does. So the Lord make his face shine on you. Why is why is he saying say that over my people? Why? Cuz that's what he wants to do. Now what does that tell you when it says the Lord make his face shine on you? Tells you two really awesome, wonderful things. Number one, God has his face toward you. God has his face toward you. His eye is on the sparrow and I know he watches me. You you know, here's one of the the lies that people believe. You know, Will the real God please stand up? But the devil says, no, here is God. The the here's the imposter God. He's the real one and he's the one when you sin, when you mess up, when you do something that you know you shouldn't do and you do it anyway, you know what God does? God turns his back to you. God's not going to look at you. Look what you did. He turns his back on you. I remember teaching a Bible study one time and this lady in there did not like me. And you know how I knew she didn't like me? She would not look at me the whole time I taught that Bible study. She would not look at me at all. She just kept looking down. She was just looking at the ground. I felt kind of bad about that until I talked to a pastor friend of mine. He said, man, I have people in my church when I get up to preach, they totally turn around in their chair. They just put their back to me. I was like, wow, this this girl was a little nicer than that. She didn't turn her chair. She just wouldn't look at me. And you know, you can always tell somebody's not very pleased with you and they won't look at you, right? Well, some of you think that's what God is doing with you. God's turned his back on me. God won't look at me. Lie. And this is how I know it's a lie. When the prodigal son left the father and left the farm and basically said to his dad, I wish you were dead. I can't wait around forever for you to die, so give me my share of the inheritance early. And he goes off to the far country and he wastes his money on things that shamed the father. A life of wine, women and song and prostitutes and and drunkenness and all the different things that he did. He ends up at the pig's sty. And at the pig's sty, he comes to his senses and says, I will get up and go to my father and say, Father, I've sinned against heaven and in your sight. I'm no longer worthy to be called your son, but make me like one of your hired men. And he left the pig's sty and he came to go to his father. And the Bible says that while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and he ran to him. While he was a long way off, the father saw him. How could the father see him a long way off? He was looking in his direction. He was looking for him. His eyes were on his direction, wondering one day walking on the porch on his property, wondering is today the day my son will come home? He's looking in that direction. God is looking in your direction. He's wanting you to look to him. He's saying, oh, will you just look to me? He he says in his word, all day long I've stretched out my hand to a disobedient and obstinate people. He's looking and waiting for you to look to him so he can make his face shine on you. His face is toward you. What is on his face? Is it a frown? Is it a scowl? Is his face blood red with anger? You mark this down. God is not a mad God. God is not a sad God. God is a glad God. He's a glad God. When the father came to the prodigal, he didn't come with a scowl. He didn't come red-faced. He didn't come with anger. He didn't come with tears. He came with tears of joy. He came with a smile. My son is dead and he has come back to life again. He was so excited. God is excited about you. And he wants his face, his smile to shine upon you. Verse 25 in the New Living Translation says, May the Lord smile on you. God wants to do that. See, his face is toward you and it's a friendly face. It's a happy face and he wants others to see him shining in your life. And to shine upon you. You know, people notice that. That gets their attention when the presence of God shines off on you. When Moses spent time with God on Mount Sinai, the scripture says, And it came about when Moses was coming down from Mount Sinai that Moses did not know that the skin of his face shone because of his speaking with him. Did you know that that can happen in a very real way spiritually when you spend time with God, when you enter into his presence, that people know it, that his face shines upon you, that his smile shines upon you and people can tell that you've been with God and they can tell that you're happy and that you're excited. Friend of mine used to say, hey, if you're happy and you know it, tell your face. Hey, I'm happy. Man, there's stuff to to be excited about. The Lord wants to shine his face on you. Insight number four. God wants to pour out his grace on you. The Lord make his face shine on you verse 25 and be gracious to you and be gracious to you. Have you experienced God's grace in your life? God's grace is the unmerited favor of God. That means you didn't earn it. That means you don't deserve it. He just gives it to you anyway. Why? Because he's the God of all grace. And he wants to pour it out. Ephesians says he lavishes his grace upon us. God is a good God.
Larry Nobles: Yes, he is. Well, there's more to say next time about God's unmerited graciousness to us on From His Heart. Pastor Jeff will be back then to complete the lesson. Will the real God please stand up? Make plans to be with us tomorrow as we continue learning about the six insights into the character and heart of God. The series we're in now, Do You Want to Be Blessed? How to experience the goodness of God. If you want to be blessed in your life, we encourage you to visit our website at fromhisheart.org and click the read tab. And there you'll find a boatload of materials on all kinds of topics from Pastor Jeff Schreve. It's a long list that includes free booklets and messages and all kinds of free stuff. Just go to fromhisheart.org and you will be blessed. Well, time is gone for today. Thank you for being here with us. I'm Larry Nobles, hoping you'll join us tomorrow for the broadcast when Pastor Jeff will have part two of the message, Will the Real God Please Stand Up? That's from his series, Do You Want to Be Blessed? That's on Thursday when Pastor Jeff Schreve will share real truth, real love and real hope from God's heart here on From His Heart.