God as a cop around the corner...

At the church where I serve, we just launched into a brand new sermon series entitled Distorted. During this series we are going to address an all too frequent reality that many of us can find ourselves facing. We can find ourselves facing this reality regardless of where we are at when it comes to God.

You see, regardless of whether or not you buy the whole Bible, Jesus, or church thing; regardless of how often you have attended church in the past; regardless of the fact that you may feel like you do not know and do not feel that you can ever know about whether or not the Bible or church is real or relevant; regardless of all the bad experiences that you may have had with Christians and churches, we can all find ourselves facing this reality.

And that reality involves how we view and perceive God. The reality is that, regardless of where we are at when it comes to a relationship with God, we can have a distorted view of God because we have a distorted perception about God. And it is those distorted perceptions about God that can lead us to make distorted assumptions about God.

The great writer C.S. Lewis wrested with this reality in his life and once famously said “I do not want my image of God, I want God.” And so often, just like C.S. Lewis, we can find ourselves in a place where we have made God into our image, based on our view of God that is the result of our distorted perceptions and our assumptions about God.

And because of that reality, during this series, we are going to spend our time together addressing six distorted views of God that flow from a distorted perception and assumption about God and that can result in us shaping and molding God into our image. During this series, we are going to strive to replace those distorted perceptions and assumptions about God with six accurate views of God that were given by us by Jesus Himself so that we would be able to experience a growing and maturing relationship with God.

This week, I would like for us to address the distorted view of God as a cop around the corner. How often do we view God as the cop around the corner? I mean, if all it takes are a couple of flashing lights and a squealing siren to evoke fear of being found out, of being exposed, what fears and anxieties can rise to the surface in our lives at the slightest thought of being caught by God? Maybe I have just described how you view God? Maybe you view God as setting up a speed trap, so to speak, so that he can catch and expose all the wrong you have done. How many of us live out our day to day life with these assumptions about God.

How many of us live life with the assumption that there is actually a permanent record out there with all the wrong things that we have ever done. How many of us of us live life with the assumption that we are probably doing something wrong right now and that God is lurking around some dark corner of our lives with His radar gun, just waiting to nail us for whatever it is so that He can add yet another entry into our permanent record.

But how do we get to the place where we view God as the cop around the corner? You see, we get to this place because we often view God as a God of rules. We get to this place because we view God as a God who exists to give us rules. We view God as a God who gives us rules and people like pastors and Sunday School teachers to teach us and help Him enforce the rules to keep us from getting out of control.

However, the problem with viewing God as the cop around the corner is that our day to day lives become focused and consumed with whether or not we are keeping the rules. And as a result of our focus on whether or not we are keeping the rules, whether or not we are keeping the rules becomes the driving focus of our lives and determines the depth of our relationship with God. Thus, our image and view of God becomes that of a rule maker that busts the rule breakers and we end up living life in fear of God.

However, to view God as a cop around the corner who is simply a rule maker that busts the rule breakers is a distorted view of God. We see this reality revealed in a section of an account of Jesus life that is recorded for us in the Bible called the gospel of Luke. And it is in this section of this account of Jesus life that we discover a timeless and true view of God that can help us rid ourselves of the distorted view of God as the cop around the corner and replace it with an accurate view of God that will enable us to experience a growing relationship with God.

Friday, we will jump into this section of the gospel of Luke together…