Common Lie 8: I Dont Think God Likes Me.

Intro: Good morning everyone, I hope y’all had a great last week. We had a great time at the band concerts yesterday! Wednesday was awesome as well.

So todays lie we are going over is: I dont think God likes me or the if/then relationship we try to have with God.

ask if anyone has felt like “God does/did not like them”.

My Story kind of goes along this lie. My entire life I grew up in church. Taught to always pray everyday, read my bible everyday, and study it as well. I knew God loved me, and that I was saved at a young age, but as I started to grow up and praying reading and studying, got harder and harder to do. Life kind of happens. I thought that if I would hold God’s commands and rules, then He would still like me.

This is a terrible lie.

Two Ditches of Self-Righteousness

Working real hard to get God to like you is a fruit of self righteousness. Its the effort to become righteous before God by your own efforts.

You decide what is wrong and what is right.

Arrogance

You have made it to super christian status!

Whether it be the pastors sermon, or the worship songs lyrics, nothing is deep enough for you.

Having all of these memory verses, bible stories and stuff all memorized and using them in everyday life to prove that you know it all.

But deep inside, you are insecure and dealing with secret sin, while on the outside you look like the Holy of Holies.

On top of everything, these verses hang over our heads:

Proverbs 16:18 ESV

Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall.

1 Peter 5:5 ESV

Likewise, you who are younger, be subject to the elders. Clothe yourselves, all of you, with humility toward one another, for “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.”

And if you don’t fall into the ditch of arrogance, you will for sure burnout. Just as I have done before.

Burnout

Its the point in believing this lie, that we have to do so much to get God to like me, where you and I admit that we can’t do it and acknowledge our insecurities and say, “Well whats the point anyway? I’ll never measure up. I’ll never see victory, so why try? I quit.”

Reality: self-righteousness becomes its own from of religion and religions are formed. A religion where mankinds efforts can do for their god or gods.

However, the Bible tells us differently.

God’s unconditional Love

Agape love. Sacrificing love. Most relationships are based on an if/then, also known as a conditional kind of love.

Ephesians 1:4–5 ESV

even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will,

Romans 5:8 ESV

but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

John 3:16 ESV

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.

Truth:

You Cant work to get God to like you and at the same time rest in the fact that God already loves you. You have to choose.

Next week lie: Believe in yourself.