August 3rd Sermon Capsule - Does God Change?

This week we discussed whether or not God changes, and the implications that has for the Church and individual Christians.

I began with two seemingly contradictory passages that talked about God changing. One, from Hosea 11:1-9 points to God's mind changing and showing mercy/grace toward the people of Israel. The other, from Numbers 23:19 has God's mind not changing because God is God and therefore doesn't do that kind of thing. I further pointed out passages in Genesis and Exodus that both report God's mind changing, or at the very least God's plans being modified. I pointed out that often we take for granted that God does not change, because God is perfect, and to change would be to become less than perfect. I also hoped to illustrate that this line of thinking is not entirely in line with who scripture presents God to be. To wrap up the question of God changing I suggested that God may or may not change (we could debate it endlessly) but what is certain is that as humans we change and misinterpret/missunderstand all of the time.

This brought me to talking about the changes that have occured in the Church over the past 2,000 years. We in no way covered these changes comprehensively, but I essentially took the stance that the changes that have occurred were in no way fundamental to Christianity, but were rather minor details. I asserted that if a church or several churches were to change fundamentally, this would cause a break from Christianity and thus we would not have a problem.

I suggested that this was not really the concern being voiced in the question that inspired this week's message, but rather that the question was concerned with how individual Christian's can know if changes in the Church are fundamental or merely minor. Here we turned to 2 Peter 2:1-3. This passage is dealing with the issue of false teachers and those who lead well-meaning Christians astray. I asked how we could avoid this problem, and then answered by knowing God. I then suggested that the best way to do this is by knowing The Bible, the writings given us for the express purpose of coming to know God and God's will more fully. I lamented that unfortunately it has been my experience that in any given church (especially the United Methodist Church) 70-95 percent of the people have little to no knowledge of the Bible and therefore could be lead to believe nearly anything about God and God's will.

I concluded by emphasizing that it is up to each individual to come to know God and to read and study his or her Bible. If you merely take another person's word for who God is and what God wants, then what you'll be coming to know is who that person thinks God is and what that person thinks God wants. Basically I want the people of Oxford & McDonough United Methodist Churches (really all Christians) to take their faith seriously. To actually make it their own. Invest time in your relationship with God. Read the Bible and learn for yourself who God is and what God wants from you.