"Admit God Knows Better than You"

This week, I want to continue with the second of the blog post series from the short book called Listen Up from Christopher Ash. The last post looked at how we should expect to hear God speak each week through His word and preaching. This week, the focus is on how we must admit that God knows better than us.

It was only just a few years ago that I remember watching one of my favorite preachers on TV speaking to a packed audience in his church. Everything about the way he preached moved me. His passion, his command of the audience, his eloquent speech. Several years later as I look back, I see how the things that had stood out to me at that time did so because they were the tools that he used to tell me what I wanted to hear at that time. I wanted to be affirmed of who I was. I wanted to know that God was on board with my plans. I wanted to know that God had faith in me. What I needed to hear though was that I was a sinful and disobedient man that needed Christ. This may be your story too. Unfortunately, it’s the story of many Christians in the American church today. So how do we change this? We start by admitting that God knows better than us. Christopher Ash states, in his book, that we must come humbly to the preaching of God’s word and bow down to Him in submission when He speaks. Our problem is that we come to the Bible with prejudices, prior beliefs and assumptions that we get from culture. A culture that says what is normal, acceptable and believable. The sad part is, many Christians fall for this. When we come on Sunday, we want the Bible to tell us we’re ok, what we’ve done is ok and what we believe is ok. This was exactly my problem. I had dealt with challenges all week so I just needed something to affirm who I was. The last thing I wanted was to be convicted that what I was doing and what I believed was wrong. But that’s not the Bible story. The Bible is about redemption. It’s about God seeking and saving those who are lost. This means we must come to the Bible as a messed up person. A messed up person who hears the Bible call them to repentance and to not tell them they’re ok. This is what good teaching does. Good teaching causes offence. Good teaching doesn’t just tell people what their itching ears want to hear (2 Timothy 4:3). Good teaching may even make us feel insulted at times. Just ask the Pharisees. We as listeners must listen humbly, admit that we’re wrong and God is God and that we need to change.

3 PRACTICAL STEPS
1. Ask yourself which parts of this week’s preached passage challenged you?
2. Ask yourself does the passage clearly teach these things?
3. Pray that the Holy Spirit will help you submit to what the Bible says and to help you change.