Who are you to counsel God?

More from Matt Chandler... Im enjoying this

"For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been his counselor?" (Romans 11)

Now, to some degree, we do have revelation from God, so we do know some of the mind of the Lord. He gave us the Scriptures, He speaks to us in dreams and in visions and in words of knowledge, never that go contrary to the Scripture, but He speaks to us in all these varying ways.
The Bible says He speaks to us through creation. So, God has, in some sense, revealed Himself at some level to you and me, but not so much that we would ever be able to counsel Him.

So, He might have revealed some of His character, some of His attributes, some of His will to mankind, but He has not given us enough information to ever go, “Um, I've got to ask You something here. I'm watching what You're doing here, and I just think... just hear me out, have You thought about this?” and have God go, “Well, holy Me. I have never thought of that. Thank you. What would have happened right there? I would have messed the whole universe up. Praise Me, you are awesome.”

Nobody gets to counsel God. Nobody gets to give God advice. Nobody gets to straighten God's path, no one.

It's this next part of the text that I think is absolutely terrifying. Let's look at it.
“For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been his counselor? Or who has given a gift to him that he might be repaid?”
Alright, if everything is His, you have nothing to give Him that He doesn't already own. Which means, if you cannot give gifts to God, you cannot put Him into your debt. Which means, in the end, God owes no man anything. He owes us nothing. Your very existence has been gifted to you by His grace.

Every bit of laughter, every great morsel of food, every smile is His mercy and grace, and He owes you nothing.

Now let me tell you why this is so terrifying. Because now if this is true, we have nothing to negotiate with Him on and nothing to bargain with Him on.
But most Evangelicals believe that we have a position of bargaining.
And so, we come to the throne and we say, “I'll do this, and You'll do this. And if I do this, then You'll do this for me.”
And in the end, God says, “You keep trying to pay Me off with stuff that's already Mine.”

“I'll give You my life.” (us)
“Please, I'll take that life if I want it. I'm God.” (God)

“Well, I'll serve You.” (us)
“I'm not served by human hands as though I needed anything. What are you going to do, give Me something to eat? What are you going to do, fix My house? What are you going to give to Me, as if I'm lacking? I'm not lacking.” (God)

And so, here's where it starts to reveal idolatry and pride in us. We want to say, “I'll do this and then God will bless me with this.”
Wrong, who says? Well, bad preachers do.
Besides them, who says? Ministers with no respect for the Scriptures say, who preach out of emotion instead of texts, who tickle ears with no fear of God.

He owes you nothing, nothing. Not health, not long life, not love, not a husband or wife, not healthy children. He owes you nothing. And you have nothing to give to Him that He doesn't already outright own or possess. And so, most people want to go, “Well, what about serving Him and following Him?” Well, in reality all God has to do is reveal Himself to you fully and you'll gladly with full joy serve Him. He won't force the issue, He just has to reveal Himself as He is.

No man goes back to saltine crackers when he's had fillet. For you college kids, no one goes back to Ramen noodles when they've had other stuff. I mean, nobody eats a piece of fillet and all of a sudden never wants it anymore. God never forces anyone to love Him, but as He reveals Himself, men follow. They can't help it.

Out.