Doing Business with God:
A Transactional God
by Ken Wilson
God is someone we can transact business with. We are not passive subjects, but active agents in relation to God. God responds to us. Our response to God makes a difference to Him. The things we say & do in response to God affect us/him/our relationship.
Understanding that God is a Transactional God opens up a new realm of possibilties between us and God.
Until it dawns on us that there is business to be done with God, we relate to God like we relate to sky: up there but there's no interaction, we're passive subjects to impersonal forces. Stars shine on us, but they're not going to bed singing, "Twinkle, twinkle little people."
Sometimes children grow up believing they don't have any power to impact their parents. Less true of families today, but I grew up with motto, Children Should Be Seen, Not Heard….
I remember moment it dawned on me that I was an active agent with respect to my father. In high school sports--track & cross country. Academics didn't interest me. I got into UM by the skin of my teeth….
This frustrated my father no end. Older sisters excellent students. Went to the smart kids high school, Cass Tech. A's were the norm.
My father slipped into nagging-vague-threat mode: implying if didn't bring up my grades, he could pull me from sports. After another mediocre report card and another vague threat, I lost it: If you're gonna pull plug on track, just do it--I can't stand constant threats!"
What happened next stunned me: He said, "You're right, I've just been holding this over your head. What it is Ken is that I was an under achiever in high school like you. I never really applied myself. I see a lot of myself in you and it makes me nervous. I'm frustrated by myself as much as you. I'm sorry."
As though something transpired between my father and me.
God is a transactional Being. This goes all way back to Abraham...
Abram was a good pagan, the Son of Terah, from Ur of Chaldeans-- Babylon where sky gods reigned. Abram used to burning incense to placate sky gods. Goal of pagan religion: get gods off your back….
But one day the sky talked back inside Abrams heart and said, "Leave your father and go to a land I will show you."
And a process of progressive revelation begins. Each early interaction reveals something oft the kind of connection God seeks with humans.
Gen. 18: God is someone we can transact business with. 1 The LORD appeared to Abraham near the great trees of Mamre while he was sitting at the entrance to his tent in the heat of the day. 2 Abraham looked up and saw three men standing nearby. When he saw them, he hurried from the entrance of his tent to meet them and bowed low to the ground. [11]
Nothing cut & dried about God in Bible. God is a being of mystery, paradox, subtly. God is poetry, music, art, biology, love, not accounting [mystery-art to acct. & God has practical face: wisdom]
The Lord does not appear with a nametag: "Hello, My Name is God" One Lord, appearing as three persons. One of early hints in the Bible that God is Trinity: F-S-HS. Early in Genesis being, "Let us make man in our image, male and female"
As a stranger-trio passing through Abraham's territory in heat of day, the Lord presents himself to Abraham in need of hospitality.
God places himself in a vulnerable position with respect to humans. (To be in a relationship is to be vulnerable.)
Abraham said, "If I have found favor in your eyes, my lord, do not pass your servant by. 4 Let a little water be brought, and then you may all wash your feet and rest under this tree. 5 Let me get you something to eat, so you can be refreshed and then go on your way—now that you have come to your servant." "Very well," they answered, "do as you say." 6 So Abraham hurried into the tent to Sarah. "Quick," he said, "get three seahs of the finest flour and knead it and bake some bread." 7 Then he ran to the herd and selected a choice, tender calf and gave it to a servant, who hurried to prepare it. 8 He then brought some curds and milk and the calf that had been prepared, and set these before them. While they ate, he stood near them under a tree.
Abraham understands not ordinary guests….so eager to please. As he stand by while they eat, must wonder, Who is this?
9 "Where is your wife Sarah?" they asked him. "There, in the tent," he said. Then the LORD said, "I will surely return to you about this time next year, and Sarah your wife will have a son." Now Sarah was listening at the entrance to the tent, which was behind him. Abraham and Sarah were already very old, and Sarah was past the age of childbearing. So Sarah laughed to herself as she thought, "After I am worn out and my lord is old, will I now have this pleasure?" Then the LORD said to Abraham, "Why did Sarah laugh and say, 'Will I really have a child, now that I am old?' Is anything too hard for the LORD? I will return to you at the appointed time next year and Sarah will have a son." Sarah was afraid, so she lied and said, "I did not laugh." But he said, "Yes, you did laugh."
Having revealed his vulnerability, Lord touches the vulnerability of Abraham & Sarah. Promise to reverse lifelong infertility.
If you have faced infertility you know what a vulnerable place that is. If facing cancer, get treatment, then you sweat out follow up tests, every six months, every twelve, until you hit five year mark.
But with infertility it's a fresh disappointment, every month, month after month. The Lord wades right into this vulnerable space with a promise---must have felt like a knife; raising hope after it's died is a dangerous business. Is hope alive, or is it a zombie come to torment?
16 When the men got up to leave, they looked down toward Sodom, and Abraham walked along with them to see them on their way. 17 Then the LORD said, "Shall I hide from Abraham what I am about to do? 18 Abraham will surely become a great and powerful nation, and all nations on earth will be blessed through him. 19 For I have chosen him, so that he will direct his children and his household after him to keep the way of the LORD by doing what is right and just, so that the LORD will bring about for Abraham what he has promised him."
God regards Abraham as a somebody, a significant somebody.
20 Then the LORD said, "The outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is so great and their sin so grievous 21 that I will go down and see if what they have done is as bad as the outcry that has reached me. If not, I will know."
God reveals his concern, what's brought him down: "I'll investigate to see if what they have done is as bad as outcry that has reached me.'" Outcry: za'aq "associated w. shrieks of oppressed"; cry of the victims
After exile from garden, what is first thing in Bible that God hears? Cry of victim! To Cain, "Listen! Your brother's blood cries out to me from the ground." Cain deaf to it, we may be, but God is not.
In Bible, this is what brings God down to earth. Cry of victim. It's not that his rules have been broken and he's upset with rule breakers. It's the cry of the victims. He hears their cry and he is moved!
Modern day Slavery is the second largest and fastest growing criminal industry in the world. Over 12 million people, mainly women-children are victims of human trafficking, sold into forced labor & prostitution each year. (18,000 are brought into the United States)
"Because the needy are oppressed and the poor cry out in misery, 'I will rise up' says the Lord, and give them the help they long for." (Ps. 12:5)
So different than pagan gods, who could care less. So different from our entertainment, all-about-me, creature-comfort Christianity.
What effect does this new understanding of God have on Abraham? It makes him bold with God. Bold to become a factor. Bold to become an active agent, a player.
22 The men turned away and went toward Sodom, but Abraham remained standing before the LORD. 23 Then Abraham approached him and said: "Will you sweep away the righteous with the wicked? 24 What if there are fifty righteous people in the city? Will you really sweep it away and not spare [f] the place for the sake of the fifty righteous people in it? 25 Far be it from you to do such a thing—to kill the righteous with the wicked, treating the righteous and the wicked alike. Far be it from you! Will not the Judge of all the earth do right?"
26 The LORD said, "If I find fifty righteous people in the city of Sodom, I will spare the whole place for their sake." 27 Then Abraham spoke up again: "Now that I have been so bold as to speak to the Lord, though I am nothing but dust and ashes, 28 what if the number of the righteous is five less than fifty? Will you destroy the whole city for lack of five people?" "If I find forty-five there," he said, "I will not destroy it." 29 Once again he spoke to him, "What if only forty are found there?" He said, "For the sake of forty, I will not do it." 30 Then he said, "May the Lord not be angry, but let me speak. What if only thirty can be found there?" He answered, "I will not do it if I find thirty there." 31 Abraham said, "Now that I have been so bold as to speak to the Lord, what if only twenty can be found there?" He said, "For the sake of twenty, I will not destroy it." 32 Then he said, "May the Lord not be angry, but let me speak just once more. What if only ten can be found there?" He answered, "For the sake of ten, I will not destroy it." 33 When the LORD had finished speaking with Abraham, he left, and Abraham returned home.
Foundation of all business transaction in Middle East: negotiation!
A price tag is just an invitation to negotiate. (Phil garage sale) Abraham is negotiating with God. Which might just be stupid or naïve. But God is negotiating back, which is mind-blowing!
Series: 5 distinct transactions--that revolve around 5 actions:
1. Follow 2. Receive 3. Surrender 4. Seek [wrestle] 5. Offer
We move from passive to active through one of these five doors:
1. Follow 2. Receive 3. Surrender 4. Seek [wrestle] 5. Offer
I came thru "follow" [corresponded to my need, no mentors-examples-direction] Alcoholic might come through "surrender" Tom, leader of GV came through "offer" [Erin: who do you thank?]
Over the course of our lives we awaken further as we step thru one or another of these doors: follow, receive, surrender, seek, offer
What is the foundation for transacting any business with God? Recognition of mutual interest.
All business we do in life is transacted on the basis of mutual interest. You can't conduct any business without mutual interest. I want to buy; you want to sell: we have a mutual interest.
Abraham is only ready to do business with God because he recognizes now that he and God have some mutual interests. On the basis of these mutual interests that Abraham engages God.
What mutual interests do Abraham & God share?
1. Sodom. Notice: God reveals that he's going down to investigate outcry arising from Sodom & Gommorah. But negotiations focus on Sodom. Why? Because Abraham has a nephew in Sodom, Lot….
Sodom is their mutual interest.
What would make Abraham think God has interest in well being of Sodom? Because God has heard victim's cry there. Because the Lord has already revealed to Abraham that he wants to bless all people.
Abraham knows that this God cares about people and Abraham cares about Lot, so negotiations focus on Sodom, where Lot lives.
2. Justice. Between Gen. 11 when God first calls Abram to follow and Gen. 18, not a lot of instruction from God about justice. Before the Law, before the Prophets, before wisdom literature.
God has only revealed basic concern for uprightness, faithfulness.
But Abraham also has an intuitive sense of justice, of integrity, or fair dealings. He knows that this God resonates with his heart.
Of all the gods known to ancient world, this is the God who most resonates with the human heart. Because we are made in his image.
More than any other vision of God, or deity, or transcendent powers, this God cares about the things we care about.
He cares about the material world like we do.
He cares about our living or dying, like we do.
He cares about our lives like we do.
He cares about people like we do.
He has a moral vision like we do.
His thoughts are higher than our thoughts,
but we share same concerns.
What does this tell us about transacting business with God?
We will transact business with God when we can recognize that we share the same concerns, have mutual interests.
What do you care about?
What do you believe-feel-sense-know-in-your-gut God cares about?
This is your playing field with God. Mutual interest. This is where you and God can do business.
Practical Tips:
1. Make a list to identify mutual interests: Find the Match
What I Care Deeply About What God Cares Deeply About
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Walking with God means learning what he cares deeply about and
seeing connections between what he cares deeply about and what you care deeply about. Find the match.
You care deeply about children? God cares about children
You care about work? God cares about work.
You care about the environment? God does too!
Auto Engineer: I love cars! That's not a side hobby-concern
God loves people and people need cars!
2. As you read Scripture, serve, open heart to the Spirit, participate in community, be open to God revealing what he cares deeply about.
Abraham made space for God in his day, in his home and God revealed to Abraham what he cared about (cry of victim)
That resonated in Abraham's heart, maybe even awakened that concern in Abraham's heart….
Our hearts tend to tune themselves to what they are exposed to.
We are saturated in consumer signals--so our God-given concern for material world gets over-stimulated and we get pre-occupied w. stuff
As we expose our hearts to God's heart our hearts will resonate more and more with his heart. Stuff is good, money is good, but it's not just for us, it's for others. God loves to give it to people who need it and he does it through us.
As we care more for the things that God cares for,
we will care less about the things that God doesn't care for.