Verse for 2023
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01-29-2023
I share this last week during our State of the Church address.
If you did miss that you can go and look at that on Youtube
As we look to 2023 I began to pray about our verse for the year
To have a verse for the year should and will give you and I a direction for 2023
In this instance a direction and some focus on for the year
So we shared this last week during our State of the Church but didn’t want to go to much indepth because that would take away from our sermon today.
Our verse for 2023 is
3 “You shall have no other gods before Me. 4 “You shall not make for yourself an idol, or any likeness of what is in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the water under the earth. 5 “You shall not worship them or serve them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, on the third and the fourth generations of those who hate Me, 6 but showing lovingkindness to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments.
If you have been in church as a kid you have probably heard these verses
We know these to part of the 10 commandments
Remember Moses is on the mountain with God while God is writing down the 10 commandments for the nation of Israel
They had just walked out of Egypt, remember the Egyptians sort of drove them our of their land because of the Power of God
So they come out and this is a people who have lived in captivity for probably more than 400 years
They needed a law to live by
They had just come out of a place that worshiped other small g gods
They came out of a place with idols
I think we have a lot in common with the Nation of Isreal as they came out of Egypt
We are not coming out of captivity, we have not been enslaved
But we live in a day and age with many different idols
The laws are a call to commitment is the same that God has given us
3 “You shall have no other gods before Me.
Church we are to have no other Gods either big G or Little g
We are only to have one God and His name is Yahweh
We are to not put anything in the place of God
Now most of us in here would absolutely agree with that
Of course we don’t have other Gods before God Himself
But let me ask you about the little g gods in your life
What have you created that is a little g God in your life, because little g Gods grow up to be Big G Gods if you don’t remove them
Nothing should have that place that was created and designed just for God
So This commandment is calling us and commanding us to have nothing in the place of God
Let me clear if you have placed something in Gods place in your life get ride of it
I understand this won’t happen over night just like that thing resting in Gods place in your life didn’t get there over night
But this year is about removing those things and allowing God to have his rightful place in our life
As we continue I need to share with you what the definition of an idol is
Idol - “an image of repersentation of a god used as an object of worship” “a person or thing that is greatly admired, loved, or revered”
And image that repesents God
Something other than God that is worshiped
4 “You shall not make for yourself an idol, or any likeness of what is in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the water under the earth.
We are to not create or make an image of what is in heaven above or under the earth
We would all agree with that
Right I don’t think any of us have a temple area at our house that had little figures of Gods that we worship
We don’t have a golden calf out front or up here on stage that we worship
We are not to worship an image because later on God tells them since they did not see a form when God spoke to them they should not create one
5 “You shall not worship them or serve them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, on the third and the fourth generations of those who hate Me, 6 but showing lovingkindness to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments.
But I believe this is where these verses rub us
We are not to worship them, we are to have any other Gods other than God Himself
But
But if we are honest with ourselves this morning we have created idols for ourselves in todays day and age
We have created things that have taken the place of God in our lives
We have began to worship them, greatly admire them, love them and hold them in high esteme
We have spent much time with them
Work
maybe for your work is an idol
And maybe you like spending time at work because you are revered or have power
Maybe work has become an idol for you because of how it makes you feel
maybe at work you have great power
or your boss gives you all sorts of praise and accolades
Money
Maybe for you money has become an idol
You are constantly seeking after money
You know how much money is enough?
Just one more dollar
Maybe the love of money has become and idol
and maybe now you are in a place with money where you need it
Spouse
Maybe you spouse has become you god
And you worship everything about your spouse
And just maybe you are started to lift them up on a pedestal thinking they are greater than everyone else
Might I share with you some news
They are not perfect and they fail
Kids
Maybe you kids have become and idol
You worship your kids and they become the most important thing in the world
They begin to think of themselves as gods or kings and queens
Maybe this is some of the fall out of what we have seen in todays day and age
We seem to have a generation that demands they be entertained
Its not just yourself you hurt when you make other people in this instance your kids an idol
Sports
Maybe you have made sports an idol in your life
When I was in High School I got to a place where I thought you went to school to play sports, for me it was wrestling
I ran Cross County to get into shape for Wrestling and then ran track to stay in shape for cross county to be in better shape for wrestling
See Wrestling had become my God
It had become something i admired, and essentially had become my everything
Or maybe it is a sports team
We build huge churches for our sports team
In this part of the country just maybe you have made KU Basketball your god or KState Football your god or maybe its this yra just KU or KState
Where I was from it was OU
Maybe its the Chiefs, or Royals or some other team has become your god
You spend so much time and money and if you are honest you your thought life on those sports team
Social Media
Maybe you have made social media an idol
that you greatly admire it
That you spend much of your time
Honestly maybe its that you spend most of your time throughout the day and something you are always thinking about
Church maybe it is something else that you have made an idol
And according to scripture we are to not worship idols
We are to not be worshiping things we have set up to replace God
Church this verse is a call to smash those idols in your life
When you smash the idols in your life you have to replace it with the real thing
John writes a letter to a church at Ephesus
‘But I have this against you, that you have left your first love.
‘Therefore remember from where you have fallen, and repent and do the deeds you did at first; or else I am coming to you and will remove your lampstand out of its place—unless you repent.
For us to remove those idols
for us to smash those idols out of our lives will require work
It will be difficult because they didn’t become idols over night so please don’t sit here this morning and think you will be able to remove after a 30 min sermon
But
The first step is to repent and return to our fist love
Begin to set things up in your live to smash those idols
Maybe after you have repented and ran to Jesus you begin to remove things in your life, maybe you get ride of social media if it is social media, maybe it is telling your kids no if they seem to be ruling your life, maybe it is taking some time away from work
Then it is through prayer to seek God to humble you as you return to the Lord
“I am the Lord, and there is no other;
Besides Me there is no God.
I will gird you, though you have not known Me;
Church there is nothing else that is God
THere is nothing else that is worthy of worship
THere is nothing else of having the number one spot in our lives
“Thus says the Lord, the King of Israel and his Redeemer, the Lord of hosts:
‘I am the first and I am the last,
And there is no God besides Me.
God is our redeemer
The idols you have in your life are not redeemers
You cannot earn enough money to get into heaven and I am told you can take it with you
You cannot earn enough praise from your boss or your spouse to get you into heaven
Your team or sport is not going to get you into heaven
The only redeemer there is is the one true God so church the verse this year is about removing those idols that you and I have set up in our own lives
because there is only 1 God
Jesus *said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.
There is only 1 God
the idols are nothing more than worldly things you and I have set up to worship
and that is wrong
Please don’t leave this place thinking you have it all under control
Please don’t leave this place thinking you don’t have any idols
please this morning heed the words of scripture and return to your first love
that time when you were first saved and you were so excited adn could not put the Bible down
That time when you and Jesus were so close
Do those things again
Church this morning is a call to remove the idols in your own live and within the church
CLOSING
As the band comes up
Maybe you are here this morning and do not have a personal relationship but have learned this morning that Jesus is the only way to a relationship with God
I would invite you to the front to speak with someone about beginning a new relationship with Jesus
Or maybe you are here and this morning you know you have idols in your life
ANd today the first step is to repent
The alta
Verse about worhiping other Gods
how we are not to create other things to worhsip
but we do
list of idols
work, money, sports, KU, Kstate, Chiefs, Spouse, Kids, Look/Fitness, TV, Social Media, Pride
So how have we made things little g Gods in our lives