2023 Verse Revisit
Notes
Transcript
This morning as we come to the close of 2023 I wanted to remind you and encourage you with how we started the yr
If you will recall the vs for this year
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.
We are to have no other gods before God Himself
We aren’t to have anything in the place of God
We are not to worship anything other than God Himself
We are to have no idols in our lives
We are not to set up or create idols in our lives
We are not to worship them
Church if we are not to have any other gods in our life and we are not to create any idols then church we must not worship them
We are not to worship anything other than God Himself
And we could get on board with that
Because I don’t know if anyone has the little shelf in your room or cabinet you see in the movies
With the little figurines of little gods in your house
When we think of idols we think of little g gods that the ancients worshiped
And I would bet it is safe to say that no one has a temple set up to zeus
And church for the original audience
It was to the nation of Israel
They were not to take on the other gods of the Nation of Egypt who they just came out of the captivity
For us today it would mean the same thing
We may not have the temples set up to the other small g gods that this world would have you do
But make no mistake about it we have set up idols in our own lives
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
And just like the command to the Nation of Israel in the 10 Commandments that still runs true for us today
We are to have none of them
We are to ride ourselves of the idols we have set up in our lives
Some of those idols may be
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
Maybe sports, or sports teams have become something that you admired, and essentially had become my everything
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 just KU or KState
Where I was from it was OU or OSU
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
Think of all the time
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
Or maybe it is something completely different that you have set up at an idol
And began to worship it in place of God
And church we are to have no idols in our lives
So we are to deal with the idols we have set up in our lives
We are to get ride of them
We are to remove them from our lives
If as believers we desire to grow in Christ
Dare I say it church if we as a church desire to grow then as individuals and as a church we must remove those idols
We must smash them to pieces
10 “It will be in that day,” declares the Lord, “That I will cut off your horses from among you And destroy your chariots. 11 “I will also cut off the cities of your land And tear down all your fortifications. 12 “I will cut off sorceries from your hand, And you will have fortune-tellers no more. 13 “I will cut off your carved images And your sacred pillars from among you, So that you will no longer bow down To the work of your hands. 14 “I will root out your Asherim from among you And destroy your cities. 15 “And I will execute vengeance in anger and wrath On the nations which have not obeyed.”
Here God is telling the people that He will help them remove the things that have gotten in the way of a right relationship with God
See those pesty idols get in the way of a right relationship with God
Instead of worshiping God the nation of Israel have began to rely on their military, divination, and other idols
We must not rely on the things of this world that take the place of God
Church we must remove those idols in our life
because those idols have taken the place of God in our lives
They must be removed
We cannot expect to grow in our relationship with Christ until things are put in their proper place
Which means church we have to remove some things
We must remove those idols
6 “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.
Because there is only one God
There is only one person worthy of Worship
That is God Himself
So it is only right that we remove the junk that is not God Himself
That means removing those idols
Some of them are good but in the wrong place, others need to die and completely removed
We need to ask the question this morning
Are there things in your life
Are there idols in your life
Are there small g gods in your life that are in the place of God Himself and keep you from growing in Christ
That keep you from experiencing a revival of the Holy Spirit
That word has come up a lot in my life and in some conversations
A few weeks ago we shared a quote
“Could the reason revival has not hit your home your family your marriage and our church, could it be you’re the blood clot. Could you be the blood clot to revival not coming here?” Robby Gallaty
Church we need to take seriously this command to remove the idols in our life
This is what it means walk with Christ, to grow in Christ
5 “But thus you shall do to them: you shall tear down their altars, and smash their sacred pillars, and hew down their Asherim, and burn their graven images with fire.
Church again we are to remove the idols in our own life
We need to put some of those things back in their proper place
Other we need to destroy and remove all together
What is it in our life that we need to reorder
What is it in our life that we need to remove and destroy all together
That was this years verse
And church as we close out this yr, what is it
What do I need to remove in my life so that I can grow in my walk with Christ
Then church we need to take action
What does that look like?
I am so glad you asked
3 For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments; and His commandments are not burdensome.
That when we read Gods word we are obedient to it
It does not require advanced degrees to be obedient to what God says
It takes jus that obedience
in lue of doing wha the world would want and giving you a list of do’s and don’ts or giving you a formula of removing idols in your life
It is best to run to scripture and then doing what they say
You want to know how to remove idols in your life
Do what scripture says for you to do
You want to know how to ensure things are in the right order in your life
do what scripture says for you to do
37 And He said to him, “ ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ 38 “This is the great and foremost commandment. 39 “The second is like it, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’
First and foremost
Love the Lord with your entire being and might I note if something is in the way, then you need to remove it!
Love the Lord with your entire being church
Then you are to love people like you love yourself
Love people that are loveable we can do that
Love people that are so very easy to love
That is more difficult but when we love with our entire being it becomes easier to those people who are not always easy to love
And then church if in loving people something gets in the way of you being obedient to the Word of God then church
REMOVE IT!
That is what you and I are to be doing as we close out this yr and as we come into the new year
CLOSING
As we move to our time of invitation
It is that
It is an invite to do business with God this morning
As the band comes up
Maybe you don’t know Jesus Personally, if that is you I would invite you up front and we can show you through scripture how you can begin a personal relationship with Christ this morning
Or maybe you are here this morning and you already have a personal relationship with Jesus
And you have some idols in your life
Some need rearranging and some need to be destroyed and removed all together
This morning God has shown you somethings in your life that need to dealt with
Would you deal with this morning
Would you repent and begin to put into action the rearranging of things in your life
Would you repent and begin to destroy and smash the things that are not of God in your life
This morning if God is showing you what the idols are in your life would you respond and be obedient to remove them!
The altar is open