No Idols

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The original top 10 is what we are going through, the 10 commandments that God gave to show our need for Him. as we have been learning the top 10 point us to Jesus and our need for Him. It helps us learn that there is danger in our future. The danger of spending eternity without God. But we do not have to stay lost, we do not have to stay in danger. People need to know what they need to be saved from, why they need a savior and we are doing a big disservice to them if we do not let them know What they are saved from. What we are going to continue learning is that these laws point us to Jesus and our need for Him. It points us to the fact that we cant keep the law, there is no hope in that but there is hope in a relationship with Jesus. This is the key, our sin points us to a need fro a relationship with Jesus.

In The Wounded Healer, Henri Nouwen retells a tale from ancient India: Four royal brothers decided each to master a special ability. Time went by, and the brothers met to reveal what they had learned.

"I have mastered a science," said the first, "by which I can take but a bone of some creature and create the flesh that goes with it."

"I," said the second, "know how to grow that creature's skin and hair if there is flesh on its bones."

The third said, "I am able to create its limbs if I have flesh, the skin, and the hair."

"And I," concluded the fourth, "know how to give life to that creature if its form is complete."

Thereupon the brothers went into the jungle to find a bone so they could demonstrate their specialities. As fate would have it, the bone they found was a lion's. One added flesh to the bone, the second grew hide and hair, the third completed it with matching limbs, and the fourth gave the lion life. Shaking its mane, the ferocious beast arose and jumped on his creators. He killed them all and vanished contentedly into the jungle.

We too have the capacity to create what can devour us. Goals and dreams can consume us. Possessions and property can turn and destroy us--unless we first seek God's kingdom and righteousness, and allow Him to breathe into what we make of life.

Though we do not face a pantheon of false gods like the Israelites did, we face pressures from a pantheon of false values--materialism, love of leisure, sensuality, worship of self, security, and many others. The second commandment deals with idols. This may be something that most of us can't relate to--unless we include life goals that revolve around something other than God Himself. What is the object of our affections, our efforts, and our attention? Where does the majority of our time go? On what do we spend the greatest amount of our resources?

Many times we struggle with putting to much of our selves into things that we shouldn't. Things that come before God. When we think we should spend time with God something distracts us and we focus on that instead. Maybe anger for someone or what they havce done takes over your heart instead of seeking God. These all can be idols in our life. Idolatry points us to the fact that we are prone to prioritize selfishness instead of God.

HBI - This commandment highlights our natural inclination to idolize and worship created things, such as wealth, power, status, or relationships, instead of the Creator. It reveals that our hearts are capable of being divided, and we often prioritize our own desires and interests over our relationship with God.

Revelation - Insight into God’s Character

The first thing we look into is what does this commandment say about the character of God. We can learn more about God and what He has called us to do through this. so we go back to the book of Exodus.

Exodus 20:4 CSB

4 Do not make an idol for yourself, whether in the shape of anything in the heavens above or on the earth below or in the waters under the earth.

Exodus 20:5 CSB

5 Do not bow in worship to them, and do not serve them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, bringing the consequences of the fathers’ iniquity on the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate me,

Exodus 20:6 CSB

6 but showing faithful love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commands.

The second command follows closely the first one. But it is not related so much to the object of our worship but the mode of our worship.

There is nothing that we are to worship other then the Lord God of Heaven and earth. It seems fairly straightforward that we are not to worship any created things. One interesting question that I have seen come out of this is then are we to have images of God. As in like I have this tattoo of a representation of Jesus on my back is that okay?

This is not meant to say that you cant be artistic, but that artistic representations are okay but improper substitutes for worshiping God are wrong. Is it stealing your heart away from the worship of the one true God? then it is an idol. We are not to worship the lord God by making an image of Him for us to worship.

God is real, He is alive there is no need to make an image of Him to worship. There is no need to put so much stock in items that we ca not get rid of them. We can come before God and worship Him in spirit and in truth.

Our God is a jealous God.

Does this meant hat God is suspicious, of others, envious of others success? That is not what this means when you look at the usage of the word. It means that God demands exclusive devotion. There is no God but like our God. 2 Sam 7:22

2 Samuel 7:22 CSB

22 This is why you are great, Lord God. There is no one like you, and there is no God besides you, as all we have heard confirms.

It denotes the anger God will direct at all who oppose Him. Since He is the only God, the when people make other things their object of worship you can understand why It angers God. And the energy expended at vindicating His own people.

There is Only one God, who is the only one worthy of our worship. but knowing these things it is also important to know that God loved us enough to send Jesus to die for us so that we could have a relationship with Him. We have to remember that it points to the need for a relationship. But it starts off by telling us that God will not take worship of anyone or anything else but Him.

Confrontation - Insight Into Our Character

Again this tells us that we are prone to wander, prone to put other things in front of God. IF YOU GET INTO THE DEFINITION OF WHAT IDOLATRY IS WE HAVE A HABIT OF FALLING INTO IT ALL THE TIME. “Idolatry starts in the heart: craving, wanting, enjoying, being satisfied by anything that you treasure more than God.” What are some things that satisfy us more then God.

Matthew 19:21–22 CSB

21 “If you want to be perfect,” Jesus said to him, “go, sell your belongings and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.” 22 When the young man heard that, he went away grieving, because he had many possessions.

A rich young ruler came to Jesus and asked what good it would take to have eternal life.

The first thing Jesus said is that you must keep all the commandments. He said “which ones” since there where so many.

When Jesus told the rich young ruler what it would take to follow Him, He said that you must sell everything you own and follow me. The idea being that there must be nothing we put before God.

The perspective that we need to look at our life and possessions with is that everything we have is a gift from God to be used for His glory, we are just stewards of it. We have the idea of sell and give placed with come and follow. we are called to discipleship, to place God as number 1 in His life and count Jesus as the most important.

That being said if these things start to come before God, then it is a problem. What is the first thing you do when you get up, or maybe go to bed. does the thought of giving up some prized possession cause you anxiety?

I once moved a table and pulpit aside in a church and it ended up causing someone to leave the church. I was also told once that a pastor is not a pastor without wearing a suit and tie.

The rich young ruler when He was told these things it says He was sad because He had lots of stuff. The focus turned to all he had instead of what He could have. Our focus tends to be on our treasures on earth and when told they are secondary in regards to seeking treasures in Heaven. Our things become idols in our lives, we covet them. This is not so much about the divestment of all of our stuff but rather to give up our stuff, our idols, our treasures what we see as important and put Jesus as foremost is hard to do. Discipleship, growing closer to God needs to be of number 1 priority.

What is ruling your life? if it is not Jesus then you might have a problem with idols.

Instruction - Charts a New Path to Walk

So this charts a new path for us to walk. We read that the second commandment tells us that we are not to worship any object as a God for God is a jealous God, there is none like Him. but we have a problem This shows us that we fail at this because our character, the sin in our life wants us to think about ourselves and what we want. What this shows us is that we fail at trying to always keep God number one in our lives.

But if the 10 commandments points to a relationship with Jesus then there is really hope for us. Be honest, we have all struggled with putting things before God. but all I am trying to get across is this is not as hopeless as it seems. Jesus came to die for our sin so that we could have a relationship with Him because we can not hope to follow the law of God.

But what are we to do about it? How are we to walk in light of this?

Colossians 3:5–6 CSB

5 Therefore, put to death what belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desire, and greed, which is idolatry. 6 Because of these, God’s wrath is coming upon the disobedient,

What is it that you are putting before God? What is it that you treasure more then God?

This commandment highlights our natural inclination to idolize and worship created things, such as wealth, power, status, or relationships, instead of the Creator. It reveals that our hearts are capable of being divided, and we often prioritize our own desires and interests over our relationship with God.

It says that we are to put these things to death. This is not as easy as it sounds. When we are tempted to put things before God we need to remember that we must not prioritize things over God. If I where to take a piece of furniture out of this church would you get so consumed for care for that piece of furniture that you could no longer focus on God? I am not going to go around throwing out the speakers and the TV’s, but the point is we use what we have for the glory f God but they must never take priority in our lives.

The new path we are to walk is that we must put to death the earthly and strive to worship God alone.

So What?

There is only one worthy of our worship

There is only one worthy of our worship, only one God and our worship is elusive of Him alone. The Israelite's struggled in this idea, especially when Moses was up on the mountain getting the 10 commandments. so they made a statue out of God and said that this is the god who took them out of Egypt. We do not need anything to signify our God to worship, we can come to Him on our own and have a relationship with Him.

God is a jealous god and part of that means that any one who worships any but Him will one day be judged for that.

What is Ruling Your Life?

If this commandment highlights our national inclination to idolize and worship created things, or put them before God then we ask what is the god of your life. What is it that comes before God? Is your heart divided?

Where is your treasure is another way of looking at it. We may struggle with Putting God first in our life, the commandment shows that we have no way of doing this, we can not do it on our own , we are all sinners in need of something more. We are all guilty of breaking the law. But the gospel says that Jesus died so that we could have a relationship with Him. The commandment show we are all idolaters, the gospel shows that Jesus gave us a chance to live for Him and put that on Him on the cross.

Count The Cost

Lastly we need to count the cost. If we start that relationship with Jesus we start the process of being made perfect. We will be lovingly transformed into what God wants us to be, into His image.

To count the cost means that this is not going to be easy. We must start by putting to death the earthly desires of our heart. This is usually a hard thing to do, the earthly desires that have taken hold of our lives do not want to let go easy. Put to death thew greed which thinks of ourselves first but rather focus on the eternal. No idols is more then just throwing out any wooden objects we may worship. Anything can become an idol in our life if it comes before God.

What we rather need to seek is a relationship with the Lord God.