Untitled Sermon

10 Irrefutable Laws of Success – part 2

IDOL CRUSH

On my phone I have this amazing

We are in a series entitled 10 Irrefutable Laws of Success and the purpose of this find our way through the confusion. There is so many voices today clamoring for our attention and obedience. But in general – they are just adding to the noise and confusion. These days, It is so easy to lose our way in life. To loose our compass – our morals, loose a relationship or something else very important in our life. Without a sense of direction – we spend our lives wandering– just trying to keep it taped, patched and glued together into some semblance of sanity.

And at different times in our lives we are more successful than others in keeping it together. It seems however – that just about the time we get one phase of life glued together – life changes on us and the chaos begins all over again.

What is our response to this lack of control over life? We seek outside help. Something external in life that can prop us up and supply us with a sense of control and security.

In ancient times men turned to the belief in god’s. They knew they needed outside help in dealing with life- so they conjured up their own idea’s of what these god’s must be like. Interestingly enough – the shape and power of these god’s they conjured up - corresponded with some basic need that man had –

For instance there was the god of the Hunt for the god of the harvest which ancient people worshipped hoping this god would down favorably on them and supply the food they needed for drasurvival. In the cold winter there was the god of the Sun that they paid homage too – hoping he would provide warmth. There was the god of War to help you in battle and even the god of Wine if you were a little depressed.

Today – enlightened, educated people look at these ancient ancestors and call them ignorant. Today, if you were to ask the average American – what idols do you worship – they would say – “I’m far too intelligent to serve idols that are shaped by human hands or my own imagination.

And yet, are we really? You see, no matter how developed we become – some things never change - the basic needs of mankind are still the same as 2,000 years ago. And the desperation we feel to secure our lives – to empower our lives and to control our surroundings so not at the mercy of circumstances, this feeling has not changed.

Difference? Today we are much more subtle about the idols - the god’s that we serve. We have put a different face on them – we have given a different image – we call them a different name – but the result is the same. So today we take a look at commandment #2 – as we try to get a handle on what God was saying when he made it a part of the 10 commandments.

Remember our formula from last week? Each week we will take a look at 3 things regarding each of the commandments. The Rule – what is God’s command, The Reason ( What is God so concerned about here?) And the response- How do I apply this commandment in my everyday life?)

The Rule #2 God says, “Do not worship any created thing.”

As you can see, Commandment #1 and #2 are very close companions. Rule #1 – God says – do not worship any other god’s. Why – because they cannot deliver. Put your trust in them if you must – but in the crunch time of life – when you need them the most – and they will let you down – because they are an illusion a mirage. God says – I am the one and only true God of the universe. Don’t worship any other god.

Now in commandment #2 he takes it a step further and says this,

""Do not make idols of any kind, whether in the shape of birds or animals or fish. {5} You must never worship or bow down to them, for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God who will not share your affection with any other god!

(Exodus 20:4-6 NLT)

#1 – don’t worship any other gods – and #2 don’t make any representations of these god’s and worship them. Do not take something that I created – or do not create something yourself and call it a “god” and bow down to it – honor it – worship it with your life.

Now before you all breath a sigh of relief and say – wow – finally a message that doesn’t make me squirm a bit – let’s look at idol worship – or idolatry? What is it?

An Idol - “A actual or imaginary image worshipped for the purpose of attaining “real life”.

And idol is an image – a representation of a power that I serve – because it promises to meet some need in my life. As far back as the history of man can take us - mankind has always been worshipping something. No matter how far people strayed from the knowledge of the One True God – people still knew they needed outside help.

We are not self-sufficient. We have needs. We have limitations. We need help. And however we can get that help – we go after it.

Last week I mentioned the origin of the 10 Commandments - how Charlton Hesston went up Mt. Sinai to receive these Commandments from the lips of God. The Israelites had just come out of 400 years of slavery in Egypt – they suddenly found themselves free – but what to do with that freedom – all of a sudden – they were also responsible for themselves. Kind of like the terror that many of us felt when we finally got free from our parents – only to discover that the rent comes due with horrifying regularity.

Their Egyptian masters were no longer there to make all the decisions for them – to make sure there was food on the table and a roof over there head and tell them what to do everyday. They had all this freedom – and were like 4 million teenagers trying to govern themselves.

And it was scary – they had needs – they needed food – they needed water – they needed clothes – they needed direction. All they knew was slavery. And so the minute life got tough, and the food scarce, or water was low or tough decisions had to be made – they caved in. “We want to go back to Egypt,” they screamed. We would rather live as slaves – than die as free men.” You see - along with freedom – comes responsibility.

So Moses comes down from Mt Sinai after 40 days of waiting on God holding two stone tablets with the commandments of God engraved on them. When he reaches the valley floor – what does he see? While he has gone –the people in their desperation have melted down their gold and made the image of a golden calf to worship. They got tired of waiting on Moses and turned to worshipping and bowing down to an image they could readily see and touch. And why not? It seemed to work for their Egyptian masters. They did it because they needed helpd help – and if God was going to be slow – they would take matters into their own hands. And create their own god.

Now there are 3 types of idol worship - 3 Types of idolatry

Image Idolatry - A material image loved as a god or representation of a god.

This is what the Children of Israel did. They copied what their Egyptian masters did. It seemed to work for them. They created images – offered sacrifices to them and look how successful they were. Image idolatry is serving an actual image that represents a god.

Dig up the ruins of ancient cultures and you will soon run into the images of worship that they created. Sometimes they would attribute deity to a man – “Caesar – he is god.”

I watched the news on Friday and they showed the crowed that had gathered in Santa Maria around the courthouse to support and honor Michael Jackson as he was being arraigned. And you look at that and wonder – what is the attraction here? Well, he has become an idol – he is an object of worship – as are many other superstars in society.

Mere human beings – but people are so desperate to find something, someone they can pay homage too – alliegence to – someone they can attribute god-like qualities too – that they pick an idol. If their god is music – then Michael Jackson is the god of music. If they worship sports – then Tiger Woods or Michael Jordon or Barry Bonds is the god. And these people live lives beyond the imagination of most of us – because of the god-like status some people attribute to them.

So image worship is any created person or object that we give god-like adoration and love too.

Ideology idolatry – The love of an idea or concept that promises to meet my desires or needs.

This form of idolatry is more difficult to identify in our lives – but is very real. These idols are idols or idea’s of the mind - worshipping man-made idea’s – that promise to deliver “real life” if loved and followed.

Now remember – the reason we create idols is to satisfy our need – to control life. We all have needs – we need basic necessities, we all need to feel loved, we need to feel significant, we need to feel safe and so forth.

And ideology idolatry says – the answer is in science – the answer to real life is in psychology, the answer is in yoga and meditation, the answer to real life is in our religion or the answer to real life is to be a winner. Idea’s – man made – man generated idea’s.

And although few in America would admit to serving idols of wood or stone – the reality is we are a huge nation of idol worshippers. We have replaced trust in the one True God with our dependence of medicine to save us, on democracy to save us, on psychology and science to save us. Music is the god that soothes our troubled hearts – not One True God. Take music worship away from some people and the silence would be deafening to them. We view images of popular, talented or wealthy people and we try to emulate them – they are the what we aspire to be – not to be like God.

There is one more category of idols - what I would call

Inferred power idolatry –The love of a person or image that serves as a medium for a god.

I will just touch on this – but it is huge in America – this is putting our love and trust in some person or object that we believe actually has spiritual power. Now this takes many different forms - but any attempt we make to connect with spirituality outside of knowing the One True God and his Son Jesus Christ – is a form of idolatry. This takes many forms – for instance - Tarot cards, horoscopes, palm reading or séances or Weejee boards, psychics – believing that those persons or things have spiritual power – is a form of idolatry. Anyt material thing that has divine power attributed to it is a form of idol worship.

In the Old Testament – God often connected these kinds of activities and adolatry in the same category.

So rule #2 – God says, “Do not worship any created thing.”

The Reason

“Because the One True God will not share my devotion to Him with imposters, impersonators or counterfeits. Only He can be trusted to guide me into the deeply satisfying “real life” that Christ provides.”

God will not share your love with any other being or idea that promises to give you real life. Why? Several reasons.

One – because he created you – not these idols. An idol is a dead or dying thing. It cannot even save itself – much less save you. So why would God want you to put your trust in something that cannot deliver? He doesn’t – its offensive to him.

Two – because he is jealous of your love. Now if you have ever been in love – you can understand that – for you to give your worship, love, alliegence and loyalty to an object or an icon or anything other than him is unthinkable to Him.

Three – because to be divided in your loyalty is to have no loyalty to God at all. Jesus said,

(Mat 6:24 NLT) ""No one can serve two masters. For you will hate one and love the other, or be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money."

Here is the problem with idol worship – idolatry is man’s attempt to X God out of the picture and control his own destiny.

Human’s beings are constantly trying to figure out how to get God to obey them. How can I get to a spiritual place where One True God will say “yes” to whatever I ask and meet all my needs – on demand? And if we can’t get God to do that – we take things into our own hands – and we create idols – that hope will respond.

Idolatry will always lead us down the path of serving our own self-interests – in other words – making sure that we remain in control of our own lives. Idols can be manipulated and controlled. If a particular idol isn’t giving you what you need – just create a new one. Idols are the “god” of our own making, imagination or desire.

This is a tricky trap to fall into. Why is God so concerned about created images? Because images are powerful. Whether it is the image of a pop idol – Jackson, Madonna, Spears, Jordon or Tiger. When I said those words – images came to everyone of your minds - movie star, model. Trump, you name it. Or the image of a lifestyle of the rich and famous. Images are vision and vision is directional – “as a man thinks – so is he.”

God knows that whatever images are the foremost in our mind – we are becoming like that image. Therefore – God wants no other image to be the guiding, shaping influence of our life. Only the One true God can be trusted to guide us into the deeply satisfying “real life” that Christ came to bring us and that our hearts really desire.

Point of Light #2 - ?????

The Response – I will reserve my heart for worship of the One True God

The response of a Christian is to keep the worship of God first in his life. Jesus said it – you can’t serve 2 masters – you can’t serve the material world and the One True God at the same time.

1. By guarding against evidences of “shared affection.”

(NIN) Remember in (Exodus 20:5) - I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God who will not share your affection with any other god!

How? By…

· Rigorous identification of potential idols

By doing a serious inventory of my affections and ask myself – have I allowed anything in my life to become my idol. You say – Ed – is it possible for a Christian to be serving idols and the One True God at the same time? Well, that is exactly what the Israelites were trying to doing. They were worshiping the One True God on the Sabbath and on a daily basis trying to serve the god of Baal.

In other words – they were hedging their bets. You know, Maybe you can get part of what you need in life from the One True God – but hey, look at the Egyptians – they are doing pretty well – let’s serve their god’s too.

This is called Poly-theism. Poly – meaning many and theism – meaning gods. And somewhere in human history – somebody came up with the bright idea that if one God was good – many gods would be better.

It is a common flaw in human thinking. Christians can – if they are not vigilant fall into the same erroneous thinking.

On Sunday, I will serve the One True God – thus securing my eternal future. But then on Monday, I have to realize that if life is to be – then it is up to me – and I put the One True God on the shelf and serve the material world.

I think like a material person – my morals are shaped according to the rules of the material world – I raise my children to realize that if it is to be (in other words – if you are going to have the good life) it is up to thee.

And we get this contorted existence going on. Trying to merge the 10 commandments with the “real world.” With “real life.” “You know – I mean the 10 commandments are fine and all – in theory – but you have to realize that if you want the “real life” this world has to offer – you have to bend the rules.”

Sunday is no longer exclusively the Lord’s Day. Truth is sort relative. Using God’s name as slang is necessary if you are going to effectively express yourself. Looking lustfully at your neighbors spouse is a minor infraction – so commonly practiced that it hardly warrants talking about. And on and on the rationalization goes.

Examine your life – where is your real trust? Is it in your education? Your earning power? Your personality, or chiseled body? Is it in your resume – awards – 401K – your charity work or is real life your party of holidays?

When it comes to “real life” – where is your real trust? Only you and the One True God know the answer to that question.

Money, Power, Pleasure, Relationships, Religion, Altruism Other idols _______________

What are some other idols you can think of?

Another word for Idols – ADDICTIONS

Not all addictions fall naturally in the category of sinful behavior. Addictions can be good things – gone wild in my Life.

Anything becomes an idol in my life when I begin to chase it with obsessive desire. It’s an idol in my life when I can’t control it - It controls me when I spend imbalanced amounts of time, money and love on it, to the harm of higher and more important priorities in life.

QUESTION- Can the Internet, hobby, sport, business, a relationship, food, Exercise, appearance become an idol?

So how do we do this examination of our lives?

· Ruthless elimination of shared affection

Now God does not say that money, pleasure, relationships or these other things we want in our life are wrong.

Jesus had all of these as a part of his physical life. But none of them were guiding forces in his life. Only his love for the Father – shaped his life.

Here were his directions:

(NIN) (Mat 6:33 NCV) "The thing you should want most is God's kingdom and doing what God wants. Then all these other things you need will be given to you."

In other words as the title of this message suggests – keep first things first

Anything that is pulling you away from keeping God and His kingdom first in your life – is an idol. If pleasure comes before doing God’s will – it has become an idol. If making money always wins out over obeying the serving God – it has become an idol.

If you can’t serve God like you know you should because you are too busy filling your life up with what you consider to be “real life” – self-interest has become an idol. You no longer believe that “real life” is truly found in putting God and His kingdom first.

So examine your lifestyle. Take a look at 2 things – your checkbook and your daytimer – it will tell you very quickly if God is first in your heart or not. And if you want to stand before God with a pure heart – be ruthless in evaluating and eliminating evidences of idolatry.

Go to your children if necessary and say – “I am sorry, but we are going to have to restructure our lifestyle – because God has not been #1.

· Routine examination of my life

So, once your have gotten idols out of your life – routinely to a virus check of your life – for any indication that the seeds of idolatry have covertly wormed their way back into your life.

That’s why I commend you for being here today. That is why God instructs us to be in his house for worship every week. The pull of the material world is so strong – that none of us can withstand its infectious influence for very long without examination, encouragement and re-calibration. I know I can’t.

Ruthless elimination of shared affection. #2 – I guard against serving idols…

2. By entering worship through the One Door

The word worship means love, adoration, respect, devotion… those are matters of the heart. God will accept nothing less than our complete devotion to Him – why should He? He created us – he is “real life”

If you believe that – the question is – how do I enter into real life? Is it through religious practice? It is through altruism, philanthropy, self-sacrifice?

Is it through picking one of a dozen good religious doorways – can I go through Zen Buddhism or Islam or Hare Krishna?

Is it true – as this website says that Website – Jesus Krishna and Budda are one? Show slide

Look what Jesus said…

"Jesus told him, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me." (John 14:6 NLT)

No, Jesus said – there are many imposters – I am not one with Krishna and Budda. Who is Jesus One with?

"The Father and I are one."" (John 10:30 NLT)

That is why you need to know the Bible. There are not many divergent paths to God. The door to God is through his Son Jesus Christ. I am developing some stuff for the Easter season to tell you why that is so.

But the short answer is this – and I will unfold it on Palm Sunday – but the Creator God is not just a warm fuzzy in the sky – he is not just a mercy God – but a just God and sin is wrong and sin has to be dealt with and in Jesus – your sin and my sin – was dealt with – so if you have questions about that and can put that on hold – we will deal extensively with that at the end of this series.

But the fact is – Jesus said – you cannot worship the Father unless you go through me. You can worship Krishna – but that is idolatry. You can worship Budda – but that is idolatry.

God knew that he created us visual people and so he gave us a visual of Himself to worship. He sent his Son – Jesus Christ. As a result, we – without committing idolatry –can put the image of Jesus in your heart and mind.

"Jesus replied, ‘…Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father…’" (John 14:9 NLT)

He is the physical materialization of the invisible God. That’s why the Christmas story is so powerful – the incarnation we call it – God come in the flesh. That is why the crucifixion is such a powerful image – God put on a cross to die. Get a picture of Jesus by reading about His life – and follow that vision and enter worship of God by worshipping Jesus.

3. By experiencing worship in my heart and through my actions.

"For God is Spirit, so those who worship him must worship in spirit and in truth." (John 4:24 NLT)

To avoid serving idols in my life – I need to regularly practice the worship of God in 2 ways.

One - (let me speak to these backwards) – worship God in truth. Worshipping the One True God is a lifestyle issue. In the 10 Commandments – 4 of them speak to the question – how do I rightly relate to God.

The other 6 are about lifestyle and actions. Is God concerned with how I act? Obviously so, for he speaks to stealing, lying, sexual matters, vocabulary, ect.

One of the most powerful acts of worship is to include God in your lifestyle choices. Putting God first in your life means that all of your actions in life are filtered through the will of God – “what does he want? How does He want me to act in this situation?” That is worship in truth and lifestyle.

Secondly - in my spirit - by keeping my heart in tune with Him. Daily communication is a way we do that – we call that prayer. Weekly worship is a way we do that. I doubt there has ever been a time when the promotion of idols was as “in-you-face” as it is today.

The material world will bombard you once you walk out these doors. There are so many things pleading for your love and devotion. Fall in love with me – these idols scream. Drive me, live in me, vacation with me, work out with me, buy me, drink me - love me – and I promise you – I will give you real life if you will be devoted to me. I am what real life is all about.”

And if we are not careful – we can chase that lie and end our life with a mantel full of trinket gods who stare silently back at us when we need real answers and hope at the end of life.

What idols have you identified as we have been thinking about commandment #2 today? What form of idolatry are you most susceptible too?

And when are you going to do an idol sweep of your spiritual house? Two responses are possible this morning.

First for those of you who have placed your trust in Jesus Christ for your eternal salvation – do you need to take your relationship with God to another level and make him the king – the lord of your life?

Do you need to stop vacillating between gods and the One True God. Do you need to put self-interest out of business in your life and seek first the kingdom of God in every way in your life – and trust that God will give you the “real life” in his way?

Pray – would you ask God to forgive you for serving idols in your life? Say God – I truly intend with your help to start putting you first in every aspect of my life?

Second group here today – maybe you need to begin and the very first. By acknowledging Jesus Christ as your savior. Ask him to forgive all the sins of your life – to come into your heart and begin a relationship with you. Tell him you want to love and serve the One True God and that you choose to believe the he is the material image of the invisible God – the only one true door to salvation.

As the team comes back in – let me encourage you to keep a new years resolution of being here every Sunday.

"We should not stop gathering together with other believers, as some of you are doing. Instead, we must continue to encourage each other even more as we see the day of the Lord coming." (Heb 10:25 GWT)

If you are going to keep your commitment to make God #1 in your life – you need the encouragement of other Christians in your life. I hope you will keep that new years resolution.

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