The Idol's in our lives

Exodus 20:4-6

4.You shall not make for yourself a carved image—any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; 5 you shall not bow down to them nor serve them. For I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me, 6 but showing mercy to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments.

Introduction

What does this passage mean? Does this mean that God does not want us to have crosses in our church? Does this mean that by choosing a cross necklace or lapel pin that we are sinning against God? No I don’t think thats what it means and my hope is that in the next few minutes i will be able to show you why and exactly what this meant for the Jews of the day and what it means to us today.

MAIN BODY

Times when Isreal worshiped other god or worshiped God in the wrong way.

A. Exodus 32:1-5 The Golden Calf

1. Exodus 32:1–5 (NKJV)

Now when the people saw that Moses delayed coming down from the mountain, the people gathered together to Aaron, and said to him, “Come, make us gods that shall go before us; for as for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.”

And Aaron said to them, “Break off the golden earrings which are in the ears of your wives, your sons, and your daughters, and bring them to me.” So all the people broke off the golden earrings which were in their ears, and brought them to Aaron. And he received the gold from their hand, and he fashioned it with an engraving tool, and made a molded calf.

Then they said, “This is your god, O Israel, that brought you out of the land of Egypt!”

So when Aaron saw it, he built an altar before it. And Aaron made a proclamation and said, “Tomorrow is a feast to the Lord.”

Ok, i used this one last week but it is a very rich story, I could preach for months on just this one story! I wish it was the only story in the Bible about idol worship, unfortunately it is not.

B. Baal worship

Judges 2:11–13 (NKJV)

Then the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord, and served the Baals; and they forsook the Lord God of their fathers, who had brought them out of the land of Egypt; and they followed other gods from among the gods of the people who were all around them, and they bowed down to them; and they provoked the Lord to anger. They forsook the Lord and served Baal and the Ashtoreths.

Baal and Ashtoreths were a huge problem for Isreal all the way through the old testament. I f you have time this week , look up the Baal worship in the Bible? You will find him in the books of Judges, kings the most but also in the new testament, Jesus is accused of being Beelzebub.

All in all you will find that Baal and the images that are created for him are mans attempt to create his own God. In fact ,man has been trying to do just that, create god in his own image since the very beginning.

Genesis 4:4–5 (NKJV)

Abel also brought of the firstborn of his flock and of their fat. And the Lord respected Abel and his offering, but He did not respect Cain and his offering. And Cain was very angry, and his countenance fell.

Ever wonder why Cain got on the wrong side of God here? Its because Cain was trying to worship God on his own terms, he was trying to make god in his image not the other way around. I believe thats why his “countenance fell” he was agree because he couldn’t control God!

CONCLUTION

So what does this have to do with us today?

You know it took generation after generation for the Jew’s to stop worshiping idols? What finally did it for them was when God destroyed the land and gave the people over to the Babylonians where they had no choice for them to finally give up Idols. So what do we have to loose before we as Americans, give up and worship God on Gods terms and not our own?

John 14:8 (NKJV)

Philip said to Him, “Lord, show us the Father, and it is sufficient for us.”

Here Philip is doing the same thing as the Israelites, he is saying give us something to look at, a statue, a burning cross in the sky something so we might bow down and worship! This is exactly what the people wanted when they asked Arron to fashion a god for them! But what was Jesus’s answer?

John 14:9–19 (NKJV)

Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you so long, and yet you have not known Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father; so how can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me? The words that I speak to you I do not speak on My own authority; but the Father who dwells in Me does the works. Believe Me that I am in the Father and the Father in Me, or else believe Me for the sake of the works themselves.

“Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do he will do also; and greater works than these he will do, because I go to My Father. And whatever you ask in My name, that I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask anything in My name, I will do it.

“If you love Me, keep My commandments. And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever—the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you. I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you.

“A little while longer and the world will see Me no more, but you will see Me. Because I live, you will live also.

We do not need to see God, if you know him He lives within you!

So I ask do you have Jesus in you or are you trying to worship him your own way are there Idols in your life that need to be dealt with?

So to answer the question I asked at the beginning of this message, no it is not wrong for us to wear a cross or have one in the church, But the minute we forget what these symbols mean and worship them instead of God, the minute we melt them down and form them into a golden calf so that we can see god in our own image, yes we have a problem then!