Are you making God jealous?
2 Chronicles 32:15 And he took away the strange gods, and the idols out of the houses of the LORD and all he altars that he had build in the mount of the house of the LORD and in Jerusalem and cast them out of the city.
Good afternoon let’s bow. Today I want to speak about worshipping idol gods.
First. I have to define the term idol god. An idol god is anything that you put before God. For example your job, spouse, house, children, car etc. Explain. The Hebrew word is semel and it means image.
God’s greatest and 1st commandment is there shalt not be any other Gods before him. If we look at Exodus 20:3 it reads thou shalt not bow down they self to them nor serve them fir AI the alone thy God is a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the 3rd and 4th generation of them that hate me. The first commandment is concerning the object of our worship Jehovah, and him only. Thou shalt have no other gods before me. The Egyptians and other neighbor ring nations had many gods, creatures of their own fancy. This law was pre-fixed because of that transgression and Jehovah being the God of Israel, they must entirely flee to him and no other either if their own invention or borrowed from their neighbors. The sin against the commandment which we are most in danger of is giving that glory to any creature that is due to God only. Pride makes a God of ourselves, covetousness makes a God of money, sensuality makes a God of the belly. Whatever is loved feared, delighted I or depended on, more than God, that we make a god of.
Some people come to church for all the wrong reasons (explain)
Some people don’t think they need God. Explain
I people. The wrong reason people make deals with God.
To be entertained.
Some people want other people to worship them. They will not do anything for anybody unless, there is something in it for them. Some people leave church asking the question, what did I get out of church today? But the question we should be asking is did I worship God with my whole heart? Did I truly try to understand what the preacher was speaking about? Did my worship please God?
Lets get into the scripture with a little background. In chapter 33 of 2nd Chronicles we have the story of king Manasseh. He was very young. He thought he had it going on, so he abandoned his father’s wise examples., He did everything that the heathens did. Instead of him being a leader, he became a follower. You know how we do it. Instead of us influencing our friends to do the right thing, we let our friends influence us to do the wrong things. He ruined the religious practices that was established before him. He unraveled everything his father had established. He polluted the house of God with idolatry. He even dedicated his children to the false God Moloch. We can understand how this led him down a destructive path. He made the evi8l ones his guides and counselors. You see Manasseh was like some of us. God surrounds us with Christian and good people but, we don’t like them, they are boring, so we try to hold on to our friends in the world.
We ant to hang out with the wicked ones we want to eat, drink, smoke and be merry. But god has called us to another level. God wanted Manasseh to follow him, but he chose to embrace false gods. He abused the temple of God. He used his people for evil. He led his people the wrong way. He was worse than the heathens? Why? Because he knew better. What made god angry was that god spoke to Manasseh through his prophets and he refused to take heed. Him and his people ignored god, they wouldn’t listen.
We need to take heed of this. Those of us who are parents and try to raise our kids in the correct way, it is not our fault when they go astray. If you have trained them in the proper way it’s up to them. So don’t feel guilty when they do something wrong. Because Manasseh had godly parents, but he still went astray.
God sent a foreign enemy to destroy him. God sent the king of Babylon. The same king who was friends with his father. You see god uses any body he wants to. You see that person you diss today, might be the same person god will send you to ask a favor of. You have to be careful how you treat people.
But because his father faithful served God, God protected him form the king of Babylon,. But God sent him to chastise a group of sinful people. And to bring a straying king to his senses.
The captain took Manasseh away and Manasseh didn’t know which way to turn. They destroyed his house as the prophet Isaiah had forewarned him. They had him bound,. While he was being afflicted he had to time to think and reflect. Just like we do. God has been taking care of us, but then we allow Satan to dangle some glamour before our eyes, and then before you know it, we are all caught up and wrapped up with Satan. Satan has deceived us and we forget all about god until we hit rock bottom. That’s what happened to Manasseh, he realized that those idol gods who he worshipped and served couldn’t get him out of the jam he was in. He did the only thing he knew how. He called on the God of his father, he called on the only true God. And God heard his call and god restored him. Jesus says in his words that no man can serve two masters. He will hate one and love the other. Matthew 6:24.
Idol worship is called anism and it is a deep-lying belief in spiritual beings which expresses itself in the worship of idols, spirits or charms.
When we study the old testament there were many idol worshippers they worshiped gods such as Baal. Dagon. Molech, chemosh. Explain story of Esther.
Let’s look at Matthew 6:24
A lot of people think that money cannot be used in a spiritual way and that when you talk about money, you are talking about something that is only material. However our Lord says that we should to lay up for ourselves treasure in heaven “We need. to give to the Lord’s work. While we are here on earth, but we need to make sure the money is going to a legitimate organization.
When people worship idols they must learn how to convert to Christianity. They must change their faithfulness and believe in Christ alone. When the people in Jerusalem chose to serve strange gods Joshua forewarned them and told them of the evil that would come upon them.
Ephesians 4:22-24
We are supposed to put off the old man and put on the new man in the same manner we change our clothes. It’s sort of like pulling off an old dirty garment and putting on a fresh clean one.
I Corinthians 10:14-15
Idolatry was a temptation in Corinth. Idolatry may not be temptation to you, the bible tells us that covetousness is idolatry. There is a lot of that around today. Explain Paul goes on to explain that to fellowship at the Lord’s table requires separation. Read 1st
Corinthians 10:16-19. An idol is nothing, so if you offer meet to an idol it is nothing the meet is not affected. Although the idol is nothing behind the idol is demonism. 1st Corinthians 10:21. For some people to eat meet that had been offered to idols would be idolatry. A believer would have to examine his heart very carefully
Conclusion: know who you worship. Don‘t put anything before the lord thy god. Ask yourself am I worshipping this or am I worshipping God. Let‘s pray...
