Sermon Pre-Test
1. Serving other gods can be defined as:
A. Anything that I cherish so much that I place it before God.
B. Those little figurines that people buy and place on their shelves and pray to.
C. My car, my house, my spouse, boyfriend, girlfriend, etc.
D. There are no other gods today – that was back in the Old Testament times.
E. A,B, and C are all examples of what can become an idol.
2. Anything that I place above God can be considered a god in my life. True or False
3. We have the ability to make something or anyone into a god. True or False
4. Which examples below are examples of worshipping a car.
A. Washing my new car every other day because I must keep it clean.
B. Not driving my car in the rain because I do not want it to get dirty.
C. Sitting in my house and looking out the window at my car.
D. Sitting in my car in my garage because I just want to be close to it.
E. All are examples of worshipping a car.
5. Which examples below are examples of worshipping a person?
A. Doing whatever that person asks me to do because I love them so much.
B. Turning my back on God just so I can keep this person in my life.
C. It is impossible to worship another person.
D. If you shake a famous person’s hand you never wash your hand again.
E. A, B, and D are all examples of worshipping a person.
6. I have a favorite entertainer that I love above all. My bedroom walls are covered with their pictures. I have begun to worship that person. True or False
7. Which of the following would you choose as the most common god in America?
A. Food
B. Money
C. Cars
D. A Celebrity
8. Money is the root of all evil? True or False
Sacrifices Part 4: Multiple Choice or True/False Christian Living
Scripture: Exodus 20:7-17; Matthew 5:13-7:27
Introduction
This message is part four of my series on sacrifices. Last week we started looking at how Christians live their lives, either as a multiple choice question or as a true or false question. In my message last week, I covered the ninth which says “You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor” and the seventh commandment which says “You shall not commit adultery.” This morning we will continue by looking at the first two commandments. As we did last week, you should have already received and/or completed your pre-test and we will use that as we continue throughout this message today. Let’s go back to Exodus chapter twenty.
I. The First Two Commandments
The first two commandments pertain to our worship of God versus other gods and idols. The first commandment states the following: “You shall have no other gods before Me.” The second commandment says “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. 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 fourth generations of those who hate me, but showing lovingkindness to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments.” Exodus 20:3-6
What is your understanding of what it means to serve other gods? Does than mean you must have some idols in your house of those gods to be worshipping them? Let’s review the first two questions to establish our foundation.
Having established the foundation that serving another god can come into play when we put anything before God, let’s go back to what God says. When you read these commandments you will understand immediately that there are other “gods” in the world that can be worshipped – and these “gods’ are not what we consider to be gods. The term “god” with a little “g” means something that man made or something that man chooses to worship besides the one true, all eternal God who created us.
Let me give you three definitions that I will refer to in this message to enable each of us to be on the same page. I want to define the terms god, idol and worship. Webster’s dictionary defines “god” as “any of various beings conceived of as supernatural and immortal; a person or thing deified (to make a god).” This same dictionary also defines “idol” as “an image of a god, used as an object of worship.” For this sermon, I want you to use the definition of god as “a person or thing deified” and for idol “an image of a god, used as an object of worship” with the idol being representative of the god. The last definition I want to give you is for the word worship. When we think of worship, we often think of what we do when we come to Church on Sunday morning or what others do in their religious observances for their god. This is one definition of worship, but let me give you another one that we will use today so that we will continue to look closely at our lives. Worship can be defined as “intense love or admiration” and this is the definition that we will use today. Intense love or admiration for anything other than God, be that a person, place or thing. With those definitions in mind, let’s go back to what God told Moses in the Ten Commandments.
“You shall have no other gods before Me.” The key word in this commandment is “before.” To have something before something else means that it comes first. You must enter through the door before you can enter the room. When we use this word in this manner, it does not fully convey what God was saying. When you examine the original Hebrew word, you will find that it means that we will not have any other gods “present” before God’s face, before His sight. Think of it like this, some people cannot stand the sight of blood and will pass out. For them you cannot bring blood in their presence – before their eyes. This is what God was saying about our having other gods before Him – he did not want any gods that we serve coming before Him, or in His presence. The Children of Israel thought that God dwelled in a certain area and that He was not everywhere, but we know different. God dwells everywhere and see all things so really it is impossible for us to worship other gods and not bring them into His presence. Are you seeing this? In the next verse God says that “You shall not make for yourself an idol…..” Remember, an idol today is something that is used to represent a god that is worshipped. So let’s say you worshipped your car, your car has become your god. Because you cannot be around your car all the time, you take a picture of it. When you are away from your car you have a picture of it so you can look at it every now and then. The car is your god but the picture that you took of it is your idol – it is representative of the god you are serving. When you think about worship remember it is a very intense love and admiration that we bestow upon another person or object. So the first two commandments can be summed up as follows: “You will not place any one or any thing in my sight that you love more than Me. Not only that, but you will likewise not make any idol that represent anything that you intensely love or admire more than me!” So let’s answer a couple of questions and see if we understand this clearly.
In each of those questions (3-6) we find examples of how we can worship another person or object and thus make them into our god. God said that we are not to put anyone or anything before Him. Everyone in this room, myself included, at some point has made or will make a decision to put something or someone before God. We call it everything but what it is, idol worshipping. Some of you may remember the television program that was on called “American Idol” where these performers would perform and people would worship them. There were people who had to watch that show and when their favorite person did not win, they literally got so upset that it made them sick. I have watch old clips of R&B singers where women passed out when they touched the person. There are many people who place football before God every season; followed by basketball; baseball and back to football. In between those we fill the gaps with golf, tennis and track. There is always some sport that we place before God. We also place people before God. How many times have you been so in love that even when you came to Church all you could think about was the love of your life? Even when you wanted to go to Wednesday night Bible Study you stayed home because the person promised to call you so you waited by the phone. People have lost their minds over things that they put before God. There are many people who are in the ground now because they killed themselves because their idol, that person that they loved so intensely, left them. The love for God and His love for them could not get them through the loss of their other love. If you are struggling thinking of this, let me give you an example from a movie.
How many of you have ever seen the movie “The Lord of the Rings”? Remember the story line of the movie? In the movie there is a powerful ring. Whoever wears the ring becomes so enchanted by it that nothing matters but the ring. The ring changes their look, their personality and more important, how they interact with others. They become so possessive of the ring, so intense is their love for it, that they cannot do anything but focus their attention on the ring. They become willing to kill for it if someone even looks at it. When you want the movie, you see the number of lives that were lost because of that ring. Well, in some of our lives, we have those rings. They are represented by what we place before God; those things that change us; that make us act differently. We too are living out the story line from that movie. But let me get back on track.
When I was growing up, we were all fans of the Jackson 5, as many kids of my generation were at the time. There were fans at the time that literally had shrines in their homes for Michael. They had his pictures taped to the walls of their bedroom. Every time a new magazine with a picture came out, they’d purchase it and cut the picture out to add it to their collection. They collected every magazine that had a story of him. They would sit around for hours just staring at the pictures, thinking that one day they would be able to meet this great performer, or possibly marry him. This is worship in the 1st degree, even though we do not call it that. Think about what it mean when we use the terms “idol” and “icon” (which is a “sacred” image). If you have ever cut out a picture of your favorite star and taped it above your bed; if you have the huge posters of your favorite sports star hanging in your room; if you have collectibles of your favorite person proudly displayed on your shelf and you carefully tend to them every day, then my friend you are worshipping an idol and that idol represents a god that you are serving. (Okay, let me clear this up now – if you take care of your idols – dust them, polish them, make sure they always look new, while your Bible sits in a corner with an half inch of dust on it, yes then you have some idols.) When you love something or someone so intensely that you place it or them before God, you have created a god and you are worshiping its idol; and God is watching as you do this. But this is simple worship compared to what we really worship. There is one god that is so common in the world that if I asked you to name it, you could. Let’s see if I am correct – let’s review the last two questions.
If you said that money is the most common god in America, you would be correct. The other items could possibly be idols representing that god. Money is not the root of all evil, but the love of money is. Remember the definition of worship; the intense love and admiration of something? Well a lot of people have an extreme intense love of money. Let me explain.
II. The Love Of Money
The OJays had a song out titled “For the Love of Money”. Here are a few of the words:
“People will steal from their mother; for the love of money people will rob their own brother. For the love of money, people can’t even walk the streets because they’ll never know who in the world they’re gonna beat for that mean, mean, green, almighty dollar. For the love of money people will lie, rob, they will cheat. For the love of money, people don’t care who they hurt or beat; for the love of money a woman will sell her precious body. For a small piece of paper, it carries a lot of weight…that mean, mean green…”
The song goes on and on about what people will do for the love of money. People have misquoted the Scripture to say that “Money is the root of all evil” but it’s the love of the money. 1 Timothy 6:10 says this “For the love of money is a root of all sorts of evil, and some by longing for it have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.” This is what I am talking about as it pertains to putting this god before God. When money becomes our god, the things we purchase with the money become the idols representing our god. For example, what do some people do when they get the huge promotion or raise? They go out and buy something to “represent” their new status. We buy houses, cars, jewelry, and all manner of excesses to show others that we have money. All of those excesses become the idols to the god we worship – money. Understand, I am not saying that it is a sin to have nice things. I am saying that when our lives exist just to make more money and everything we do or focus on pertains to money, then money has become our god. Timothy said that there were those who left their faith in their pursuit of money – money became their god. Jesus also addressed this same issue. Turn back to Matthew and go to the sixth chapter.
Jesus said the follow, “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in or steal; for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also………No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth.” Matthew 6:19-21, 24
Lets examine closely what Jesus said and apply it to the things we do everyday. The first thing He says is that we should not store up treasures for ourselves here on earth. What did He mean? Some people assume this means that you should not have a savings account or a 401K for your future retirement. This is not what He was talking about. The term “treasures” in the Greek means wealth, but Jesus is not talking about the wealth itself, but our attitudes towards it. He is speaking to the greed and the hoarding of the wealth because of our love for it. In Luke chapter twelve, Jesus told a parable about a rich man. As we read this, I want you to think about the motivation of this man. Turn to Luke 12:15-21. “Then He said to them, ‘Beware, and be on your guard against every form of greed; for not even when one has an abundance does his life consist of his possessions.’ And He told them a parable, saying, ‘The land of a rich man was very productive. And he began reasoning to himself, saying, ‘What shall I do since I have no place to store my crops?’ Then he said, ‘This is what I will do: I will tear down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I will say to my soul, ‘Soul, you have many goods laid up for many years to come, take your ease, eat, drink and be merry.’ But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your soul is required of you; and now who will own what you have prepared?’ So is the man who stores up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God.”
In this parable Jesus explained that the motivation of the rich man was the problem. It was not the possessions that he had, it was how he viewed his possessions. He began to hoard them for himself. He had more than he could ever need or use. His barns could not hold everything that his land produced. But instead of helping someone else in need, he decided to tear down his old barns and build bigger ones. That is greed and it was motivated by his worship of his wealth. How do we know he was worshipping his wealth? Because he did not want to give any of it away to help someone else! Are you starting to understand what Jesus was stressing in this parable? We should possess nothing that we could not walk away from on this earth. This man had more than enough, but in his heart, he wanted it all. God looked within his heart and called him a fool because he did not understand that his focus should have been on God and not his possessions. So let’s go back to Matthew.
Jesus said that the treasures that we lay up for ourselves here on earth collect dust and basically rot or are eaten by moths. Again, he is speaking of those things that we do not need – the excess. But because we want what we have and more, we collect, and collect, and collect. Just because we can afford it does not mean that we really should buy it. I have watched celebrity shows where the celebrity lives in a mansion that could house 15 families and own more cars than they could drive in a week. Some of the vehicles were purchase just so that they could admired. What does this say about the person who does this? Could this person have taken that money and used it to help someone and thus stored up some treasure in heaven?
Are you trying to serve two masters? Jesus said that we cannot serve two masters, either we will love the one and hate the other or you will be devoted to one and despise the other. If you are living your life as a multiple choice questions where you can choose which of God’s principles you follow, remember, you cannot hide from God. If you are living your life as a true or false question, where your interpretation of God’s word is the one and only right way to interpret it, just remember, you cannot hide it from God.
This series is about making sacrifices. When you make a sacrifice, you choose to do without something in order to have something else. At some point, all of us must come to the point of standing before God and saying “I will follow You, wherever You lead” understanding that we cease to be in order that Christ will be. As long as I am fighting against God by watering down His word so that it will taste better to me, I am opening myself up for trouble. Multiple choice or true or false – where are you? I will continue this message next week.
