Sacrifices: Multiple Choice Or True Or False Lifestyle Series

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.