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Monday, June 06, 2022 10:50 AM - Sunday, December 18, 2022 1:00 PM

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Text: Exodus 20:4-6

A young woman brought her fiancé to visit her parents. After a nice dinner, the father invited the fiancé to the library for a talk. "So what are your plans?" he asked the young man. "I am a seminary student," he replied. "A seminary student. Hmmm," said the father. "Admirable, but how will you provide a home for my daughter?" "I will study," the young man said, "and God will provide for us." "And how will you buy her an engagement ring, such as she deserves?" "I will focus on my studies and God will provide for us." "And how will you support your children?" "Don't worry, sir. God will provide." The conversation continued like this; each time the father questioned, the young man insisted that God would provide. Later, when the mother asked about their conversation, the father sighed, "Well, he has no job and no plan, but the good news is, he thinks I'm God!"

* Despite the identity crisis of some, there is only one God and all our loyalty must be to Him.

Title: “Living your best life, message 2. God claims ‘Imagine Rights’ when it comes to worship.”

Theme: “Image is important. Politicians, athletes, Hollywood stars

 

 many of them hire image makers and spin professionals. Why? To be sure they have a good, acceptable public image. And while we may not hire people to help us, most of us would admit that we are concerned about our image, about how others see us and think of us. It is no different with God. God, is concerned with His image, with how others perceive Him. So He lays down the law and stipulates that no images of Him are to be worshipped.”

 

* This morning, I would like to share with you the following lessons.

 

1. People just want to see God.

Exodus 20:4-5; “You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or 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 or serve them, for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me,”

* An image is an inadequate representation. Isaiah 40:18-20; “To whom then will you liken God, or what likeness compare with him? ¹⁹ An idol! A craftsman casts it, and a goldsmith overlays it with gold and casts for it silver chains. ²⁰ He who is too impoverished for an offering chooses wood that will not rot; he seeks out a skillful craftsman to set up an idol that will not move.”

Exodus 33:20; “But,” he said, “you cannot see my face, for man shall not see me and live.” ²¹ And the Lord said, “Behold, there is a place by me where you shall stand on the rock, ²² and while my glory passes by I will put you in a cleft of the rock, and I will cover you with my hand until I have passed by. ²³ Then I will take away my hand, and you shall see my back, but my face shall not be seen.”

* Phillip was wrestling with the same thing when he asked Jesus, “Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us.” (John. 14:8) Phillip just wanted to see what God looked like, just wanted to catch a glimpse of His image, so he could fully believe. After all, isn’t it easier to believe in what we can see? Jesus’ answer is instructive.

* Phillip Jesus explains (verse 9-10a) “Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? Don’t you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me? The words I say to you are not just my own. Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing this work. Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; “

2. God is a Spirit and cannot be represented by anything physical.

Exodus 20:4; “You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or 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.”

* In Bible times there were 3 primary idols. There was Baal (female counter part, Ashtorah), who was the god of sex. There was Mammon who was the god of money. And, there was Moloch who was the god of violence. Sex, Money, Violence – What does that sound like today? (Hollywood, movies, TV)

* Man has a desire, for some reason, to turn objects or people or things, into objects of worship. God does not like that.

* The danger of false worship. John 4:20- 24; " Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you say that in Jerusalem is the place where people ought to worship.” ²¹ Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. ²² You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. ²³ But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him. ²⁴ God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.”

* The present world. Romans 1:22-23; “²² Claiming to be wise, they became fools, ²³ and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.”

 

* The future world. Revelation 9:20; “But the rest of mankind, who were not killed by these plagues, did not repent of the works of their hands, that they should not worship demons, and idols of gold, silver, brass, stone, and wood, which can neither see nor hear nor walk.”

3. God is a jealous God punishing and blessing the way we worship.

Leviticus 26:3-7; “If you walk in my statutes and observe my commandments and do them, ⁴ then I will give you your rains in their season, and the land shall yield its increase, and the trees of the field shall yield their fruit. ⁵ Your threshing shall last to the time of the grape harvest, and the grape harvest shall last to the time for sowing. And you shall eat your bread to the full and dwell in your land securely. ⁶ I will give peace in the land, and you shall lie down, and none shall make you afraid. And I will remove harmful beasts from the land, and the sword shall not go through your land. ⁷ You shall chase your enemies, and they shall fall before you by the sword.”

* God refuses to share the human heart with any rival, not because he is selfish and wants us all for himself, but because he knows that our greatest happiness comes from our right relation to him. It is not intolerance or suspicion but exclusiveness.

* God’s jealousy is not jealousy of, but jealousy for!

Zechariah 1:14; “So the angel who talked with me said to me, ‘Cry out, Thus says the Lord of hosts: I am exceedingly jealous for Jerusalem and for Zion.”

* Look at Exodus 20:5; “You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me, ⁶ but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments.”

* Beloved, notice with me that God’s hand is against those who are worshipping wrongly, for three to four generations.  That’s big! I want a blessing for my family.  I don’t want to bring a curse home to my house.

Leviticus 26:15-17; “if you spurn my statutes, and if your soul abhors my rules, so that you will not do all my commandments, but break my covenant, ¹⁶ then I will do this to you: I will visit you with panic, with wasting disease and fever that consume the eyes and make the heart ache. And you shall sow your seed in vain, for your enemies shall eat it. ¹⁷ I will set my face against you, and you shall be struck down before your enemies. Those who hate you shall rule over you, and you shall flee when none pursues you.”

* Beloved, I don’t want any of these things.  Life is hard enough when you are trying to do what is right. You shall have no other god before me.

The Forty Martyrs of Sebaste—March, 320 AD

* There is some debate about who was emperor of Rome when this took place but the facts are clear that it did happen. During the end of the Roman Empire the war in Gaul was so draining on the manpower that the Emperor sent the best wrestlers and warriors from the Colosseum to fight. One such group was known as ‘The Emperor’s Wrestlers’. Before each contest they would stand before the Emperor’s throne and cry out, “Forty wrestlers, wrestling for thee, O Emperor, to win for thee the victory and from thee the victor’s crown.” While in Gaul rumors spread to Rome that many of the Emperor’s Wrestlers had become Christians. When news of this reached Rome, the Emperor, sent a message to his armies, and made this decree; Every soldier must recant Christianity, worship the Emperor or die. It was in the dead of winter when one particular Centurion received the message while his soldiers were camped beside a frozen lake in Gaul. He assembled his troops and asked, “Are there any among you who cling to the faith of the Christians? If so, let him step forward. I must tell you, all that step forward will be put to death and I have heard it said, a Christian will not deny being so!” Instantly, all 40 wrestlers stepped forward two paces, saluted and stood at attention and said, “We believe in Jesus Christ as He is the Messiah and we will worship Him!” The Centurion did not want these men he loved, respected, and who fought side-by-side together, to die by the blade of the sword, so he built a large fire by the lake and had them strip naked. Reluctantly he said, “The decree of the Emperor must be obeyed, so you shall stand out on the frozen lake, exposed to the elements until you freeze to death. Should you recant and deny Christ, the fire will remain burning on shore, and by returning to the shelter of the fire, you will be denouncing Christ and you shall live.” The forty soldiers stripped off their clothing, fell into four columns of ten each, and marched towards the center of the frozen lake to their death. But as they marched onto the ice, they chanted; “Forty wrestlers, wrestling for thee O Christ, to win for thee the victory and from thee the victor’s crown.” All night long the Centurion stood by his campfire and watched those forty brave wrestlers out on the ice as they slowly succumbed to the elements. As they grew weaker and weaker, their chanting grew fainter and fainter; “Forty wrestlers, wrestling for thee O Christ, to win of thee the victory and from thee the victor’s crown.” As morning drew near, one wrestler, no longer able to stand the freezing cold, walked off the ice and came to the edge of the fire, renouncing Christ and his faith. Thinking he was gaining victory over them he though, “Ah-ha, more will come. I know these warriors!” As he waited, no more came. Then he heard once again, very faintly from the frozen lake, “Thirty-nine wrestlers, wrestling for thee O Christ, to win for thee the victory and from thee the victor’s crown.” At that point God touched the heart of that Centurion. He removed his cloak, helmet and armor and calmly walked down upon the frozen lake to join his men, and as he walked, he chanted; “Forty wrestlers, wrestling for thee O Christ, to win for thee the victory and from thee the victor’s crown.”

* Who will you worship?