WORTHLESS
IDOLATRY
BREAD
8 “Those who cling to worthless
idols forfeit the grace that could be theirs.” Jonah 2:8 (NIV)
16 They made him jealous with their foreign gods and
angered him with their detestable idols. 17 They sacrificed to
demons, which are not God-- gods they had not known, gods that recently
appeared, gods your fathers did not fear. 18 You deserted the
Rock, who fathered you; you forgot the God who gave you birth. 19 The
LORD saw this and rejected them because he was angered by his sons and
daughters. 20 “I will hide my face from them,” he said, “and
see what their end will be; for they are a perverse generation, children who
are unfaithful. 21 They made me jealous by what is no god and
angered me with their worthless idols. I will make them envious by those who
are not a people; I will make them angry by a nation that has no understanding.
22 For a fire has been kindled by my wrath, one that burns to
the realm of death below. It will devour the earth and its harvests and set
afire the foundations of the mountains. Deuteronomy 32:16-22 (NIV)
20 “Do not be afraid,” Samuel replied. “You have done all
this evil; yet do not turn away from the LORD, but serve the LORD with all your
heart. 21 Do not turn away after useless idols. They can do you
no good, nor can they rescue you, because they are useless. 22 For
the sake of his great name the LORD will not reject his people, because the
LORD was pleased to make you his own. 23 As
for me, far be it from me that I should sin against the LORD by failing to pray
for you. And I will teach you the way that is good and right. 24 But
be sure to fear the LORD and serve him faithfully with all your heart; consider
what great things he has done for you. 25 Yet
if you persist in doing evil, both you and your king will be swept away.” 1 Samuel 12:20-25 (NIV)
24 “No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money.” Matthew 6:24 (NIV)
34 Hearing that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, the
Pharisees got together. 35 One of them, an expert in the law,
tested him with this question: 36 “Teacher, which is the
greatest commandment in the Law?” 37 Jesus
replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart
and with all your soul and with all your mind.' 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as
yourself.’ 40 All the Law and
the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” Matthew 22:34-40 (NIV)
1 And God spoke all these words: 2 “I am
the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. 3 You
shall have no other gods before me. 4 You shall not make for
yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth
beneath or in the waters below. 5 You shall not bow down to
them or worship them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, punishing the
children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation of those
who hate me, 6 but showing love to a thousand [generations] of
those who love me and keep my commandments.”
Exodus 20:1-6 (NIV)
BUTTER
“We easily fall into idolatry, for we are inclined to it by nature; and coming to us by inheritance, it seems pleasant.” Martin Luther
“Whatever
a man seeks, honors, or exalts more than God, this is the god of idolatry.” William
Ullathorne
“Daniel was a spiritual man in spite of the environment he was in. Carried away captive to Babylon, he could have easily fallen into compromise. There in the palace, he literally lived in the lap of luxury. It was a place of rampant idolatry, incredible cruelty, and sexual immorality. Yet in the midst of it all, Daniel remained a righteous man and flourished spiritually. Sometimes when we are in an environment around Christians all the time, we can put our lives on spiritual cruise control. On the other hand, when we are in a secular environment, it forces us to do one of two things: either blend into the woodwork or stand up and be counted.” Greg Laurie
“‘Do not be deceived: God is not
mocked,’ the apostle Paul writes, ‘for whatever one sows, that will he also
reap. For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap
corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap
eternal life’ (Galatians 6:7-8). The trouble is that we fool ourselves into
thinking there’s some safe middle ground — that we can make excuses and put off
sowing to the Spirit, while still denying the flesh. But we always sow to
something, very often to ourselves. And what we sow slowly reveals, and shapes,
what we love most in life.”
Marshall Segal
“What is the greatest threat to your soul?
Whatever keeps you from God. And not every threat
will be sin. In fact, for many of us, perhaps most
of the greatest threats to our souls are not sin, but some good God himself
has given to us.” Marshall Segal
HEART SAVOR
· God is to be first, all else a pale second.
· No one can have a divided heart. Whatever we love most we serve. Test you own self in this.
· Idolatry is a threat to my soul.
