Idolatry - Leland Zehr

Good morning. I want to welcome you and greet you in the name of

Jesus, As revelation says Jesus Christ, the faithful Witness, the first begotten

of the dead, and the Prince of the kings of the earth. Unto

him that loved us and washed us from our sins in his own blood,

and hath made us kings and priests unto God and his Father. To him

be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen. M I've appreciated the singing

as well. The songs stood out to me this morning. All of them

were very good and fitting for the service that we have this morning, seeking

our hearts, examining our hearts, our relationship with God. As we prepare

Lord Welling to take have a communion service next Sunday, remember the death and

suffering of Jesus and what that means. We have this practice, a biblical

practice of just pausing and taking a little time to examine our hearts and try

to be honest before God especially and with our fellow men, with our where

we're at in our Christian walk and faith. And so that is what we

want to do this morning. I I thought maybe i'd read I'll just read

a couple of verses. I don't I'm not going to read very much out

of First Corinthians eleven. Dan's commented on it. I appreciated the devotional that

could have been a whole message. The tongue is an indication of the heart,

and what comes out of our mouth is a reflection, and so many

other deeds and things that we do are also that way. First Corinthians eleven

talks about keeping the Lord's suffer and says different things there. But in verse

twenty seven twenty eight, or maybe read those two, wherefore, whosoever shall

eat this bread and drink this cup of the Lord unworthily shall be guilty of

the body and blood of the Lord. But let a man examine himself,

and let him eat of that bread and drink of that cup. For he

that eateth and drinketh unworthily eateth and drinketh damnation to himself, not discerning the

Lord's body. For this cause, many are weak and sickly among you,

and many sleep, for we would judge ourselves. We should not be judged.

And it goes on. They're talking about that. So this is I

guess a little bit the focus of the council meeting service. Generally speaking now

this morning, I don't know how you're doing. People and personalities are different.

Sometimes I think about in preaching at a time like this, it feels

like some of us need hell fire and brimstone to wake us up, and

others need a reminder of the grace of God to calm us down, to

comfort us in our imperfections, even though we're striving to be faithful, And

so I think that both are a reality. There's the God is requires holiness

and faithfulness, but he's also an understanding God. He knows our hearts.

He knows when we are trying to walk with him, and we fail,

and we we aren't perfect. And so I don't in any way want to

bring unnecessary unrest into anyone's life, and neither do I want to quench the

spirit. If God is speaking, I want to preach some things from the

Bible this morning, some things that have been on my mind, and let

the Holy Spirit talk to you work in your life as he knows your heart.

And I don't for a message. You can just turn back one chapter

the First Corinthians ten. There's been a subject or I would say subjects on

my mind for quite some time, and I've been preaching three Feesians, so

I've been doing that, but I had in mind for a while to speak

on another subject, And in a way, it's I've wrestled with what to

focus on on the subject, because it's like two sides of a coin,

and I want to touch on both of them, but primarily I want to

talk on idolatry this morning. I don't know if that's a fitting council meeting

service. At first, when I've seen I was assigned for this message,

I thought, well, that sermon will have to wait. But then as

I thought about it more, I thought, maybe it is. It is

fitting. The other side of that, the opposite of that is the thought

I've thought I've dwelt on a lot, is the first commandment to love the

Lord their God with all thy heart, with all thy soul, and with

all thy mind or might. And so with those two kind of opposite but

parallel thoughts is where my mind is this morning. And I didn't really realize

that before, But as I was I was kind of reading through First Crinthin's

eleven and the subject of idolatry was on my mind, and I looked back

on one chapter, and I realized that in First Crinthin's eleven it talks about

idolatry quite a bit. So I want to read this passage First Crinthians ten,

the verse that I would take my title out of his verse fourteen it

says, wherefore my dearly beloved that flee from idolatry. Before I read that,

I don't know how you feel about the subject of idolatry, what that

means to you. Idolatry and idol is is something, of course we know

that gets in the way of God. That it's a divided heart. It

is. It's not a single heart. It's a heart that goes after other

things other than God. And one of the things that I've really dwelt on

a lot, just in my own life. And maybe this message is a

reflection of my own wrestlings, and I continue to think and strive to examine

my heart and sort out how to live some of this in a practical way.

Is the seriousness of this subject. In a way, it is so

cliche to talk about the love of God and the condition of our heart,

and everybody knows out it's what the heart is that matters. But the love

of God a human and our love for God is like the first peace,

and all of the building walk. It is the foundation. It is what

Jesus said, everything else hangs on. If you were to put a scale

and you stacked up all the law and the prophets, and the Bible and

the commandments and everything on one side, and you simply had the love of

God on the other side, Jesus said, that is the most important.

The love of God outweighs all those things. And no matter what else we

do, if we're missing that one element of a love for God, all

these other things can never give us righteousness. And I think the thing that

makes it sobering and a little bit scary to me is fairly easy to live

life without that of reality. In our life, with the structure that we

have and all that we do, we can be missing a heart that loves

God more than everything else. And when that happens, everything is in vain

to some degree. With our religious practices, with our schedules, life can

go on. We can have council meeting six months every six months, and

communion and it just goes on. We've got enough structure to prop it all

up. But as our hearts a heart after God or is it a divided

heart? Maybe idolatry? To you, I know, in a way it

sounds a little bit outdated. We think about the Bible times and they would

bow down to these little images engraven man made things, and it seems like

something maybe that uneducated, simple superstitious people do is go after idols. And

maybe we have moved way beyond that with all our technology in today's time,

in our advancements, and in the good old us of a where God in

God we trust. I mean, after all, it's a nation right that

trusts in God. Where a Christian nation. People say, I don't know

if you've even thought of this. Do you think about if you worship idols?

Have you ever considered that that you're an idol worshiper. We generally don't

view ourselves as out but I want you to know and myself to know that

although we are blessed and raised in a Mennonite church and Christianity, have a

good community and a good school, and we dress how we do, we

try to be obedient, we can do all these things and be living in

idolatry. It's very possible. And so that is what I just want to

talk about a little bit this morning, and I want to read here at

First Corinthians ten. I'll just read through this chapter. There is so much

good in here that applies and lots of different directions. I won't be able

to even comment on a lot of these verses. I'm barely going to touch

some of them. But there's other verses here that are very fitting for today

and for the our focus in Christian life in general, First Corinthians ten.

Moreover, Brethren, I would not that ye should be ignorant that our fathers,

all our fathers, were under the cloud, and all passed through the

sea, and were all baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea,

And did all eat the same spiritual meat, and did all drink the

same spiritual drink, For they drank of that spiritual rock that followed them,

and that rock was Christ. But with many of them God was not well

pleased, for they were overthrown in the wilderness. Now these things were our

examples to the intent we should not lust after evil things, as they also

lusted. Neither be ye idolaters, as were some of them. As it

is written, the people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up

to play. Neither let us commit fornication, as some of them committed and

fell in one day three and twenty thousand. Let us Neither let us tempt

Christ, as some of them also tempted and were destroyed of serpents. Neither

murmur ye, as some of them also murmured and were destroyed void of the

destroyer. Now all these things happened unto them for examples, and they are

written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come.

Wherefore, let him that thinketh he standeth, take heed lest he fall.

And there's a warning there, And the next verse is encouragement. There hath

no temptation taken you, but such as is common to man. But God

is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted. Above that ye

are able, but will with the temptation also make a way to escape,

that ye may be able to bear it. Wherefore, my dearly beloved,

flee from idolatry. I speak as two wise men. Judge ye what I

say. The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion

of the blood of Christ. The bread which we break is it not the

communion of the Body of Christ. For we, being many, are one

bread and one body. For we are all partakers of that one bread.

Behold Israel after the flesh. Are not they which eat of the sacrifices partakers

of the altar? What say I, then, that the idol is anything,

or that which is offered in sacrifice two idols is anything? But I

say that the things which the gentiles and sacrifice, gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice

to devils and not to God. And I would not that ye should have

fellowship with devils. You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup

of devils. You cannot be partakers the Lord's table and of the table of

devils. Do we provoke the Lord to jealousy? Are we stronger than he?

All things are lawful for me, but all things are not expedient.

All things are lawful for me, but all things edify. Not. Let

no man seek his own, but every man another's health. Whatsoever is sold

in the shambles, that eat and ask no question for conscience's sake, For

the earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof. If any of them that

believe not bid you to feast, and ye be disposed to go whatsoever is

set before you eat, asking no question for conscien's sake. But if any

man say unto you, this is offered in sacrifice, in sacrifice, unto

idols, eat not for his sake, and that showed it, and for

consciences sake, For the earth is the Lord's, and the fullness thereof conscience.

I say not thine own, but of the other. For why is

my liberty judged of another man's conscience? For if I, by grace be

partakers, why am I evil spoken of? For that for which I give

thanks? Wherefore, therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye you

do, all to the glory of God, given no offense, neither to

the jew nor to the gentile, nor to the Church of God. Even

as I please all men and all things, not seeking mine own prophet,

but the prophet of many, that I may be saved. Wherefore, my

dearly beloved flee from idolatry. You know, this problem of idolatry has been

been a problem through the ages. It has been It is something that has

I don't know what it is, but it's in the heart of every every

person to worship to seek after something greater than ourselves. And the God of

Heaven created humanity. He blessed us, he provided for us. He gave

us all things that we need, plus a lot of other things to enjoy.

But the one thing that God seems to want back from his creation is

simply an undivided heart to him and he when he brought the children of Israel

out of Egypt. I want to read a few more verses this morning.

I hope you can be patient with me. I think they speak better than

I can. But in Deuteronomy, when God brought the children of Israel out

of Egypt, he had some commandments for them, not to restrict them,

but to protect them, to take care of them. And the number one

commandment out of the ten commandments that God gave, he gave them an exodus.

And in Deuteronomy, and I want to read what he says here about

the first commandment, and then on into Deuteronomy six a few verses. This

is God speaking to the children of Israel and to all humanity down through the

ages. I am the Lord, thy God, which brought thee out of

the land of Egypt from the house of bondage. Thou shalt have none other

gods before me. Thou shalt not make any graven image or any likeness of

anything that is in the heaven above, or in the earth beneath, or

that is in the waters beneath the earth. Thou shalt not bow down thyself

unto them, nor serve them. For I, the Lord thy God,

am a jealous God, visiting the iniquities of the fathers upon the children under

the third and fourth generation of them that hate me, and showing mercy unto

thousands of them that love me and keep my commandments. When jump into chapter

six, verse three. Here therefore, O Israel n observed to do,

that it may be well with THEE, and that thou may ye may increase

mightily, as the Lord God of thy fathers has promised THEE in the land

that floweth with milk and honey. They're getting ready to go into the cana.

Hero Israel, the Lord, our God is one lord. And thou

shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart and with all thy soul,

and with all thy might. And these words which I can't command THEE

this day shall be in thine heart. Jump into verse ten, and it

shall be when the Lord thy God shall have brought THEE into the land,

which he swear unto thy fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to

Jacob, to give THEE great and goodly cities which thou buildest not, and

houses full of all good things, which thou fillest not, and wells digged,

which thou diggest not, vineyards and olive trees which thou plantest not.

When thou shalt have eaten and be full. Then beware, lest thou forget

the Lord which brought THEE forth out of the land of Egypt from the house

of bondage. Thou shalt fear the Lord thy God, and serve him,

and shalt swear by his name. Ye shall not go after other gods,

of gods of people which are round about you, For the Lord thy God

is a jealous god among you. Lest the anger of the Lord thy God

be kindled against THEE and destroy THEE from off the face of the earth Verse

eighteen. And thou shalt do what is right and good in the sight of

the Lord, that it may be well with THEE. And here we see

God warning and pleading and wooing his people, reminding them that I've brought you

out of bondage. I'm bringing you into this promised land. Remember all the

battles that I have fought for you, and I will continue to fight for

you. And I'm going to give you an abundance. I'm going to give

you plenty houses and wells and vineyards, and you will you will be full.

You will have more than enough. But then he warns them, he

said, but when this all this happens, be careful, because there's a

tendency when we have so many nice and good things. Don't forget God.

Don't forget me, and don't And then he says, and don't go after

the other people's gods that are around you. And it it seems total foolishness

that we would or anyone would do that, after all that God did and

does, that we would drift away from that. But that is just a

reality and has been and will be in the hearts of people. We tend

to forget, especially when times are good, when we have plenty, when

we have more than enough. There is something about that self sustaining feeling,

havinging under control. I'm not very needy, and God tends to We tend

to forget God, like he warned about. God is a jealous God.

I want to he says he's a jealous God and he's a merciful God both.

And it's not the evil kind of jealousy that we think about today.

The kind of jealousy here is a jealousy that comes I just think from a

deep love of a mother father heart for their child, to protect them,

to care for them once the very best for them, and sees maybe some

evil person trying to snatch them away. It is it's a godly love.

And that God says, I'm a jealous God. It's like a good godly

marriage relationship, that the love of a couple. We should be jealous of

that and not let anything come in and disrupt that because it would just destroy

and ruin the closeness of love. Now, I want to go back here

to First Corinthians ten where we read and I want to just pick out a

few things in these verses here, and you could, you could, you

could preach many sermons out of here, because several of these verses are a

verse that refers back to an Old Testament story has a whole story in and

of itself, and I just want to refer to a few of them,

but try to keep them short. But he says here in this chapter six

in verse eleven, Now these things were examples to the intent that we should

not lust after evil things as they lusted. And he says that these things

happen to them for examples, and they're written down for our admonition. These

things are not just stories that are interesting, but they are stories that we

are to think about and apply to our lives and be admonished, to be

warned, to realize that I'm made of the same tendencies and I can drift

into the same problem. So what is idolatry? I'm not going to go

into that. I think it's pretty straightforward an idol, worshiping of idols,

and what is an idol? An idol can be an image, a wooden

grave and golden silver. That used to make more of the images that way.

But I think today idols tend to be we understand that, I think,

but maybe not as much as we think we do items. But idols

are often maybe of the heart, idols of our mind, idols of the

way we think, idols of priority in our lives, anything that comes between

us and God, anything that we will put on the throne above God.

And so I want to mention just a few things that some of these things

are things that I struggle with, have struggled with, continue to struggle with,

and try to sort out in my life. Others are referred to here

in sense. And so the first one I want to look at here,

if you look at verse seven, it says neither be idolaters as some of

them. As it is written, the people sat down to eat and drink

and rose up to play. Well what does that mean? Well, that

is if you look back on the story in Exodus thirty two, This is

the story of Moses when he was up on the mount talking with God and

the children of Israel and Aaron got impatient with where is God? Where is

Moses? And they gathered all the golden jewelry and made that golden calf and

set it up and started worshiping. And it says they sat down to eat

and drink and rose up to play. And so the first God I want

to think about a little bit is the God of pleasure. And there's different

aspects of that, but pleasure, the enjoying of this world and different things,

is not bad. Pleasure is I think God has given us things to

enjoy. Verse twenty six says that the earth is the Lord's and the fullness

thereof. In Verse thirty one, it says, whatsoever ye do do all

to the glory of God. For Timothy six seventeen says that God gives us

richly all things to enjoy. And so I don't think that God. It

doesn't feel to me that the Bible's teaching that we just live a life of

misery. But joy, true joy and fulfillment comes through the avenue of God

and in the place of God. But you don't have to look around very

far in our society and even in our churches to see that pleasure has become

a God in and of itself. Has not become a product of living for

God, but it has become a thing of itself, that is in that

we pursue, can pursue the endless pursuit of pleasure and fun and good times

and parties. Like the children of Israel, there they lost faith in God.

God wasn't there, Moses wasn't there. They God impatient, They couldn't

see them. Their faith drew dim and so they turned two things that they

could see things in the here and now, the things that brought joy right

now in their life to indulge the people sat down to eat and drink and

rose up to play. And today is that is something that we struggle with.

That is a reality that still wants to overtake our hearts. We as

humans like ease, we like pleasant things, we like good times. In

Luke, Jesus said in the Parable of the Sower, he said that he

warned about serebal things there that when the seed of God is spread, be

careful. There's there's different birds that come along and pluck these seeds out.

He gave this analogy. And one of the things he says is that which

fell among thorns are they which then they have heard, go forth and are

choked with the cares and riches and pleasures of this life, and bring no

fruit to perfection. And in Second Timothy three says in the last day they

shall be lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God. Spiritual things are,

it says, choked out. It's not that we don't want to do them,

and we have good intentions to do them, but it's just they are

literally choked out with a lack of priorities decisions are made. I see it

often and I can feel at mon heart. Decisions are often made based it's

not if it's fun. If it's a good time, then I'll then I'll

engage and I'll do it. Can't find time for personal devotions, can't find

time for prayer, meding, can't find time to go to singings. But

when there's a pot luck, when there's a barbecue, when there's a ball

game, we're there and we can't. We can spend money on anything that

we want. Our hobbies are hunting or fishing, our vehicles, you name.

It's an endless amount. But we have very little left over time for

spiritual activities, very little left time money to give to those in need or

interest for that matter. Lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God, you

know, one of the signs in our own heart. I've felt this,

I've seen it. A person that is worshiping the God of Pleasure is a

very restless person. There. They are discontented, They're fidgety and board whenever

there's not some action going on, can hardly sit still and just just have

a normal, slow relationship the God of Pleasure. Another one I'll give here.

They sat down to eat and drink. What about the God of food?

Is that a thing or is that just kind of a humorous possibility.

There Again, God has given us food to enjoy, and food is more

than I believe it is, and a social thing. I think it helps

people at ease. God talks about feasts in the Bible. All of that

is good, that it has its place. But again, our society,

our land of plenty. We live in a land where food and and drink

and the excess and availability is just unreal abundant. And the doctors and the

nurses of our country are not kept busy trying to nourish people and keep them

alive, but they are kept busy with over fed people and all the diseases

that come with that, the gluttony and the obesity. And maybe this feels

like it's going off on some kind of bunny trail, but I have come

to believe and think, and I stand before you skinny and probably underweight.

But that doesn't make me exempt from the problem of gluttony and over eating and

having and good food of God in my life. That's something I have to

deal with. Philippians three eighteen says for many of many walk of whom I've

told you often and now tell you even weeping, that they are the enemies

of the Cross of Christ, whose end is destruction, whose God is their

belly, whose glory is their shame, who mind earthly things. You know,

we as a people take a stand against tobacco, We take a stand

against alcohol and drugs. And the reason we'd say that is that our bodies

are the temple of God and we need to take care of them. We

need to be a good witness of that. But I was curious, and

I had a hunch. I looked up the top listings of health problems health

issues in the United States, and the first five are in this order,

physical activity and nutrition. A lacked that overweight and obesity. Tobacco comes in

at number three, substance abuse number four, and then HIV and AIDS.

And that is just a reality of our day that we have to deal with

and reckon with, and it is a problem in our country and a problem

I think in our churches. And I think it's more than a physical problem,

because I know, regardless of my weight, when I overeat and I

overindulge, there is a lethargicness that comes over me, both spiritually and physically,

that I think it impacts us when we live a lifestyle of over indulgence

and excess where we are just dull spiritually, We're not in tune with God,

and so we get discouraged, we get depressed. We eat instead of

fast, and the Bible says that we should fast when we have problems,

but we often turn to eating instead. It's a problem that I share with

you. So I just give that as something that I think we need to

comes really close home. Idolatry, and yet it can be given a free

pass. Another one maybe I'll just give to counterbalance. This is just as

real as the God of body worship and health, and I think this is

also equally a problem in our society, Hollywood and the entertainment industry, sports

idolizing, sexualizing the human bodies, just an obsession with fitness and being having

the right physique, and spending money in organic everything on making sure I'm just

as healthy as I possibly can be, and living in fear that something will

happen. I think that is kind of the opposite side to look down on

others that aren't fit and kind of spiritualize and condemn them for that we don't

know what else going on in the lives of other people and what they're facing,

and that is a problem as well. The Bible teaches that bodily exercise

profiteth little, but spiritual exercise profiteth much. Verse eight. Moving on to

another story here, in verse eight it says, let neither let us commit

fornication, as some of them committed and fell on one day three and twenty

thousand. This story is in numbers twenty five if you look at the numbers

twenty five. And I'm just going to talk a little bit here, not

much, but the god of immorality. And here this story is the children

of Israel are at their last encampment before crossing the Jordan River and going into

the Promised Land to Canaan. And the story there is the Canaanites had the

god of Bail, and Bail is a fertility god, and some of the

Israelites there on the verge of conquest got wrapped up with the odds in that

the idols of Bail there. And I don't know go into all the details

there, but the Lord God was very angry and he commanded Moses to take

all the heads of the people I'm assuming not their bodies, the heads of

the people that were involved and hang them up. And this was going to

pacify his anger. But before he got there, at Phineas, one of

the one of the men there seeing him Midian Irish woman with an Israelite man,

and they went into a tent, and Phineas went in there and he

killed them both. And God basically blessed him for that, and he said,

because of the zeal of Phineas, he stopped the plague. But it

wasn't before twenty three or twenty four thousand people had died. The God of

immorality. That was an idol of that, and it's an idol today.

You know that. We don't even need to say much about that. But

the God of immorality seems to be worshiped today as much as ever, maybe

more and many times inside our churches. And I I just say plead with

you to get rid of the God of immorality. Have no room for it.

Don't let it get a foothold. It is a god that you cannot

control. It is a god that if you let a little bit in,

it'll take over your life before you know it. Another one I'll just touch

on. It's not in this passage, but it has to be mentioned because

it's just so central to idolatry, and that is the god of Mammon,

god of money, the god of materialism, and money, like food,

is another necessity. It is a tool. It is a something we need.

It is something we can't just get rid of it. It's a complex

relationship on how to handle that with all the warnings of money that Jesus gave

and in the Bible, and yet the need for it, and it provides

and it buys and you invest and how much to give? But money,

money is probably the most I think, single powerful thing next to God in

our society. It controls so much, you can do so much. It

gives you flexibility in your lifestyle and what you do and where you go and

how you live, and how you can manipulate other people into doing what you

want them to do. It provides comfortable living. It gives a certain amount

of security in our life, and power and influence. Jesus said, though,

that one of them will be on the throne, and that is the

thing that we have to sort out. One of them will be subservient to

the other, one will be a tool, and one will be our master.

No servant can serve two masters. He will hold to the one and

despise the other. He cannot serve God and Mammon. And that is something

that I think, if we're just honest with at least myself, is something

that wrestleth Surely we can serve them both. Surely we could somehow come up

with some way to have both of them. But I think we must come

to the point where our money, our materialism, is laid on the altar

and what God gives us back to be generous, to share with people intentionally

beyond what we even want to as often a helps us break that heart of

covetiousness and that that we tend to gravitate towards. Verse nine here talks about

a story in numbers twenty one, And this is the story of the fiery

serpents and the people there are we're talking against God and Moses. And God

sent these fiery serpents into the people, and they started biting these people,

and the people started getting sick and dying. And the people repented, They've

seen what was happening, and they cried out into God. And so God

and Moses interceded for them. And it must have been a sight to see

people laying around swelling up snakes everywhere. And God said, build a build

a snake, a serpent out of brass, put it up on a pole,

and everyone that will look at that serpent will live. And so that's

what Moses did. I don't know how long it took to him. It

seems like that would have took a day or two, but he got a

serpent up, and as people in faith believed and out of desperate and looked

up at this image of this thing that had bit them, they were healed

and they were saved, and people started living in the plague past. Miraculous

thing, powerful thing. God commanded it. But the part that I want

to focus just a little bit on is not that story. But if you

turn to Second Kings eighteen, you have to turn there. But that part

of the story you'll pick up. And the king Hezekai, and I don't

know how many years later this was, but there was idolatry going on in

Israel, and Hezekai was a godly king, and so he came in and

he started removing the high places and idolatry and breaking down images and it doesn't

say much about it, but it says that he broke in peaces the brazen

serpent that Moses had made, because that had become an idol to the people.

The thing that God had commanded, the thing that God had said would

bring life to the people, had now been twisted into this idol that was

taking people away from God. And so I think of that as the God

of maybe religion, the god of maybe you could say church, if there's

such a thing. It sounds kind of crazy, it sounds like, well,

you know, you got that is God set up the church, and

he did, and it's important, and I'm not minimizing that. But I

think that these good things, like even church and the doctrines that we believe

in the practices that we do, when they are done and given more attention

and glory and value than a love for God, then they become idols,

and they become hindrances between us and God. And Jesus talked about the Pharisees

in Matthew fifteen eight. He said that this people draw nigh unto me with

their mouth and honored me with their lips, but their heart is far from

me. I think spiritual and religious idolatry is probably one of the most scariest

forms of idolatry because it seems so right, and it is in many ways

so right, and yet when the heart of a love for God is not

there, it's all hollow, it's shallow, it's meaningless. We can do

a lot of good things. Well, there's many many things we could mention,

but we could talk about our families, or we love our families,

but we know that there again, they cannot come between us and God and

on all our material possessions. I think about Abraham and Isaac in real time,

a precious sun that God asked Abraham to go sacrifice, and I guess

I would just say that I don't know how you do this exactly, but

I think we need to get to do this and figure out how to do

this. To kneel before God and the things that we are uncertain of if

they're idols in our lives, but maybe they are, and they're high value

in my life. To place them on an altar before God. Give them

to him, our families or possessions or bank account, our church or and

all of these good things. Give them to him. Let him sort them

out, let him, give them back, let him maybe adjust them in

our lives. And because he knows what's best. So what is the solution

and the remedy for the problem of adultery. It's kind of a negative,

maybe a negative subject to talk about all these things. But idols are simply

the counterfeit for and substitutes for the God of the Bible. Idols. If

you think about the idols that I mentioned, they in a sense are an

imitation of maybe an attribute or a fruit of God in a perverted sort of

a way. You think about lust, it is Satan's imitation and replacement of

love. You think about money, it is the replacement of the security of

God. You think about pleasures, it is the substitute for the joy and

peace that comes from being right with God and surrendered to God. So all

these idols that they're similar, and yet they are a distraction, and they

take us away from God, and they dangle and lead us out in pursuit

of emptiness. And we think about that. I was thinking about that with

Jesus ministry. He came to earth, and the first thing that he does

when he goes out into the wilderness, he's tempted, and that is right

where the devil went right to the heart of the issue, right to getting

Jesus to bow down in some way and give his first allegiance to the things

of this earth, of the kingdom of this world. So the answer is

love the Lord they God with all their heart and with all thy soul,

and with all they might. They say, you've heard this. The experts

that try to identify the counterfeit money that comes across the counters at all these

stores, they do not study counterfeit, but they study the real money in

a very thorough way and become very familiar with it. And I think that

is really the only answer to all the complex problems that we face in life,

relationship problems, and church problems, and just our own battles, and

is to draw an eye to God and to try to let the love of

God come into our heart, to make him center, get to know him,

and to love Him with all our heart. One thing I'd like to

just clarify, because the world talks a lot about the love of God,

and we do. We all do, and it's essential. But the question

isn't so much here whether God loves us, But the question here is if

we love God and if the love of God is in us, and there's

a big difference. You'll hear people say, well, God loves everyone,

God loves me as I am, and there's an element of truth to that.

But the love of God comes, I believe around the sinful people.

He is their calling and pleading. But it's a whole different thing for the

love of God to have free reign, to come through a person, to

surrender our hearts and to open up and let him please us and we repent.

The love of God in a person is different than the love of God

of a sinner. It's different, It bears different fruit, has a different

outcome. So how do we love God? Well? First John four nineteen

says we love him because He first loved us. And I think that's a

simple, simple thought, but it's it's important when we can grasp a little

bit what God has and is doing and done for mankind, and how much

He loves us and how much He sacrifices us. It has a pull on

our heart. It is the first step. It is what woos us.

It's like a It's a spark that happens between a man, a girl and

a boy when they find out the other one likes him. There's something that

just lights up. That's a drawing. It's the first thing when God we

realize that God loves us. James Force has drawn nigh to God, and

he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, he sinners, and

purify your hearts. He double minded. It's all part of allowing the love

of God into us is to cleanse and pure purify the things that we know

are not right. Matthew five six says, blessed are they which do hunger

and thirst after righteousness, For they shall we feel. And I just want

to mention something here, and I do not want to do this in a

in a condemning way that makes you feel uninspired to do this. But I

am troubled at times with our conservative Mennonite people that struggle and fail and are

bound up in all kinds of sins and addictions and habits and broken relationships and

bad attitudes and purity and covetousness. And we all struggle with that. That's

true, But there's the difference within a struggle and a continual living in sin.

And then when the question is asked, it's like there's there's very little

hungering and thirsting after righteousness, very little time with God's were very little time

in the Bible, and it is so basic, and yet it is so

essential. And we see that in the life of Jesus, the Son of

God, where he needed to come aside and to refill and come to the

heavenly Father and to have solitude and to try to draw a n eye to

God so that he could minister. And somehow we think that we can bypass

that, We think that we we just don't have time, we just don't

get around to it, and we wonder, we're weak, we're sickly,

we we don't feed. It's like a person that don't eat and he's weak

and he's shaky and he has no strength. And yes, it takes some

discipline, it takes some cultivating, but it's a promise. If you hunger

and thirst after righteousness, Jesus said, you will be filled. And whether

you know it or not, what you are hungering and thirsting after is what

you are being filled with. And you're taking the time for the things that

you hunger and thirst after. What we give our attention to, whatever we

prioritize, is what we become and if we're going to give our attention to

the love of God and make that priority, we go that direction. We

draw closer to God when we give our attention and a hunger and thirst after

all these other things, we go that direction. Love of God word,

reading the Word of God, and prayer is not only a indication of where

our heart is, but it is where our heart will be. And so

if we don't feel like we're where we should be, if we draw night

to God and read his word and pray before God, it takes us that

direction we find strength. The love of God changes us and softens us and

flows it through us. I'm convinced that many, many of the struggles on

an average congregation, the answer is found in a deeper walk with God.

I've wondered already already, how how could we how could we pull our congregation

together? How how could we love each other more? How could I love?

Should we have more ball games or barbecues, more church services? Would

that do it? I'm convinced that that wouldn't do it. I think those

things are good. I think those things are actually human activities that we should

do that are have apart. But I think the answer comes you can have

all the ballgames and barbecues in the world that you want, but without with

proud people, With people that don't have a heart towards God, that the

love of God is not in them, it will not draw us together.

It is as we bow before God and let him soften our hearts. Realize

how much I've been forgiven, how sinful I am, how grateful I am

for that. Then my heart can start to love others. That is really

the only way. It is only through the love of God flowing through us

that we even have the ability. None of us have a nice enough personality

and are born with the personality trait to just love everybody as we ought.

It is the love of God. First. Peter four eight says above all

things, have fervent charity among yourselves, for charity will cover the multitude of

sins. And I think that is a fruit of true fervent charity. You

see that in the lives of people that love each other. Yes there's faults,

Yes there's imperfections, but I love you and I and I. It's

it's not turning an eye towards evil and sin, but it's the faults of

each other that I I don't see when love is missing. We tend to

be like what we read and James three, the poison of the well comes

out. We're harsh, we're critical, and faults of others. And I

would just say, when we feel that way, instead of trying harder to

love that person I'm struggling with, go back to God. Ask God for

love, Ask God for forgiveness. Ask God for his love to come in

and show you him and to give you the ability to love your brothers and

sisters yourself. And I think that is the spot where we can find the

strength and love for others. You know, God doesn't really need us.

He's self sufficient, he's all powerful. But he wants us. And that

is a thing that is hard for us to understand. That is what's amazing.

That is what is a drawing. He wants our undivided love or undivided

attention. He wants our heart. I think I'll stop with that. I'll

just close with a few verses. And first, John, he that loveth

not knoweth not God, for God is love. And this was manifests the

love of God towards us, because that God sent his only begotten son into

the world that we might I live through him. Herein is love, not

that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent his son to

be the propitiation for our sins through the love of Jesus Christ. Let's stand

for prayer. Our Father in Heaven had come before you this morning. You

know our hearts, you know our needs, you know the thoughts and the

intents that are deep within us. I pray for your presence. I pray

for your Holy Spirit to be with us and to direct in the lives of

each person and each need that is here and maybe those that are not here.

Pray that you'd hold back the doubts and the temptations of the evil one

from among us, and that we could see clearly you and your will for

our lives, and have the strength and courage to live faithful as we ought.

Pray for the Halsy congregation here, our church, even though we are

many needy people, that you would continue to be patient with us, and

that we would strengthen each other and strive to serve you and be a light

in this community. Here. Pray this in Jesus name. Amen. Maybe seated