No other gods!

So we are in our third week, amen, of first things first.

Amen.

And you know, it's easy to say that.

It's easy to, you know, yeah, I do.

But if we're all honest, there's times in our lives where we haven't, where we still don't.

You say, how do you know?

Because if we did everything exactly the way God wanted us to, we wouldn't be here anymore.

Amen.

We'd be in heaven.

Amen.

That doesn't mean that we should go out and not live a life that is worthy of his calling and and and seek to follow him in every way.

Of course we should.

Amen.

But there's still work to be done in our hearts.

Amen.

There's still work to be done in our lives.

And so we want him to do that.

So as we get into this, let's pray one more time because we want God to change our hearts.

I want him to change mine.

Amen.

And and whoever may be listening to this, that when we send it out, that God would move in their hearts and lives.

Amen.

Father God, we pray right now in the mighty name of Jesus that God, you would change us through your word by your power for your glory.

God, that you would move in us in a way that is not natural but supernatural.

Lord, that we would be changed not just in behavior, but be changed in our heart, that when our heart is changed, our behavior will follow.

And so, God, I pray, God, that you'd open our ears to hear, our hearts to receive, and that you would be glorified in it all.

And everybody said, Amen.

Again, this is a week three, no other gods and of our first things, first series.

And, you know, um I see as I get into this over and over and more and more that God is still refining us and still making us into the men and women, boys and girls that He wants us to be.

Amen.

If you got your Bibles, turn to Exodus chapter 20, Exodus chapter 20, and we're gonna read verse 3.

Exodus 20 · chapter mention Exodus 20 · chapter mention

Amen.

It says, You shall have no other gods before me.

You shall have no other gods before me.

I want to ask you a question.

What do you think of when you think of the word first?

First.

Maybe before everything else or before everyone else, the beginning.

Yes, that's all true, right?

When we think of sports, whether it's college football, college basketball, the NFL, the uh baseball, major league baseball, whether it be if you like soccer, whatever it is, amen.

There's a goal that every team is after.

And that goal is to win the most, but ultimately, more than that, to be the champion at the end of the year or be first above everybody else because they accomplished something that nobody else did that year.

Amen?

That's what they want.

But why?

You know?

Why does it matter?

Because it puts them in a place that only they can be and no one else can say they're in that year.

It puts them in a uniqueness above anybody else that year or that moment in time of sports, right?

It makes them special.

And so for the rest of time, however long we have on this earth, whatever it is that you're following, whatever sports or whatever it is and team you're following, if your team wins, then you can say, that year we were the first, we were the best of anybody.

Even if it's five years ago, ten years ago, twenty years ago, whatever, that year they were the best.

Amen.

And it matters to those that played, it matters to those that coached, it matters to the to the fans, right?

And they still remember it, right?

Because it matters to them.

Well, Next is 20 verse 3, God is saying what?

Isaiah 20:3

I am first, right?

I'm first.

Not first among many gods, but first because there is no other God.

We'll say it again.

He's not first among many gods.

He is first because he is the only God.

He is the only God.

There is no other God.

Right?

None.

And so in the world that we're living in today, there seems to be, or not seems to be, there is a thought process in the world system that it doesn't matter who or what you believe as long as you believe something.

That is a lie from hell.

Amen.

It does matter, amen.

And God is saying that when he was talking to the children of Israel in this passage of Exodus 20, verse 3, you will have no other gods before me.

Exodus 20:3

Because there was not any real gods, but they had been those that they had set up as gods that did not deserve what he deserved, because he is the only one of his kind.

And so he says, I deserve first and foremost of your heart at all times.

He is not only wanting a declaration that he alone is God, but he commands us that he is first in our lives.

And if he's first, then he's the one we trust the most.

And if he's the one we trust the most, he's gonna be the one we worship the most.

It is the way it is, because that's how it is when we put him in the right place.

Some will say, Well, Pastor, I don't have a golden calf in my backyard.

You know, I don't have a problem with idols.

The great reformer John Calvin says that the heart is full of idols, and you know, I tend to agree with that.

Amen.

Uh, there is always something in our lives that the enemy wants to put as an idol in our life.

And if we're not careful, we will.

You say, but I don't have that golden calf.

Well, it can be anything that's a good thing that we've allowed to become a God thing.

An idol is whatever you look to for what only God can give.

I'm gonna say it again.

An idol is whatever you look to for what only God can give.

Security, identity, comfort, or control.

What's the thing, hear me on this.

What's the thing that if God took it away tomorrow would make you feel like life isn't worth living?

Think about it for a moment.

If God took it away tomorrow, it would make you feel like life wasn't worth living.

If you have something there, that's your idol.

It's your idol.

Well, that ain't fair.

It is because it's not me we're comparing it to, it's to God.

And he's got to be first above everybody, above everything.

You said, but Pastor, I love my family.

Well, you're supposed to love your family, and they're supposed to come second to God and only to God.

First above everybody else, but second to God.

Because without him, we wouldn't have anything we do have.

So he deserves preeminence.

Look at 1 John chapter 5, verse 21.

1 John 5:21

Because some will say, well, this is just a New Testament, I mean an Old Testament thing, an Old Testament command.

No, no, no, it's not.

1 John 5 21 says, Little children, what?

Keep yourselves from idols.

You see, because we still can have idols.

There is people, and I don't have anybody in mind, but there's people all around the world, or all around America and the world, that could have been in service today, but they chose something else more important.

Now, I'm not saying that people don't go on vacation or they're sick or, you know, I'm not talking about that.

I'm just talking about they put a priority of that above coming into his house.

That's an idol.

You put more value on it.

Think about it.

Before God gives Israel a single rule about behavior, he settles the question of allegiance.

The relationship preceded the regulation.

What did he say?

I am the Lord your God who brought you out.

What?

In verse 2, you shall not.

We're talking about Exodus 20.

I'm the one that brought you out, and you shouldn't put nobody before me.

What's some other common things that we see today?

Because usually it's relationships, whether it's our spouse, our girlfriend, boyfriend, or children, or grandchildren, or great-grandchildren, or whatever, sister, brother, whatever, that we can easily make an idol.

What about other things?

Our career, can it not become an idol?

Yes.

When we say we've got to work that day, we really don't have to work that day, but the works become an idol because of what it gives us that we think is more important than God.

What?

Money.

And Jesus said, you cannot serve God and mammon uh uh together.

You you gotta choose one or the other.

But he also says if we seek him first, as we preached earlier in the series, right?

In the kingdom of God, his righteousness, what all these other things will be added when my when my order is right, when my heart is right, then God will gladly give me all the other things that I need.

It could be career, it could be money, it could be image.

How many people spend time, I mean, money and time on their image?

A lot.

Romance, this one might be a little touchy, but hey, you can make politics an idol.

I believe in voting, I believe in voting for the one that's closest to what the Bible tells us to vote for, all that stuff.

I believe you need to vote according to what God leads you, according to the word of God.

But let me tell you, I don't look to Washington, I don't look to the state legislature of Alabama, I don't look to the senators or the House of Representatives or the president or vice president or any of them to solve the world's problems.

I pray for them to have wisdom.

I pray for them to be used of God, I pray for them to do it the way God wants them to, but at the end of the day, they're not my savior, Jesus is.

Amen.

Anytime we promote a good thing above God, it becomes a God of things and it becomes an idol.

What did he say was the first and greatest commandment?

What did he say was his first and greatest commandment?

Look at Mark 12 when he was asked in verse 29.

Because if you we'll read 28 for context, and one of the scribes came up and heard them and disputing with another, and seeing that he answered them well, answered him, or excuse me, asked him which commandment is the most important of all.

Jesus answered, the most important is hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one, and which is a conjunction, right?

Conjunction brings it together, it's not separate, but together, and you shall love the Lord your God.

What with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.

The most important, the Lord, our God, is one.

And you shall love him with all that you are.

Why?

Why is this so important?

Well, it's because what I said, if we truly understand that there is no other God but God, and he has created it all, and it's by him, through him, and unto him, all things were created, and without him nothing was created.

He deserves it.

It's not like God's being greedy.

No, he deserves it.

Greedy is when you want more than you deserve.

Amen.

God deserves it all.

I love this quote.

Total love leaves no vacancy for rivals.

Excuse me, I'm gonna say it again.

Total love leaves no vacancy for rivals.

Total love leaves no vacancy for idols.

What that means is if we love him with all that we are, there's no room for anything else in there.

Look at Deuteronomy 6, 4 through 9.

Hear, O Israel.

That's what Jesus quoted, okay?

Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one.

You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your might.

And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart.

What shall you do?

He said, You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise, you shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes.

You shall write them on the doorpost of your house and on your gates.

What's all this saying?

He's saying, Every part of your life, every part of your life, you need to have God's word before you and putting him first in all of it.

Every area.

The little frontlets are the things that would hang down in front of their eyes.

He says, I want you never to get your eyes off of me, get your eyes off of what I'm saying.

I want you to have everything when you're sitting at the house eating, talking about the Lord.

When you're outside, you're sharing about the Lord.

Amen.

God should be the preeminent primary thing that's on your mind all of the time.

That doesn't mean you're preaching all the time, but he's first.

And if he's not, you need to repent right now.

You say, Pastor, that's being mean.

No, he deserves it.

Alright then, I'm just gonna love God and I'm good.

Right?

No.

Yes and no.

If we love God like He calls us to, we will also what?

Love other people.

Look at Mark 12, 31.

This is the the second is this.

Because if we go back to 30, right, he is saying, love him with all your heart, soul, mind, strength, right?

And then verse 31.

The second is this, you shall love your what?

Neighbor as yourself.

There is no other commandment greater than these, which means multiples.

God's God, only God's God.

I gotta love him with all my heart, soul, strength, might, right?

And then what?

I gotta love my neighbor as myself.

I gotta love my neighbor as myself.

Our love for others flows out and from, hear me.

Our love for others flows out and from our love for God because of his love for us.

We'll say it again.

Our love for others flows out and from our love for God because of his love first for us.

Basically put simplistically, I love others because he first loved me.

And because he first loved me, I love other people.

You see, the problem is sometimes the devil will twist it.

I mean, you know the devil twists stuff.

Twist it, he's been doing it since the Garden of Eden.

Right?

And if we're not careful, we'll start thinking that we deserve God's love.

We don't say those words, but we get upset when he doesn't do things the way we want, and the devil will say, Well, yeah, he doesn't really love you, because if he did, he would have done it this way and that way.

Because we assume that our way is the best way, and if he don't, then he's upset and he don't really love me.

No, I guarantee you, if you've ever been a parent, if you're a parent or have been a parent, there's been times you've had to tell your children no to stuff they really, really wanted, but you knew better than they did.

And it wasn't because you didn't love them, it was because you what did love them.

You did it because you loved them.

And so the enemy will try to twist that.

He'll try to twist it and say, well, you know, you know, God don't really love you.

God don't really love you because, you know, it you didn't get this, or you this is happening, or this problem or situation is going on, or whatever it may be, fill in the blank.

And so because we focus on ourselves, then because we don't feel like God loves us, we don't love other people because, you know, we don't feel the overflowing love of Christ in our lives, so we don't let it flow into other people's lives.

Because our standard of God's love for us is the answer or the result of our desires instead of the work and the answer of Him who died for me.

Does that make sense?

You see, we've got to stop and understand that the qualification of our love to God has been satisfied and that while I was still a sinner, he died for me.

That's the qualification of my love for him.

Nothing else.

He loved me first.

Not because he did this or he did that or he answered this or he kept this sickness away or that thing away.

I don't want any of us to be sick or hurting or anything.

Don't misunderstand me.

But that doesn't mean God don't love us if things don't go right.

In Exodus 23, when he says, Don't have no other God before me, the Hebrew there is all pene.

A-L-P-A-N-A-Y.

Literally in my face or in my presence.

God's not saying, you know, keep the other gods on a lower list.

He is saying, Bring no rival into my presence at all.

Because there is no rival.

I can just imagine.

He says, for I am the Lord and there is no other.

Amen.

Can you imagine that?

Because he does.

He is the Lord, and there is no other.

Don't put anything in his face that thinks that they can rival him.

There's already been one to do that.

He got kicked out.

His name is Lucifer.

What is the idols that we have in our life right now?

What is the things that we love so much that if God took away tomorrow, we wouldn't think we could survive?

Now, I'm not saying we wouldn't grieve.

I'm not saying that we wouldn't hurt.

Those are normal human emotions.

But that we think that life would not be worth living without.

Those are idols.

You see, because if we've placed anything or anybody in that place or position when we are not in heaven if we've not served God and we're in hell, let me tell you something.

Those things will not help you.

Those people cannot help you.

It's sad because every time you hear of anybody passing, people say constantly, they're in a better place.

We hope.

We pray.

But unless they knew Jesus, they're not.

You say, Pastor, that is so harsh.

It's the truth.

You see, we we think there's some kind of, you know, God just grades on a curve that, you know, if I do more good than bad, I'm I'm good.

No.

You're all bad.

You need someone who's all good.

His name's Jesus.

I do good because he is good, not to be good.

What idols do we have in our lives?

I want to challenge you to ask the Holy Spirit to name any idol in your life.

Then I want you to listen.

Don't keep talking to him, but say, Lord, here I am.

Reveal any idol in my life.

Listen to what he says, and then repent accordingly if you need to.

And I would dare to say we probably all got things in our life we need to repent of.

You see, because if we don't ask him to reveal it to us, there's times he will allow things to happen to show it to us, right?

There's times that he will allow issues or troubles to come to reveal to us where our really, our hope, our trust, and our confidence is at, and it wasn't in him.

We said it was, but it really wasn't.

And so God says, you know, I'm gonna have to do a woman at the well on you.

You know what I mean by that?

He kept asking her questions, not because he didn't know, but so that she could come to the revelation that she needed him.

And a lot of times that's what God does.

He will continue to work on us, amen, so that and ask us these questions, allow things to happen so that we can get to the point of just getting to the of breaking desperation and saying, God, I just can't.

I don't know what to do.

I'm helpless and hopeless.

I need you.

And he says, Finally, I can do something of that.

But as long as I think I'm okay, as long as I think that I'm you know pretty good compared to everybody else, even you might be, beloved.

Hear me, you might be better than most other people, but that don't get us to heaven.

When he says to have no other gods, I mean he means to have no other gods.

He is first, he is primary, it is about him, it is for him, it is unto him.

You say, well, well, I Pastor, the way you're talking, I mean, it's it's just all about Jesus.

Ding, ding, ding, ding.

That's right.

Look, I know I know we have our mission statement, but it's not just a statement to sound neat.

It is truly what I feel God has laid on my heart.

And I believe us as a church, we need to do is what?

Know Jesus and make him known.

You say, Well, I'm saved.

I know him.

You don't know him fully, how do you know?

Because you're still here.

There's more to learn.

And if you do know him, you should want to tell other people about him.

And if you don't want to tell people about him, you need to go back and find out if you really know him.

Because everywhere I read in scripture, when someone met Jesus, they want to tell everybody about it.

And so you can play middle gymnastics and say, yeah, but this and that and this and that and this and that.

You just got idols in your heart, and it ain't Christ on the on the throne of your heart, and you're trying to justify what you're doing.

And you can all you want, but that doesn't mean it's right.

Self-justification isn't God's justification.

Self-justification is believing a lie.

But when I am justified by him, I am known by him, I am loved by him, and I want to tell others about him.

Hear me, beloved, there is no other God but the Lord.

There is none.

Everything else is an idol in comparison to him if we put it in the place that he's supposed to be.

So that means I can't I can have other good things in our life?

Yes, God blesses us.

He blesses us with good things that we should acknowledge comes from him, that we should acknowledge that comes after him, and we should acknowledge that we only have them because of him.

If we do that, amen.

God is fine with us rejoicing in his blessings because we acknowledge where they come from.