Ten Commandments - Do not make an idol of any kind.

Sermon Notes 2: Ten Commandments. - ‘Do not make an idol of any kind.’

1: Today people make up ‘mental’ idols rather than ‘metal’ ones. Haven’t you heard people say – ‘I like to think of God as someone who? I ‘imagine God to be like?’ I ‘imagine, my God would say to me that it’s okay to?’

Someone has said, ‘that to fill God’s place with an image is like attempting to blot out the sun and substitute it with a 30watt bulb in it’s place.’ An idol is a substitute for the real thing.

While Moses is up the mountain in conference with God, what are the Israelites doing below? They were doing the very thing God was saying they shouldn’t be doing. They were engaged in the very activity which the second commandment forbade. They were creating, moulding and shaping an image in the form of a ‘golden calf’. The saddest, most frightening thing about this was that Aaron makes this idol / image of gold and silver and he calls it the ‘lord’, in Exodus Chapter 32.

C.K Chesterton puts it well when he said this: ‘When people stop believing in God, they don’t believe in nothing, they believe in anything.’

2: We can make other ‘idols’ that really are rivals to the place that God should have in our hearts and affection. God wants the Number One slot in our lives. He doesn’t want to share our hearts with any other substitute or rivals.

God is looking for people who are absolutely passionately, whole-heartily in love with Him and are committed to loving and obeying Him only.

‘Good things’ often make the most dangerous idols in our lives. These are the things that are important to us, but the danger is, when things start to get too important to us, that they push out the time, effort, love and devotion, thinking, investment that ought to be ‘reserved’ and ‘kept’ for God, in that spiritual place in our hearts for God alone.

But how do you tell if someone or something has become too important in your life? Answer: Would you be prepared ‘to give up?’ would you find it difficult to give it up?

3: The ‘idols’ that people pursue in their lives will never, ever make them truly happy and content. Only the Living, Loving Lord can satisfy the deepest longings in your heart.

Psalm 115 we see a contest and the outcome is this:

• Idols can’t speak to you when you’re struggling.
• Can’t see you when you’re in tears.
• Can’t hear your prayers when you’re crying out in pain.
• Can’t reach out their hands to support and strengthen and touch and love you.
• Can’t come to you when you’re walking down the road with a heavy heart.

BUT, THE LIVING GOD CAN.

God knows that the images offered by the world are bankrupt. God knows that if we pursue them, in the end we find ourselves deceived and disappointed. Idols have no life, or no power in them. Idols are worthless, they are lies.

The turning point in our lives is when we stop seeking the god we want and start seeking the God who is – the God who offers us forgiveness – the God who offers us fulfilment – the God who offers us freedom – the God who offers us friendship.

What might you have to ‘let go of’ if Jesus is to take – retake that Number One slot?

Jesus can take the place of anything – but nothing can take the place of Jesus.