3 You shall have no other gods before or besides Me. 4 You shall not make yourself any
graven image [to worship it] or any likeness of anything that is in the heavens
above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the
earth; 5 You shall not bow down yourself to them or serve them;
for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers
upon the children to the third and fourth generation of those who hate Me, (Exodus 20:3-5 AMPC)
14 Now
therefore, [reverently] fear the Lord and serve Him in sincerity and in truth;
put away the gods which your fathers served on the other side of the
[Euphrates] River and in Egypt, and serve the Lord. 15 And if
it seems evil to you to serve the Lord, choose for yourselves this day whom you
will serve, whether the gods which your fathers served on the other side of the
River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell; but as for me and
my house, we will serve the Lord. (Joshua 24:14-15, AMPC)
·
Idolatry is the heart of the problem.
See
Exodus 20:3-5 above
·
Idolatry is a problem of the heart.
Keep and guard your heart with all vigilance and above all that you guard, for out of it flow the springs of
life. (Proverbs 4:23, AMPC)
·
We must make a choice.
See Joshua 24:14-15 above
·
You can choose the gods of your parents, your past,
your present, or can choose to serve the God of all-power.
Lord, You stand alone among the
other gods; nothing they have done
compares to Your wonderful works. (Psalm 86:8, VOICE)
·
Our choice makes us.
6 Then Joshua told the people to go home, so each tribe went to take their
area of land. 7 The Israelites
served the Lord as long as Joshua was alive, and they continued serving the Lord
during the lifetimes of the elders who lived after Joshua had died. These old
men had seen all the great things the Lord had done
for the Israelites. 8 Joshua son of
Nun, the servant of the Lord, died at the age of 110 years.
9 The Israelites buried Joshua on the land
that he had been given. That was at Timnath Heres, in the hill country of
Ephraim, north of Mount Gaash. 10 After that whole generation
died, the next generation grew up. This new generation did not know about the Lord or what he had done for the Israelites. (Judges 2:6-10, ERV)
“What marks a believer from an unbeliever? [It is] the object of your worship.” (John
MacArthur)[i]
[i] Inspired by the sermon “gods at War: Slaying gods, “(installment one) Sunday September 29, 2019, Pastor Dave
Jansen, CenterPoint Gahanna Church Gahanna, OH.
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