God’s Top Ten – Part 2 (06/13/2021)

God’s Top Ten – Part 2 (06/13/2021)

June 18, 2021

YOU SHALL NOT MAKE FOR YOURSELF A CARVED IMAGE—any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; you shall not bow down to them nor 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 generations of those who hate Me, but showing mercy to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments.

  • This commandment is linked to the 1st one: “You shall not have any other gods before me”
  • Today, in our western culture, when we think about an idol we think of an inanimate object, an artifact, a powerless object.
  • When we study idols throughout scriptures and world history, we discover that they are quite powerful. Yes, they are false gods, but they are powerful enough to shape lives and cultures for thousands of years.
  • An idol is not just a physical image of wood or stone. An idol is a spiritual image, carved in our hearts that lures us away from God…our first love.
  • Those images do not have to be physical in nature: a career, a relationship, sports, nature, – Sex, Power, and Fame!

An idol is anything that robs your imagination.

  • If it has the power to rob your imagination, it also has the power to rob your affection.
  • If it has the power to rob your affection, it also has the power to rob your worship.

An idol has power to rob your worship: The very thing that you were created to do.

IMAGE.

What did God say: “Let Us make man in OUR IMAGE, according to OUR LIKENESS” (Genesis 1:26 NKJ) and in verse 27, God did it: “So God created man in His OWN IMAGE; in the IMAGE OF GOD He created him; male and female He created them” (Genesis 1:27)

  • We were not only created in His image, but we were created to be like Him- in His likeness.
  • With the breath of life, the ability to worship Him was released in you. “Let everything that has breath, praise the Lord” (Psalm 150:5)
  • We were created in His image to worship Him.
  • We were created in His Likeness, to be in relationship with Him.
  • The devil seduced man out of giving up the very thing we were created to do: To worship God only.
  • “You will surely not die. For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes would be opened, and you will be like God” (Genesis 3:4-5 NKJ)
  • The devil was proposing was a counterfeit image of God, himself. Worship me!
  • God gave us the 2nd commandment to warn us but also to equip us with Godly principles to restore His image in us and protect your relationship with God.

PRINCIPLE #1: TO PRESERVE HIS IMAGE IN YOU.

  • God used His image to design you.
  • That’s why we don’t need another image of God here on the earth whether it is in an image or statue or effigy of Jesus. YOU ARE THE IMAGE OF GOD ON THE EARTH!

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new. (2 Corinthians 5:17)

  • You no longer carry your image, but the image of Christ.

 

PRINCIPLE #2: TO REMIND YOU THAT HE IS JEALOUS FOR YOU

you shall not bow down to them nor serve them. FOR I, THE LORD YOUR GOD, AM A JEALOUS GOD (Exodus 20:5 NKJ)

  • Jealousy is a sin when it is a desire for something that does not belong to you.
  • You belong to God! So God is jealous for you!
  • “I am jealous for you with a godly jealousy…” (2 Corinthians 11:2)

 

PRINCIPLE #3: TO BREAK THE CURSE OF COUNTERFEIT IMAGES

“visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generations of THOSE WHO HATE ME.” (Exodus 20:5 NKJ)

  • Here’s where it is misused: The sins of the fathers are passed on upon the children to the 3rd and 4th generations.
  • God here is referring to those who hate Him. He is not even talking about His children. Those who love Him and serve Him.
  • But in Ezekiel chapter 18, God said: you will no longer say this:

“But suppose that sinful son, in turn, has a son who sees his father’s wickedness and decides against that kind of life…. Such a person will not die because of his father’s sins; he will surely live. (Ezekiel 18:14, 17 NLT)

  • Whatever the struggles might have been for your generation or your past generation. When you belong to Christ, that generational curse has been broken.
  • So now there is no condemnation for those who belong to Christ Jesus (Romans 8:1)
  • The 2nd commandment ends with God’s love, God’s mercy, God’s grace.

6but SHOWING MERCY TO THOUSANDS, to those who love Me and keep My commandments.

CONCLUSION:

What is the Holy Spirit saying to you through this message?

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