History Repeats Itself

How did things get to the point we are at today?

-         No respect for God
-         No Respect for others
-         Only 2 commandments of Christian church

Start at the beginning.

-         Adam and Eve walked and talked with God…Received Law
-         Few 100 years later God regrets creating us in the first place!

Gen 6:5 Then the LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.

Gen 6:6 And the LORD was sorry that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart.

The Lord was grieved!

Because every intent of the thought of our HEARTS was only evil

Gen 6:7 And the LORD said, "I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the land, from man to animals to creeping things and to birds of the sky; for I am sorry that I have made them."

Gen 6:8 But Noah found favor in the eyes of the LORD.

He is sorry that he made us!

We get a second chance through Noah

Gen 10:8 Now Cush became the father of Nimrod; he became a mighty one on the earth.

Gen 10:9 He was a mighty hunter before the LORD; therefore it is said, "Like Nimrod a mighty hunter before the LORD."

Gen 10:10 And the beginning of his kingdom was Babel and Erech and Accad and Calneh, in the land of Shinar.

He was the King of Babylon. He was worshiped as the chief deity. Shem killed Nimrod and strew his body parts all over his kingdom as a warning to stop worshiping him. His wife then made the clam he was not dead but was now the sun, and the worship of him continued. By many other names Baal, Molic, Chemish…..

This was only 2 generations from the flood. Nimrod was the son of Cush who was the son of Ham.

We joke in our house that nothing good can come from ham!

This laid the foundation of sun worship and idol worship that was all over the world at that time.

Hebrew Idol or American Idol?

The children of Israel in Egypt

-         Lots of idols

They were freed and brought in to the wilderness to be cleansed from all the paganism.

-   Saw miracles used to set them free
-   Saw miracles on their journey
- Heard the voice of God

Deu 18:16 "This is according to all that you asked of the LORD your God in Horeb on the day of the assembly, saying, 'Let me not hear again the voice of the LORD my God, let me not see this great fire anymore, lest I die.'

Psa 29:3 The voice of the LORD is upon the waters; The God of glory thunders, The LORD is over many waters.

Psa 29:4 The voice of the LORD is powerful, The voice of the LORD is majestic.

Psa 29:5 The voice of the LORD breaks the cedars; Yes, the LORD breaks in pieces the cedars of Lebanon.

Psa 29:6 And He makes Lebanon skip like a calf, And Sirion like a young wild ox.

Psa 29:7 The voice of the LORD hews out flames of fire.

Psa 29:8 The voice of the LORD shakes the wilderness; The LORD shakes the wilderness of Kadesh.

Psa 29:9 The voice of the LORD makes the deer to calve, And strips the forests bare, And in His temple everything says, "Glory!"

Seeing all they saw they still defied the Lord!

Exo 32:1 Now when the people saw that Moses delayed to come down from the mountain, the people assembled about Aaron, and said to him, "Come, make us a god who will go before us; as for this Moses, the man who brought us up from the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him."

Exo 32:2 And Aaron said to them, "Tear off the gold rings which are in the ears of your wives, your sons, and your daughters, and bring them to me."

Exo 32:3 Then all the people tore off the gold rings which were in their ears, and brought them to Aaron.

Exo 32:4 And he took this from their hand, and fashioned it with a graving tool, and made it into a molten calf; and they said, "This is your god, O Israel, who brought you up from the land of Egypt."

What in the world are they thinking!!!!

God is so frustrated with our wickedness again that he is ready to smear us again.

Exo 32:7 Then the LORD spoke to Moses, "Go down at once, for your people, whom you brought up from the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves.

Exo 32:8 "They have quickly turned aside from the way which I commanded them. They have made for themselves a molten calf, and have worshiped it, and have sacrificed to it, and said, 'This is your god, O Israel, who brought you up from the land of Egypt!'"

Exo 32:9 And the LORD said to Moses, "I have seen this people, and behold, they are an obstinate people.

Exo 32:10 "Now then let Me alone, that My anger may burn against them, and that I may destroy them; and I will make of you a great nation."

We see that even with his anger burning against us we did not change our ways and God has enough.

Jer 3:7 "And I thought, 'After she has done all these things, she will return to Me'; but she did not return, and her treacherous sister Judah saw it.

Jer 3:8 "And I saw that for all the adulteries of faithless Israel, I had sent her away and given her a writ of divorce, yet her treacherous sister Judah did not fear; but she went and was a harlot also.

Jer 3:9 "And it came about because of the lightness of her harlotry, that she polluted the land and committed adultery with stones and trees.

Jer 3:10 "And yet in spite of all this her treacherous sister Judah did not return to Me with all her heart, but rather in deception," declares the LORD.

Jer 3:11 And the LORD said to me, "Faithless Israel has proved herself more righteous than treacherous Judah.

The Last Straw

He scattered us among the nations until we have no idea what our identity is.

Christian people have many Idols

House

    -Work long hours to pay for fancy house
    -Decorate and fret over fancy house
    -Have to have house in certain neighborhood

Cars

    -Same as the house
    -Have to have latest model
    -Overextend yourself to pay for it
    -Your overextended from fancy house and fancy car so you work all the time to pay for it all. Taking family time away.

Church

    -Can become an idol.
    -You become more worried about being there than the purpose for being there.
    -You have to be on this committee or that committee and you are so busy with all this junk that you don’t have time to focus on what is important. Serving God.
    -Your particular doctrines become idols to the point you can’t even fellowship with other brethren.
    -Church is about coming together with brethren and worshiping God

Time is so valuable. Time could become an Idol that you want to keep for yourself.

Shouldn’t we give God his time he deserves? He only said for us to congregate once a week and a few other times in the whole year!

So may things can be turned into idols that take our hearts away from God.

You have to make an effort to draw close to him. It is an everyday battle.

Push away the world and focus on him.

We should ask him to forgive us for our past idolatry and harlotry and to help us to keep our eyes on him that we not stray again.

Rom 8:5 For those who are according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who are according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit.

Rom 8:6 For the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace,

Rom 8:7 because the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God; for it does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is not even able to do so;

Rom 8:8 and those who are in the flesh cannot please God.