Episode Transcript
[00:00:02] Welcome to the Chroma Church podcast.
[00:00:10] So we are looking at the ways of God.
[00:00:18] How does God want us to live? We've looked at overcoming temptation, confessing sin. If you missed those, you can look back on YouTube.
[00:00:27] And now we're in the Ten Commandments.
[00:00:31] And the reason we're looking at the Ten Commandments is Jesus says this, if you love me, you will keep my commandments.
[00:00:39] And the commandments in my mind are not just a list of rules. They are ways of life.
[00:00:48] They are a way of God saying, stay within my boundaries and you will be healthy, you'll be safe, and you will be blessed.
[00:01:00] I.
[00:01:02] Every time, every now and again, you know, you get a fun birthday or Christmas presents.
[00:01:08] And one of my kids bought me this LEGO set. Now I remember lego. Do you remember? I mean, did anyone ever play lego? Do you remember? You know, I remember when it was like five bricks and you could make a car.
[00:01:22] The thing with this, this is an SL63, which is quite nice, and a G63 as well. So, yes, if anyone would like to buy me the real thing, it would go down anyway.
[00:01:41] Have you seen these?
[00:01:44] The bags are numbered.
[00:01:47] There are, like, so many bits.
[00:01:51] There is no way you can make this without that.
[00:01:58] Okay? And it literally takes you step by step because it is so complicated. If any of you sneak and take some of these bits so that when I do come and try and make it, I can't find the bits, you'll be in big trouble. Well, look, if we need instructions to make a LEGO car, how much more for us?
[00:02:20] We are so more complex. Life is so complex. And if we think we can do life without the instructions, because I tell you what will happen if I do that without the instructions. It's not going to look like an SL63, okay? And if I do this life without the instructions of this book, my life is not going to look like how God created me to be.
[00:02:47] So we're going to look at the second commandment today. It's a really easy one. If you've got your Bibles, find Exodus, chapter 20.
[00:02:57] If you've not been around here long, you'll find that we always stand when we read the Word of God. So why don't you stand up? Exodus, chapter 20. I think I'm going to start from verse one, because we're only a little bit in.
[00:03:08] And God spoke all these words saying, I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. You shall have no other gods before me. Juliet did that last week. And then this week. 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.
[00:03:35] 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. Okay, take your seats just a little. Just a little aside.
[00:04:05] The law says the sins of our fathers, of our ancestors, can affect three to four generations. And, you know, there's lots of places in the Bible where we confess our sin, our own sin, and we confess the sin of our. Of our generations.
[00:04:22] But the law also says there is mercy to thousands upon those who love and obey the Lord our God. And because of your love for Jesus, the mercy and blessings of God will be upon you, upon your children, and upon your children's children. Because when we love God, his blessings go to thousands. And I often hear people talk about, oh, well, the curses are going to come down. But I tell you, the blessing and of God is far more powerful.
[00:05:00] However, we live in the 21st century, the age of science.
[00:05:05] I mean, talking about carved images or anything that we would worship as we wake up in the morning, anything that we would carry around with us all day that would run our life and then that we would look at before we go to bed and worship is ridiculous. Right?
[00:05:22] So, I mean, we're probably not going to, you know, the. Don't make for yourself, you know, carbon images, things that you've made with your hands. Probably doesn't apply in the 21st century, like our phone or a St. Christopher, you know. Well, I just. It's been in the family for years. And he protects me when I go out.
[00:05:47] Or your lucky rabbit's foot. I've always thought about that. If a rabbit's lost his foot, how is it lucky?
[00:05:55] Yet you're carrying it around, thinking somehow it's going to bring you luck.
[00:06:01] Or the worship of elephants.
[00:06:06] If you were here a few years ago, you might recognize this Ganish outside Leicester City Football Club.
[00:06:15] The idol of wisdom, knowledge and prosperity.
[00:06:18] And Leicester City felt the elephant, helped them win the premiership, 21st century. I'll tell you who helped them win the premiership. Me.
[00:06:35] You laugh. This is a true story. Ganish can go now. Go. Shoo.
[00:06:43] This is a true story. When we planted this church, we moved as a family here. And we had prophetic words that we were going to worship in a big round glass building. And so we were looking for a big, round glass building. We found the football stadium. So we went over to the football stadium and said, we'd like to hire one of your rooms. And they said, sure, they're £7,000 a day. And we went, I can't afford £7,000.
[00:07:07] That's crazy. Because it was football, they only understood big numbers. And I said, look, you know, we want it every week and, you know, we're going to get bigger and more people are going to start coming and we're going to need more and more rooms. But if you will do me a deal and be kind to me, God will bless the football club. True story.
[00:07:32] All the conferencing staff knew this. So for seven years we worshiped over there and we went round every room until we were in the biggest room there.
[00:07:42] And then it looked like they were about to get from. They were in the championship at this time.
[00:07:49] I won't talk about the pain today.
[00:07:52] And it looked like they were going to get promoted. And so we said, well, we need to move out of there. And that's when we came over here. We need a building because they're going to get promoted because God is going to bless them. And loads of people lived around Leicester. One of them was sitting in their first service when, Steve, you don't understand. Leicester never get promoted. It's just not going to happen. I said, no, it is because they blessed us. And not only did they get promoted, they won the premiership all because of me and you. Sorry. And you.
[00:08:25] Sorry. Jesus. Jesus. Sorry.
[00:08:29] I knew somebody else had something to do with it.
[00:08:34] Because when you walk with the Lord, when you honour the Lord, his blessings flow.
[00:08:42] His blessings come along thousands. You know, according to the psalmist and the prophet Jeremiah and Isaiah, those who worship inanimate idols will become like them.
[00:08:53] That is unseeing, unfeeling and unable to hear the truth that comes from God.
[00:08:59] If you don't get anything else from this morning, you become what you worship.
[00:09:05] Now I am dabbling a little bit of AI and I'm learning very quickly that it is artificial, but it is not intelligent.
[00:09:20] But I needed to get some pictures done for the leaders gathering. We did a few weeks and what I found is you only get good results if you pay. So I had to do a month's subscription, so I paid and I wanted to get my money's worth this month. So I was just thinking, I'm sitting at my desk Talking about idols, and you become what you worship. So we've got a dog, a springer spaniel. So I just asked the AI if my dog worships me and starts to look like me, what will it look like? So this is what it came up with, okay?
[00:09:51] And then I.
[00:09:53] Then my curiosity got the better of me. I said, what if I start looking like my dog? What will I look like?
[00:10:04] That's me with hair and a little white goatee. And believe it or not, I did have hair. I was never a ginger, but so if I come next week, ginger, full head of hair, you know that I have an unhealthy relationship with the dog.
[00:10:27] Jeremiah 2. 5 says, they followed worthless idols and became worthless themselves.
[00:10:33] You become what you worship. Now listen to this. If you worship the work of your hands, you become less than what your hands have made.
[00:10:45] Let me say that again. If you worship the work of your hands, these things you become less than what you've made. But if you worship the Lord, you become greater than who you are, because he is greater.
[00:11:02] You become what you worship. So if you worship things, you become less. If you worship the Lord, you become.
[00:11:12] You become more.
[00:11:15] Your last Sunday evening, we had a glory night. We're going to do a glory night once a month. It's so much fun. And we worshiped, you know, pretty much the whole evening.
[00:11:24] And the reason we do that is because when you get caught up into worship, when you push through the tiredness, you know, you know, for a long while, we'd worship for 10 minutes, and we're tired worshiping Jesus. Now we. But what we found is that when we keep worshiping, when we push through the tiredness, we encounter the Lord. Worship has to cost something. And so when you're worshiping for a long period of time and you're keeping focused on God, you become like who you worship. So you start to encounter the living God. And I left last Sunday with my head clear.
[00:12:04] I left full of joy. We'd had so much fun because I'd been with the Lord. And then on Monday morning, I wake up, my head's clearer because I've spent a prolonged time of worship with the Lord. I'm closer to heaven thinking than earthly thinking. And that therefore changes the way I start to live because I'm spending time with God. I feel connected to God's people because we worship collectively.
[00:12:31] Now I'm bigger than I was because a transformation is going on.
[00:12:37] And so what I want to do now, the Bible gives us stories. All through the Bible, there are stories to Help us understand some of the commandments, some of the ways of God. And I want to read you a story now that's in Judges 17.
[00:12:54] Now, some of you, some of you, if you've done your Bible through the year, you may well have read this story. My hunch is you might not remember this story because it's not one that's taught very often.
[00:13:06] This is judges 17. There was a man from the mountains of Ephraim whose name was Micah.
[00:13:12] And he said to his mother, the 1100 shekels of silver that were taken from you, and on which you put a curse, even saying it in my ears, here is the silver with me. I took it.
[00:13:24] And his mother said, may you be blessed. So what he's done is she.
[00:13:29] He's stolen from his mum. He's stolen all the mum, and she's put a curse on it. So he's felt bad because of the curse, and he's brought it back. So his mother said, may you be blessed by the Lord, my son. So when he had returned the 1100 shekels of silver to his mother, his mother said, I had wholly dedicated the silver from my hand to the Lord for my son to make a carved image and a molded image. Now, therefore, I will return it to you.
[00:13:56] Thus he returned the silver to his mother. Then his mother took 200 shekels of silver and gave them to the silversmith. And he made it into carved image and a molded image. And they were in the house of Micah.
[00:14:10] The man, Micah had a shrine, and he made an ephod and household idols. And he consecrated one of his sons who became his priest.
[00:14:21] In those days, there was no king in Israel.
[00:14:24] Everyone did what was right in his own eyes.
[00:14:30] What a story.
[00:14:33] He steals the money, she puts a curse on it, he brings it back.
[00:14:39] It was going to be his anyway.
[00:14:41] And then they make an idol out of it. But what I want you to see is in those days, there was no king in Israel. And we're going to. We're not going to be. We don't have time to read it all. But this is.
[00:14:56] It says this through this part of Judges again and again. In those days, there was no king in Israel. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes. You see, Joshua has died.
[00:15:09] David is not yet king. So everyone's doing what they think is right because there's no one to tell them otherwise.
[00:15:17] And this lady, this mother was a godly lady. She knows the Lord.
[00:15:23] But the problem is both her and her son are just trying to figure it out.
[00:15:27] And they're doing their own thing, but it's not the right thing.
[00:15:31] And so when Micah has stolen all the money, she puts a curse on it. And that's superstition.
[00:15:37] And, you know, there's a lot of superstition in the church.
[00:15:42] And so instead of being remorseful, he's more fearful of the curse, and she forgives him. And as I said, they make an idol, even though the law says, don't make an idol, don't make a graven image.
[00:15:58] Why does she do it? Because she thinks she's doing right.
[00:16:03] But there's no one to guide them, to tell them what was right, because there is no king, there is no authority. So they make an image to worship. You know, what they could have done was invest the silver, but instead he worships the silver.
[00:16:23] And as I said, you become what you worship. And what you're going to see is Micah never becomes anything.
[00:16:29] In fact, he will lose everything because the thing he worships is unable to protect him.
[00:16:36] So pick it up in verse seven.
[00:16:39] Now, there was a young man from Bethlehem in Judah of the family of Judah, and he was a Levite, and he was staying there. And you think, oh, at last the story's going to get better.
[00:16:51] The man departed from the city of Bethlehem in Judah to stay wherever he could find a place. Then he came to the mountains of Ephraim, to the house of Micah as he journeyed. And Micah said to him, where did you come from? So he said, I am a Levite from Bethlehem in Judah, and I am on my way to find a place to stay.
[00:17:09] Micah said to him, dwell with me and be a father and priest to me, and I will give you 10 shekels of silver per year, a suit of clothes, and your sustenance.
[00:17:22] I'll look after you. Come and move in with me. I'll take care of you. So the Levite went in. Then the Levite was content to dwell with the man, and the young man became like one of his sons. So Micah consecrated the Levite, and the young man became his priest and lived in the house of Micah. Then Micah said, now I know the Lord will be good to me since I have a Levite as priest.
[00:17:49] You see, what has happened is a Levite has come from Bethlehem, and surely the Levite knows the law, because Levites are meant to know the law.
[00:17:59] They're the tribe of priests.
[00:18:02] They know the ways of God. What happens? The person that was meant to bring the truth becomes the slave.
[00:18:11] You become a slave to whatever you worship.
[00:18:16] And that's part of what this story wants you to understand the things that hold your affection.
[00:18:24] You become a slave to accept one thing.
[00:18:29] The Lord.
[00:18:30] John 15:13 says, Greater love has no one than this than to lay down one's life for his friends. You are my friends if you do whatever I command you. No longer do I call you servants, for a servant does not know what his master is doing. But I have called you friends.
[00:18:50] Every other idol leads us to slavery.
[00:18:54] The reason we don't bow down to carved images is we become less.
[00:19:01] But when we become to the Lord, we become more.
[00:19:06] You see, my job is not to be your slave, but to speak God's truth so that you will not worship idols or go astray, becoming unseeing, unfeeling and in error, but that you would know the ways of the living God. You know, a long while ago, I learned. You know, I remember I've been working, leading churches now for a long while. Long while.
[00:19:35] I remember when I started out, people would tell me, you know, if you want to be a pastor, you're volunteering to be ugly because you say no. You have to say no to people. And, you know, everybody loves me until I say no.
[00:19:53] You know, when I'm going, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, do what you want. Just whatever seems good. They. They love me. They send me cards, chocolate, flowers. No, not flowers. But. But when I say no, you see, when people come to me and say, well, don't look, Steve, you know, things are really tight at the moment and, you know, do I need to bring my tithe to the Lord? Ah, just don't worry about it. God understands. Yeah, don't worry. Just do whatever seems best to you. No, if things are going wrong financially, that's when you bring your tithe because you're putting your trust in the Lord or, you know. Yeah, well, we're in love and, you know, we kind of get married. Seems a bit of a palaver at the moment. We just thought we'd live together, right? And it'd be like, oh, you know, just do what you want. Yeah, the Lord just wants you to be happy. No, he doesn't.
[00:20:45] He wants you to walk in his ways, get married, make a covenant, make an agreement that you're going to follow him and walk with him and be with each other.
[00:20:58] Or, you know, well, I just find big crowds so difficult. I think I'm just going to go and do my own thing. I'm going to have my own little church at home, and I'm going to watch church on YouTube. And it'll just be me and God.
[00:21:12] You know, a lot of the theologians write about this story. The story of Micah's carven image should serve as a cautionary tal about worshiping and serving God in isolation, that is, with no king. There are no perfect churches today, just as there were no perfect kings in Israel. But to abandon the church because of its flaws, real or perceived, and to worship God in the way that seems best to you is spiritually dubious.
[00:21:38] See, Paul says instead, he says, preach the word. He's talking about the Scriptures. Be ready in, in season and out of season.
[00:21:48] Convince, rebuke, exhort. With all long suffering and teaching. He says, teach this stuff.
[00:21:57] And look, if sometimes you come here and I say something and you're not offended, you're in the wrong church.
[00:22:07] You want to come to church and hear the Scriptures preached and hear now, it doesn't mean I'm right.
[00:22:15] But when we read the Bible, when we hear the Bible, it should convict us because we're becoming more, not less.
[00:22:25] So you want to be challenged. You want to come and say, ah, you know, you go home a little bit cross. Well, I don't like. I don't really like what Steve said today.
[00:22:33] You know. Do you like what Steve said today? I don't know. I like what Steve said. And you go and study the Bible and you see if I'm right or not. And you read it and then you come next week. Well, really like it, but it does say it.
[00:22:47] And you keep making a stand to when we read the Bible. So it's probably right.
[00:22:52] You see, that's church.
[00:22:55] That's what it's meant to be like.
[00:23:00] The story continues in chapter 18. We don't have time to read it. In those days, there was no king. The writers trying to make a point, there was no one to help them. The tribe of Dan.
[00:23:10] So there's. So we're in Judges. The tribes are just. The twelve tribes of Israel are settling now in different lands. And the tribe of Dan are looking for a land to settle. And they find Micah's house.
[00:23:23] But to their surprise, there's a Levite there. You read this in chapter 18.
[00:23:29] So they asked the Levite, they say, please inquire of the Lord because we want to attack this land and make this our home. Should we do it? So the Levite goes in and inquires and he says, sure, attack the land. The problem is we don't know if it was the Lord or the idol he inquired from.
[00:23:44] That's really important.
[00:23:47] And what actually. So the Danites brutally take the land. This is a brutal attack if you, if you read it in these chapters.
[00:23:56] But once they've taken the land, they then come back to Micah's house, taking all of his idols and leave him with nothing.
[00:24:05] The worship of idols always leaves you with nothing.
[00:24:10] And this is what they say to the Young Levite, verse 19. And they said to him, be quiet, put your hand over your mouth and come with us. Be a father and a priest to us. It is better for you to be a priest. Sorry? Is it better for you to be a priest to the household of one man, or that you be a priest to a tribe and a family in Israel?
[00:24:32] So the priest's heart was glad, and he took the Ephod, the household idols and the carved images, and he took his place among the people. You see, the problem is this. Levite is for sale.
[00:24:45] See, not only has he not told the truth, not only has he been led astray by idols, he's now for sale. He will serve the highest bidder. Idolatry leads you to spiritual harlotry.
[00:24:58] This is the story. This is why God says, don't worship graven images.
[00:25:04] So what am I trying to say?
[00:25:07] You shall not worship. Carven images seems such a ridiculous command today.
[00:25:13] But the Book of Judges gives us an insight into what happens when you worship the work of your hands.
[00:25:20] One man, Micah, makes an image out of stolen funds.
[00:25:25] A corrupt priest is happy to serve the image for a comfortable salary.
[00:25:32] The outcome for Micah is he loses everything.
[00:25:36] And the corrupt priest stays corrupt.
[00:25:41] He ends up leading a whole tribe into error. The tribe of Dan.
[00:25:47] The tribe of Dan was one of the ten northern tribes of Israel that's conquered by the Assyrians in 721.
[00:25:57] And as they're conquered by the Assyrians, they are assimilated and cease to become a distinct group, becoming one of the 10 lost tribes of Israel.
[00:26:08] They are lost for all time.
[00:26:11] You see, when you worship the work of your hands, you become less.
[00:26:16] The sins of the fathers live with you for three to four generations, and you are eventually carried off and lost.
[00:26:24] Why?
[00:26:25] Because carbon images are unseen, unfeeling, and unable to hear the truth that comes from God. But if you worship the Lord your God, you will stand in his counsel.
[00:26:36] He will deliver you from your enemies.
[00:26:40] His mercy will rest upon thousands. He will write his name on your forehead, and we will be his people.
[00:26:48] That's what he calls us to. You see, we are made in his image.
[00:26:54] Carbon images are not evil per se.
[00:26:57] My box of Lego is Not evil. It's just a box of bricks. It's evil when we worship it and it has power over us.
[00:27:10] You see, we were created to worship, but we were also created to create like our Father in heaven does. We were not told to worship the creation, but rather to have dominion over the creation.
[00:27:24] You were made for something better.
[00:27:27] Look, phones are great, but don't let them rule your life.
[00:27:32] St. Chris can't protect you any more than Floppy the rabbit can protect you.
[00:27:37] And crystals have no power to heal. And elephants are lovely animals, but they can't play football.
[00:27:45] You were created to know God, to thrive in his world, to know his favor, reflecting his goodness and his mercy, and to know his ways. And he says, I am a jealous God. That means there is only one. You see, your call is to be more, not less. You become what you worship.
[00:28:08] And God is raising people up to teach his worship ways.
[00:28:14] Because if there's no king in Israel, if there's no priest that knows the law and that knows the ways, the people do whatever they want. And even though it seems good to them, they get themselves into all sorts of trouble. And you see it again and again.
[00:28:32] So all I'm saying to you as we look at this one, don't worship carven images.
[00:28:39] Put away your idols. Have you got any?
[00:28:41] If you have, you know, is there anything that needs to go? Is there anything you need to get rid of? Many people are coming to Christ at the moment, and it's such a good season, but we've accumulated stuff and sometimes it just needs to go. In Ephesus, Acts 19, I think it is, they bring all their witchcraft and all their books and they burn them because they want to be free. You know, all the Buddhas, the Hindu gods, the Guru Granth Sahib, Muhammad, possessions, celebrities, wealth, power, success, superstitions, salt over shoulders, crossed fingers.
[00:29:22] I said, I can't remember who it was. We were talking in the weekend. They just crossed themselves.
[00:29:27] And I went, why did you do that? I mean, we were.
[00:29:30] I don't think I said anything bad, but it was just this reaction. I've got to cross myself.
[00:29:37] Superstition.
[00:29:39] None of this protects you.
[00:29:42] Instead, as Juliet said last week, love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul and with all your mind.
[00:29:52] And you will become more because his spirit is in you, his life is in you.
[00:30:00] And he lifts us up and starts transforming us. And we are a free people.
[00:30:06] And Jesus wants his church to be free.
[00:30:10] Deal?
[00:30:11] Why don't you stand? I'm done.
[00:30:15] Thanks for listening to the Cromer Church Podcast. If you enjoyed this message, you can like and subscribe. You can also join us in person or online every Sunday at Cromer Church. For more information about us, including our ministries, events, worship and house. To donate, visit our website at Chroma Church.
