[Rick Shabi] You know, as we are in a time when we are reflecting on the things we can be thankful for, never should it be far from our minds what God has given us, in terms of His calling and what He has done for us personally – not talking about the physical blessings that He has given us, of course. But what Jesus Christ Himself did for us, is something that is so notable and should be so rooted in our minds, that we should never lose count of it.

I want to open today by going back to Matthew 26, and recounting what Jesus Christ did on the last night He was on earth as a human being – before He was arrested before He was crucified before He died, that our sins could be forgiven. He was in a night, that if any of us put ourselves in His place, would be an agonizing night. Because as He had completed that Passover service and introduced the new ordinances, He knew exactly what He was faced with the next day. He knew exactly because He was there at the foundation of the earth – when all those things were planned out that would happen, all those scriptures recorded in the old testament, and all those prophecies of what He would go through. He knew exactly what He was facing in the next sixteen or eighteen hours, or however many hours it was. It had to have, as a human being, just a riveting effect on Him. You can imagine if you or I were going through something even much less serious than that, how we would toss and turn and how it would affect us. In chapter 26 of Matthew, and verse 39, after He left where they were having the Passover service He went out into the garden, and it says:

Matthew 26:39 – He went a little farther and fell on His face, and prayed saying, “O My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as You will.”

He knew what was confronting him. And as He approached God, He didn’t do it lightly when He said, “Is there any other way?” He knew exactly what had been planned.  He knew exactly what had been laid out.  He knew exactly what the next hours had in store for Him. But it was so daunting, so overwhelming as a human being, He went to God and said, “Is any other way to do this? Any other way Father?” And He said, and He finished that, “If not, not My will, but Your will be done.” And He went back a second time and prayed the same thing after He came back and saw His disciples. And after He prayed a second time, the men came – Judas came and betrayed Him with a kiss. And a whole series of events began that led to His scourging, and people jeering at Him and mocking Him, and eventually His crucifixion and His death. We are going to go down to verse 52. But as He was thinking about that, and things went into place, Jesus Christ always kept in mind, “not My will, Father, but Your will.” He was willing to sacrifice everything about Him for the plan of God. Nothing – His comfort, His well-being, His life – none of it was He going to put in place and say, “I choose that over Your will.” He was willing to give His life for us – something that we talk about, and I just have to wonder, do we really grasp what He did there?

Well, as the people came to arrest Him, in verses 50-51, one of His disciples took his sword out and cut off an ear, and Christ rebuked Him. In verse 52, He said:

V-52 – “Put your sword in its place for all who take the sword will perish by the sword. And He said something interesting in verse 53.
V-53 – “Or do you think that I cannot now pray to My Father, and He will provide Me with more than twelve legions of angels?” Do you think? Now, some people say He was not speaking literally here, He was speaking figuratively. I don’t believe there was anything in Christ’s mind that says, “I would have called this plan off.” But I think He was saying, “You know, if it is My choice – and it is My choice to go through with this plan, no matter how much it hurts me, or how much it costs me, or how much I am humiliated, no matter the fact I am going to give my life. I choose to go forward. Don’t you know that if I said it was time to call this off – mankind isn’t worth it, I am tired of the way they treat Me – they have always treated Us like garbage, they haven’t respected Us, they rejected Us, they go their own way and they don’t pay attention – don’t you think that if I chose to call this off, that God the Father would send twelve legions of angels down, and He would eliminate these people and deliver Me?” He had no intention of doing that. He knew the weight of the whole world was on His shoulders. Something you and I haven’t experienced. But He knew the weight of the whole world was on His shoulders. He had to succeed. He had to finish what He was sent down to do. He had no choice, but He made a choice. “I’m going to go through with it, even though it is going to hurt, even though it is going to cost My life. Even though it is worse than just being killed, I am going to go through with it.” And He did it for you and He did it for me, of all people. He chose to do that and put God’s will and put God’s plan ahead of everything else. That is something we can be thankful for.

He did all that and there is only one thing, as He went out in the garden that night – when He was praying to God – He asked His disciples only one thing. He was going to go through everything for them. He was going to give them something they could never attain or probably even imagine by what He was going to do over the next several hours. He only asked His disciples to do one thing. Do you remember what that was? Back in verse 38, we find what it is – verse 38. He said to His disciples, as He went out into the garden:

V-38 – “My soul is exceedingly sorrowful, even to death. Stay here and watch with Me.” That is the only thing He asked them to do. Stay here and watch with me. Stay awake. Pay attention to what is going on. He knew what was He was going to go through, but they didn’t know. But all He said was, “Watch and stay awake.” Did they do it? No, not even for one hour. Not even for one hour. When He came back, He found them all asleep, and He said, “What are you doing? Couldn’t you even stay awake for one hour?” And He went away and they did the same thing again.

What about us? Jesus Christ has given everything for us. He gave up being God. He came to earth as a human – lived, suffered and died that you and I might have eternal life. And what He tells us is, “Stay awake. Watch. Be ready. Put the things of God before the things of your own comfort. Put the things of God before what you want. Let God’s will be the thing that is preeminent in your life and not your will.” It is an easy thing to say. We probably all pray it every day – “Thy will be done” – an easy thing to say – maybe not so much an easy thing to do. Or maybe we fool ourselves into thinking God’s will comes first.

Well, Jesus Christ fulfilled the commission that He had perfectly. Back in Matthew 22, an attorney asked Him a question. And that attorney was testing Him, as we read back in Matthew 22. But Jesus Christ answered him. And what Jesus Christ said, in Matthew 22, he perfectly fulfilled in Matthew 26. In Matthew 22, and verse 36, the attorney testing Him asked:
Matthew 22:36 – “Teacher which is the great commandment in the law?” And Christ said to Him, “You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the first and great commandment.” Love Him. Watch with Him. Stay awake with Him.

Don’t be like the five virgins of the ten, who fell so thoroughly asleep that they missed the coming of the Bridegroom. They didn’t stay awake either. They fell asleep at the end time. The virgins, who when we compare it to the virgins in Revelation 14 – the people who are purified, who understand the pure religion, who are called and who are following Christ – they fell asleep when the Bridegroom came. Just like the disciples, back when Christ left, they weren’t ready. They weren’t ready. They let themselves fall asleep. Did they love God with all their heart soul and mind? Did they stay awake? Did they do what Christ asked them to do? Christ perfectly fulfilled His commission.

If we go back to Deuteronomy, we find the same thing written back in Deuteronomy 30. As I often talk about the unity of the Bible, and that you can’t understand the New Testament without the Old Testament, the concepts you find in the New Testament are there in the Old Testament. You can see that God’s plan was the same in the beginning of time, right until the time Jesus Christ returns, and until the time of the purpose of this earth is to be fulfilled. It is all there. God didn’t change His mind. He didn’t change His plan. It is the same plan that was the same from the beginning of the world. Deuteronomy 30, verse 6, as Moses is encouraging Israel, “You keep following God” – words He said to them, but words for us today, as people who are following Him. Deuteronomy 30, verse 6 says:

Deuteronomy 30:6 – And the LORD your God – or, the Eternal your God – will circumcise your heart and the heart of your descendants. Well, that is New Testament language, isn’t it? They were practicing physical circumcision, but God said He is going to circumcise your heart. You are going to become like Him. That is what His will is. He will circumcise your heart and the heart of your descendants to love Him with all your heart and with all your soul – why? – that you may live. You want eternal life? You want to live forever? Learn to love Him with all your heart, mind and soul. Follow Him and put His will first.

We go back a few chapters in Deuteronomy, chapter 10, and verse 12. We see the same thing mentioned here, and another few words added in, to show what God wants us to do. The same thing that Jesus Christ did.

Deuteronomy 10:12 – “And now, Israel, what does the LORD your God require of you, but to fear Him – reverence Him, obey Him, count Him as preeminent in your life. …what does the LORD your God require of you, but to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all His ways and to love Him, to serve the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul.” Fear Him, love Him, serve Him with all your heart and all your soul – just like Jesus Christ who is our example demonstrated to us. He was willing to give it all – give it all for God and His will.

And back in Deuteronomy 5, we go back to the Ten Commandments – the basis for our life, the basis of how we should be living our lives, and God’s guide for us. If we want a happy and successful life, we would follow these principles. In Deuteronomy 5, and verse 6, the very first commandment:

Deuteronomy 5:6 – “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.”

Every single one of us in this room, I am sure, can repeat that commandment verbatim. We didn’t need to read it. You know it. We know it, but do we think of it often? Do we examine ourselves in the light of that commandment? Do we see if we are following God with all our heart, all our mind, and all our soul? Do we see if we have God in first place, or if we have other gods that would keep us from doing His will? Jesus Christ had no other gods that kept Him from doing His will. He did God’s will at the cost of His own life.

Today, I want to look at this first commandment, and I want to look at it from our standpoint.
First thing I want to do is go through some of the phrases here in Deuteronomy 5. The first phrase is, I am the LORD your God – I am the Eternal your God. I often replace capital L-O-R-D with Eternal, because it is closer to what the meaning of YHWH is. YHWH is what is there in Deuteronomy 5, verse 6 – YHWH. No one knows how to pronounce it. It hasn’t been preserved. Some people say it is Yahweh, some people say it is Jehovah, some say Yahuvah. It is anyone’s guess. But it is YHWH. The Hebrew meaning is: is, was and always will be. And as God took Israel – remembering the context that He’s given this commandment, and then applying it to us today – as He took Israel out of Egypt, they were in a land that had hundreds of gods – small g-o-d-s – hundreds of gods. They had a sun god. They had a moon god. They had a god of agriculture. They had a god of, you name it – but for every single thing, they had a god of something. And when they came out of Egypt, that is where Israel grew up, if you will. So they were used to being in a society that had all these gods. And God told them, “There is only One God. You don’t need a hundred gods. You don’t need two hundred gods. You don’t need anything but one God. I am the LORD your God who brought you out of Egypt. I AM.” He said it, and you can imagine Him thundering that from Mt. Saini. You can imagine the way Moses said it to Israel when he was reminding them before his death. “Remember God. He is the only God you need.”

Now there is a lot of facts about gods – g-o-d-s. Some people will say, “I don’t need God.” Some people will say I don’t even believe there is a God. But what they really mean is, “I don’t want to believe there is a God,” because every single person – every single person – has a god – little g-o-d – in some cases, or capital G-o-d, for people that are following God. Let me give you the definition of a little g-o-d. I picked this up off of the internet, from a man who I thought had a very good quote on it. His name is Packer – J. I. Packer. He wrote a book called, The Ten Commandments. I haven’t read the book – never heard of it before – but the quote that was on there for the definition of a little g-o-d says, “Your god is what you love, what you seek, what you serve and what you allow to control you”. Everyone has a god. Hopefully, everyone in this room, has the true God – the capital G-o-d. But everyone has a god. Even the atheist has a god. That god may be himself. That god may be what he trusts in. That god may be what he allows to control him – that he seeks, that he serves, that he worships – but everyone has a god. That is why all those foreign cultures that we read about in history class, they all had gods. The Romans had gods. The Greeks had gods. The Egyptians had gods. Every culture has a god because they know that there is something greater than them – or greater than their mind. So, everyone has a god. Egypt had many gods by many different names. But God gave them one name that set Him apart from every other god that was in Egypt. Today, we can look at the same thing as God calls us out of society. He tells us the same thing: “I am the Eternal your God.” Now, there are many gods in this society. We can enumerate many gods, and if I went around the room, or I told you to take a sheet of paper and asked you to name two gods people have in this country, we would have hundreds, I think. We would talk about the stock market, we would talk about money, we would talk about military, we would talk about the government, we would talk about the United States. We would talk about all those things that we may trust in, and we serve, and that we would be loyal to – nothing wrong with being loyal to those things and understanding those things, but not have them as our preeminent God and something that we trust in. We only need one God.

There are all sorts of gods that we have today in different parts of the world. Every part of the world has gods. In the Middle East, there is more than one billion people that call their god Allah. I have heard people say – and I’ve heard it on the news – “Allah is god – no different from the God we worship.” Absolutely wrong! Absolutely wrong! Allah is not the God of the Bible! Allah is not the God of the “I am the LORD your God who brought you out of Egypt.” Allah is a false god. Allah is not the God of the Bible and when people say that, and the TV says it, don’t believe it! This is a little g-o-d that so many people of the earth are following because he fits what they want rather than what the God of Israel wants them to do – their will instead of God’s will – something Jesus Christ never did.

There are a whole bunch of people in the world who would say Baal – not Baal – Buddha – the other B god, right? -  Buddha…there are a lot of people who look to Buddha. “We serve him, we seek his wisdom, we allow him to control them, we look to him for guidance in life. Buddha is not the true God. There is only one true God.

There are a whole lot of people in America who subscribe to those gods, but they also subscribe to a little g-o-d, that they call Jesus Christ, and a little g-o-d, that they might even call God the Father. They might say, “Oh, we worship the same god as you.” They do not. Because the God we worship, we believe in His word, and we follow what He says. He says, “If you love Me, do what I say.” Follow the example that Jesus Christ set. Do what He said. And yet the people of the world who say, “My God is Jesus Christ,” don’t do what He says. They use His name. They borrow His name and put it on their god, but it is not the true God. There are people of the world, who would say, “God the Father is my God,” but they don’t do what He says. It is not the right God. It is a little g. They are worshipping the false god. One God. One God. “I am the LORD your God. I am the God who gives you truth. I am the God who provides everything you need.” God told Israel, “You don’t need any other God but Me. You look to Me for rain. You look to Me to protect you. You look to Me to deliver you. You look to Me to do all these things. I created you. I sustained you. I set you free.”

Let’s look at a couple of verses in Isaiah – Isaiah 45. There are many places in the Bible where God reminds us that He is the LORD our God – Isaiah 45, and verse 18.

Isaiah 45:18 – Thus says the Eternal – Thus, says YHWH – the name He was known in the Old Testament. Thus, says the Eternal, Who created the heavens, Who is God, Who formed the earth and made it, Who has established it, Who did not create it in vain, Who formed it to be inhabited, “I am the Eternal and there is no other. I have not spoken in secret, in a dark place of the earth I did not say to the seed of Jacob, ‘Seek Me in vain.’ I, the LORD speak righteousness. I declare things that are right. I am the LORD your God.”

One chapter over, in Isaiah 46, verse 9:

Isaiah 46:9 – Remember – God inspires Isaiah to write – the former things of old, for I am God and there is no other. I am God and there is none like Me – declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times things that are not yet done, saying, “My counsel shall stand, and I will do all My pleasure.”

Jesus Christ knows that what God said and what was set in motion from the beginning of the earth – from the foundation of the earth, before the foundation of the earth – happened exactly the way God said. Every single Old Testament prophecy of the Messiah came to pass and in minute detail. That is why Christ knew what He was up against, and He was still willing to go through with it all. As we look at prophecy, there is one God – only one – who can tell the end from the beginning, and who has recorded it in His word. “I am the Eternal your God” – one God.

The next phrase is, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the land of bondage. Israel had nowhere to go. Ancient Israel was a captive people. They were slaves then. They were there for centuries as slaves, and if God hadn’t taken them out of Egypt, who knows if anyone would have known their name today. They would have just died as slaves. God rescued them. God took them out. God made them a people. God made them promises, and He delivered on every single promise He made. Even though the people rebelled against Him, and even though they didn’t follow Him implicitly, He still gave them everything that He said He would.

It’s no stretch – and we talk about it every springtime, when we come up on the spring Holy days – God took us out of the same thing. We were a nowhere people. No matter how successful in life we were, or how much money we made, no matter what position we had attained, we were people who were simply going to die – simply people who were going to pass away, return to dust again, and never to be heard of again, if there wasn’t a God who redeemed us and gave us promises – who took us out of this land and gave us promises that we count on and rely on, and we know will come to pass. He gave us all the physical things in life. He gives us and provides everything for us.

Over in Hosea – Hosea 13 – another place where God reminds Israel, “I am the LORD your God – He tells us what else He provides us – not just the physical things in life. In Hosea 13, verse 4 – Hosea is right after the book of Daniel – He says:

Hosea 13:4 – “Yet I am the LORD your God – I am YHWH – I am the Eternal your God ever since the land of Egypt, and you shall know no God but Me. For there is no Savior besides Me.” “There is no Savior besides Me. No one else is going to deliver you, Israel. No one else is going to deliver you, Church of God assembled here in Orlando today.”

No one else is going to deliver you. Only one can bring salvation. That is the LORD your God. That is God the Father. Jesus Christ is the Son, who yielded to His will, and put it first in His life, and didn’t allow anything else to control Him, or interfere with, what God’s purpose was for Him was. God gives us all the physical things of life, and He gives us salvation. It is a gift of His – that Jesus Christ made possible by His willingness to put God first and forget about His comfort, forget about everything that had to do with His physical life. He was willing to give it all that we might have that. “I am the LORD your God. I bring you all the physical things in life. You can look to me for every single thing on earth.”

You can mark down Psalms 103. 103 is one of the Psalms you will read this week that talks about all of God’s benefits. It is very good in there, what God says the many benefits that He gives us are. Salvation is one of those things – salvation – because our lives are so far different, now that we know what He has planned, and what He has called us out to be.

Over in Acts 4, verse 12 – should be a memory verse for all of us, but let’s recount it here. In Acts 4, Peter and the Apostles have been imbued with the Holy Spirit. They went out and they preached the word of God with power, and, in this incident, they had healed someone miraculously – no explanation for it, except that God provided it. In verse 9 – we’ll pick it up – Peter explaining this to the powers that be, who brought to their attention that this thing happened, and they wanted them to stop doing these things in the name of Jesus Christ. Peter says:

Acts 4:9 – “If we this day are judged for a good deed done to a helpless man, by what means he has been made well, let it be known to you all and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead, by Him this man stands here before you whole. This is the stone which was rejected by you builders, which has become the chief cornerstone.” And the memory verse: Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved. Only one God. Only one way to salvation – only one – not a myriad of ways. Not all paths lead to eternal life. Not all paths lead to the Eternal God. Only by following the one true God – the God that He says, and commands us, to put Him first – “put Me first in your life.”

The last phrase of that commandment is, you will have no other gods – little g – you will have no other gods before Me. Verse 9, of Deuteronomy 5, in talking about the second commandment, says God is a jealous God. He doesn’t want us to have any other gods. He wants our one-hundred percent loyalty to Him. He doesn’t want us splitting our time between us and another little g-o-d, but trusting in Him implicitly with all our heart, all our mind, and all our soul – not fifty percent, not seventy-five percent, not ninety-five percent. One hundred percent is the goal – trusting in Him and looking to Him, and not putting anything between Him and us that we would allow to control us – anything else we would serve in place of God or do their will instead of God’s will.

You know Romans 12, and verse 1 – you know that verse too – where Paul says, “It’s our reasonable service – it’s our reasonable service – to yield to God.” And it is our reasonable service when we realize what Jesus Christ did, when we realize what God has planned for us. How is there any other thing that we can do, except to yield to God, and give our minds and hearts over to Him and yield to Him? There is no other explanation because what He did for us requires nothing short of absolute and complete submission.

Well, God calls us. God opened the minds of some of the people in the Old Testament. Let’s look at a couple of people. Because, back then, it can be surprising when we see some of the people who had little gods – little g-o-d’s – in addition to God and what God thinks about them. As we sit here today – all of us – we can ask ourselves this question. Do we still have little g-o-d’s that are still in our life? Are we still in the process of letting God eliminate those and trust fully in Him?

Let’s go back to Genesis 31. I always find this very interesting. You know, we call the God of the Bible…He calls Himself the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob learned to love God and obey Him explicitly. We know Abraham did, Isaac did. Jacob started off a little bit rough as a young man. He had to have some things ironed out of his life and he did over the course of time. As God led him, he became a man that followed God implicitly. And Jacob knew who God was. There came a time – as you remember the story of Jacob – he went over to Laban. He married Leah, his first wife, but his real love was Rachel, his second wife. And there came a time when God had so richly blessed them that they were leaving. He didn’t bother telling his father-in-law, Laban, that he was leaving. But in Genesis 31, and in verse 19,  we find the family – Jacob’s family – packing up and ready to leave Laban behind, and go back to where God was leading them to be. It says in verse 19:

Genesis 31:19 – Now Laban – Jacob’s father-in-law, Rachel’s father – Laban had gone to shear his sheep, and Rachel had stolen the household idols that were her father’s.  Isn’t that surprising? I mean, here’s Jacob…he trusted in God. He knew that God blessed him. Even Laban knew that God blessed him because of Jacob’s obedience – because of Jacob. Jacob loved Rachel. She was the one that had his heart. She was the one who he looked to. And here, when they are packing up and ready to leave, she knows who God is, she knows what her husband believes, and yet, what she does behind his back…. Because we will see in a minute, Jacob has no idea that Rachel had these little gods, that she was still counting on and relying on, and that had some influence over her. Isn’t that a little surprising that that was going on in Jacob’s house, and she would go behind his back and make sure she took those little gods with her? Down in verse 30, Laban, when he sees they have left, he comes after them. He comes after them and God warns him, “Don’t you hurt them.” Verse 30: Laban, when he catches up with them, he says to Jacob – verse 30:

V-30 – “And now you have surely gone because you greatly long for your father’s house, I know, I get it. I get it, Jacob, you want to go back to where you were called from. But why did you steal my gods? Why did you have to take them? Laban knew who God was. He said in chapters earlier, “I know I am blessed because God has blessed you.” He still had little g-o-d’s in his house. He still relied on them, even though he knew the true God. And as you read down through the verses, you see Jacob had no idea that Rachel had taken those gods, because for Jacob, there was one God that he relied on. But when pressed, he said, “We haven’t taken your gods Laban, but if you find any among us let that person die.” We know he didn’t know.

So, the question is, do we have hidden gods? Are there things in secret that we don’t think of – that we haven’t paid attention to? Is there something that we rely on maybe a little more than God or that we don’t trust Him enough to rely on Him totally, but we rely on this other little god as well? “I’ll trust in God…ah, but I have this little god – this little g-o-d – over here that I will trust in as well. There can be little gods that we have. And we can ask God, “Where would those be? – that we fulfill this commandment totally.

Over in Joshua, we find another comment that is interesting when you think about where Israel was and where they’d been. Joshua, of course, was the leader of Israel after Moses died. He led the people into the Promised Land. God gave them the victory over many cities, including Jericho – that no one thought could be defeated – but God had the walls fall at their feet. And exactly as God promised, He brought them into the Promised Land and gave them everything they wanted. As Joshua was giving his parting words before he died, he had some interesting comments to Israel as well. Over in Joshua 24, and verse 13, Joshua recalling and reminding them what God had given them. It says…Joshua speaking about what God had done – he says:

Joshua 24:13 – “I have given you a land for which you did not labor, and cities which you did not build and you dwell in them. You eat of the vineyards and olive groves which you did not plant. I gave it all to you.” Now, therefore – Joshua says – fear the Eternal, serve Him in sincerity and in truth and put away the gods – the little g-o-d’s – which your fathers served on the other side of the river and in Egypt. Put them away? What do you mean? That even in Israel, when they went into the Promised Land, they had little g-o-d’s they took with them? They weren’t relying on God totally after all they saw Him do? They still had those with them. And Joshua was saying, “Put them away. Put God first. There is no other. ‘You will have no other gods before Me. You will have no other gods besides Me. You don’t need any other god except Me.’” And then he gives them a choice, because we all have a choice. He says, “If it seems evil to you to serve God” – YHWH – the God of “I am the LORD your God.” “If it seems evil to you and you don’t want to do it, choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the little g-o-d’s which your fathers served, that were on the other side of the river or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell. If you want to choose what god you want to serve – because you will serve some god – every single person serves some god – so then you choose. But, he says, as for me and my house we will serve the Eternal. We will serve the LORD. He will be the one we will follow. He will be the one we will look to. He will be the one when we have needs that we will look to Him to provide. He is the one who will provide salvation. He is the one who will see us through and beyond everything we have done. Israel and the people of God, make a choice.”

I mentioned to the teens, as we were discussing today – Deuteronomy 30:19 – every single person – no matter how old you are – has to make choices. Life is full of choices. God inspired Moses to say:

Deuteronomy 30:19 – I have set before you today life and death, blessing and cursing – two very easy choices. Who would choose death and cursings over life and blessings? But then he has to say, “Choose life. Make the choice.”

And Joshua is saying, “You choose what god you will serve. I hope you choose to serve I AM the LORD your God.”

For sake of time, I’m not going to turn over to 1 Kings 18. You can mark down 1 Kings 18, verse 21.  That is the incident where Elijah is confronting the prophets of Baal on who is the true God. If you recall, there was the sacrifice where the prophets of Baal would call on their gods to consume the sacrifice, and Elijah would call on the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob – the God we worship. They spent all day asking their god to no avail. Elijah prayed one prayer and God consumed the sacrifice, and told the people, “You choose. You see the power of God” – and every single person in this room, you’ve seen the power of God. “You choose whom you are going to serve. But when you choose and purpose that God will be the only God that you will follow.”

What are some of the little g-o-d’s – the little gods – that we can have in our lives? I mentioned before we could spend a whole sermon on just listing those. I can just sit here and read the gods in people’s lives. Every one of you would agree – and they may not all apply to you – but we all may have some things that may control us, that we may look to and may put in front of God. Let’s look at a couple of them from the Bible. These are by no means an exhaustive list. Over in Acts 5, we have an example in the New Testament of someone who put something before God – that they allowed it to control them, and they did their will and put this ahead of honoring God and being totally honest with Him. Acts 5, and verse 1 – the well-known story of Ananias and Sapphira.

Acts 5:1 – But a certain man named Ananias, with Sapphira his wife, sold a possession. This was after the New Testament church was formed. You’ll remember that the people back then, after the people came to the knowledge of the truth, they were willing to give everything they had, throw it in, and they all lived in common. And the people around them looked at these people, and what they saw around that people was agape. And so many people wanted to be part of that group – was because they understood the truth of God, but because, also, they saw the love of the people – the same love that God wants you and I in this congregation and around the world to develop. But anyway, Ananias and Sapphira saw this. Their minds were opened. They wanted to believe God. They wanted to be part of what was going on here. They sold a possession and wanted to be like the people. “We want to give it all.” “We want to give it all” is what they wanted people to think. It isn’t  really what they wanted to do though. Ananias – verse 2 – kept back part of the proceeds, his wife also being aware of it, and brought a certain part and laid it at the apostles’ feet. “Here apostles, this is everything I sold this land for. Isn’t this great? I am going to give it all to you.” Peter saw right through it, and he said, “Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and keep back part of the price of the land for yourself? Why did you do that Ananias? Why did you make that money a god – that you decided it was more important to keep that money back and lie to God than it was to be truthful to us? Why did you let the desire to maintain some part of the proceeds to that sale…why did let that control you, rather than determining and making the choice to be totally honest with God? Ananias paid for it with his life. And when he is resurrected, he will remember well what he did. He will remember what god he put before doing God’s will. It wasn’t the fact that he didn’t give it all. That wasn’t what God was saying – “I expected you to give it all, Ananias” – because Peter says here, in the next verse, “While it remained, was it not your own? And after it was sold, was it not under your own control? Couldn’t you just have said, ‘You know what? We just sold this land and I am going to give you half of it?’ Don’t present it as, ‘I am giving it all to you. Just tell the truth. Be honest with God. Wasn’t it under your control to do that? But you chose to put what to you was more important – I want to look like all the rest of you people. I want to look good and I am willing to lie to God to have that pat on the back.”” He paid for it with his life. “Why have you conceived this thing in your heart? You have not lied to men but you lied to God.” Is there anything that we would put between us and God? Sapphira, when she was questioned, did exactly the same thing. They conspired together and she paid for it with her life as well.

Let’s go back to Matthew 6. That is one example, but, you know, maybe we would say we would never do that. But perhaps one of our little g-o-d’s is the wealth we have and we still trust in that more than maybe we should. Nothing wrong with having savings. Nothing wrong with having a job. Nothing wrong with making a good salary. It is where your trust is and where your heart is.

Matthew 6:24 – No one can serve two masters. You can only have one God. “Serve the LORD your God” is what Jesus Christ is saying. No one can serve two masters for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon. You can try, but if you are serving mammon, you are not serving God in the way that He wants to be served – the way He expects you and me to come to serve Him and to learn how to serve Him in the course of our lives. Got to have it – nothing wrong with income, nothing wrong with savings, nothing wrong with having a lot of money. Is our trust in God? Or is our trust…do we let that influence us? Would we ever put that in place where we would disobey God – to trust and follow it instead?

Let’s go back to the Old Testament and look at another small g-o-d that people might have. This is another man who paid for it dearly by putting someone before God. In 1 Samuel 2, we find the story of Eli and his sons. Eli was the high priest. He was the example. He was supposed to be teaching people. He was supposed to be an example of how to live his life. But he had his sons, who were working in the temple, and they weren’t good sons. Verse 12 tells us they were corrupt sons. They weren’t at all doing what God had wanted them to do. And in verse 23 of 1 Samuel 2, when Eli is confronted by what his sons are doing and how they are perverting the temple of God, and what is going on there, Eli does the right thing by confronting them and telling them about it. In verse 23, Eli said to his sons:

1 Samuel 2:23 – “Why do you do such things? For I hear of your evil dealings from all the people. No, my sons! For it is not a good report that I hear. You make the LORD’S people transgress. You are not only setting them the wrong example – that they might think it is okay to worship God that way and to disregard His commands – His clear commands – of what to do, but also the way you are handling the offerings that are brought to them. They don’t even want to bring them anymore because they know how you are going to abuse them. They don’t want them misused. They don’t want them used for a purpose other than what they intended. You make the LORD’s people transgress. If one man sins against another, God will judge him. But if a man sins against the Eternal, who will intercede for him?” Nevertheless, young men – young people…. We talked a little bit about some young people that were in the church. These young men didn’t bother listening to their parents. Nevertheless, they did not heed the voice of their father. They had become quite corrupt, and it says here because God desired to kill them. It is not God’s desire that anyone perish, but what these young men had done was so egregious, and they had so abused the privileges and the responsibilities that they had, they deserved death. And that was what they were going to receive, because of the way that they handled the things of God. Eli did the right thing. He told them. The sons rejected what their father had told them.

And in verse 27, Eli, though, made a mistake. He kept on letting things go on the way that they always had.

V-27 – A man of God came to Eli, and said to him, “Thus says the Eternal, ‘Did I not clearly reveal Myself to the house of your father when they were in Egypt in Pharaoh’s house? Did I not choose him out of all the tribes of Israel to be My priest, to offer upon My altar, to burn incense and to wear an ephod before Me? And did I not give to the house of your father all the offerings of the children of Israel made by fire? Isn’t that true Eli? Why then do you kick at My sacrifice and My offering which I have commanded in My dwelling, and why, Eli, do you honor your sons more than Me? Why do you allow them to exert control over you, Eli? Why are you doing and allowing their will, rather than enforcing My will? Why aren’t you removing them from service, Eli? Why did you let this go on? You were here to promote, and to preserve, and to make sure what was being practiced in the house of God were the things of God, and not allowing your sons to control you, but you do what is right?” The sons paid for it with their lives. Eli paid for it with his life.

Now I know, the affairs of the heart and the affairs of the family can be a tough thing for all of us. We all love our kids. We all love our brothers and sisters. We all love our wives. We all love our moms and dads. We can be tempted sometimes to put their will ahead of God. “We will just do what they say just this once.” Or, “God doesn’t really care. He expects us to honor mom and dad.” Yes, He does, but He expects us to put Him first in all our dealings. He expects us to obey Him first. When there is a choice of obeying and allowing the control of who you seek, and who you serve, and who you allow control over your life…if you give it to someone besides God and do their will, you are putting that before God. Yes, people in your lives – family members – can become little g-o-d’s – if you allow them to become little g-o-d’s and if you choose to do what they want over what God wants.

And yet, I understand emergencies and things like that. There are things we have to do, but you know, it is a tough call. Eli didn’t do it. He paid for it. God says, “I am the LORD your God. You do My will first. I am the one to whom you yield. You obey Me first.”

Over in Matthew 10 – I think we read this last time I was here, but we will read it again – in Matthew 10, Christ in His own words, addressed the very same subject. Here in Matthew 10, and verse 37…let’s read verse 33 as well…it says:

Matthew 10:33 – “But whoever denies Me before men, him I will also deny before My Father who is in heaven.” We can deny God, or deny Jesus Christ, in more ways than just saying, “I deny Him,” or, “I choose not to follow Him.” Our actions and our choices show who we follow and who we choose. And our actions show whether we deny, even if our words may say otherwise. Down in verse 37, Christ says:
V-37 – “He who loves father or mother more then Me – who would put their will ahead of mine, who would choose to obey them rather than Me – is not worthy of Me. And he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me. Follow Me first, not comfort, not family.” Follow God first. “You shall have no other gods before Me.”

Let’s look at another couple of verses here on other things that can be gods – things we can put before God. Over in 2 Timothy – 2 Timothy 3 – this is the well-known chapter, where Paul writes to Timothy. and says, “…in the last days perilous times will come.” And he lists all these things that men will be like in the last days. We have gone through this before. Let’s drop down to verse 4. In verse, he names some of them:

V-4 – Traitors, headstrong, haughty, and he says in the next verse, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God – people who would put their own entertainment in front of what God wills, people who would rather do their own pleasure and choose it, rather than what God wills. We would all say, “No, no, no that is not us.” But maybe we should look and analyze. Do we put our own pleasure, do we put our entertainment, do we look at Romans 1 – the last verse there – and say, “Yeah, maybe I do love pleasure more than God, because some of the things I do and the choices I make put what I want and my pleasure before what God clearly says. Can pleasure be a little g-o-d? Sure, sure it can. Whatever we allow to control us and put between us and obeying God, is something we need to look very closely at.

Let’s look at another one in Philippians – Philippians 3:19. We’ll start in verse 18 – that is where the sentence begins. Paul writing, he says:

Philippians 3:18 – For many walk, of whom I have told you often and now tell you weeping, that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ – enemies of the cross of Christ – whose end is destruction, whose god is their belly and whose glory is in their shame, who set their mind on earthly things.

They will look for earthly things rather than the things of God. They would put the attainment, or the preservation of those earthly things before they would obey God. I always look at those few words in verse 19 – “whose god is their belly.” It seems like a strange thing to say, and maybe God means more than our literal belly, but, you know, years ago, Debbie and I visited a person. And you don’t need to think you know this person. You have never met her. You have never seen her. You have never heard her name. She has never been to church, and unless she is your next-door neighbor, unless you’ve moved next to her in the last 4 or 5 years, you don’t know her. We visited someone and she had taken the Good News magazine for years and years and years. She wanted us to come over. She wanted to start coming to church. She wanted to talk about all these things because she knew. She had followed it for a long time. We had a very good visit with her – very good visit with her. We started talking about some of the fundamental beliefs of the church, and one by one, we went down those things and they were all fine. We got down to clean and unclean meats and talking about those things. Along the way, we had come across another thing too – that would go back to the pleasure thing, where she said she was going to have a hard time giving up her card game on the Sabbath with her friends. But when we got to clean and unclean meats, she hadn’t really fully – if I can use the word, digested – what that means, so we talked about it. She made this statement “I would never give up shrimp and lobster” – and it may have been something else, but she would never give up shrimp and lobster – a couple of seafoods. And I thought, “Yeah, yeah, that is what you say now,” she will come around to it. It was new, but she’ll come around to it. But she was pretty resolute. But you know, I tried calling her again. She would never responded to the call. She never called back. She never showed up at church. And I always thought, “She made her god her belly.” “I will choose shrimp and lobster over the truth of God.” I thought, “How sad is that.” How sad it that. But anyway, there is any number of things that we can make our gods – so anything we put between obeying God and following Him and letting Him purify us, that we would choose first.

Let’s look at one more – 2 Corinthians 6, verse 12 – Paul, talking to the Corinthians – and this is the chapter near the end – he says, “Come out of her, my people. Be separate from them. God has called you to a separate life. Live the way He says. In verse 12, he says to them,

2 Corinthians 6:12 – “Corinthians, You are not restricted by us. It is not the things we’re telling you. We’re not holding you back. You are not restricted by us. You are restricted by your own affections. It is the things that you like. You’re letting those things hold you back from what God has called you to be. You are not willing to give up those things that you are so affectionately connected to. You’re restricted by your own affections.

We can ask ourselves, “Are there affections that we have that would keep us from obeying God – that would keep us from giving all our heart, mind and soul – something that we would allow to control our responses, our behavior, because we like it, and maybe, have deceived ourselves into thinking, “It doesn’t matter to God? It’s not that important.” Yes, it is important. Yeah, it’s important.

Let’s go forward to 2 Corinthians 10 – just a few chapters over. It is one of those things we can look at, because we talked about a lot of physical things that can be g-o-d’s. But there are things in our minds that can be little g -o-d’s as well, that can keep us from doing what God wants us to do, and to restrict us from becoming what God wants us to become.

2 Corinthians 10:4 – But the weapons of our warfare…. We know what weapons those are, right? They are listed in Ephesians 6 – the weapons that we use to fight self, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, pride of the flesh – the weapons that we use to combat Satan and the ways of the world. The weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds. Sometime in the next month, I’ll give a sermon on strongholds, because you know what? We may all have some strongholds we need to look at and identify – things that have developed, maybe as children, that shouldn’t have developed, maybe some things since we have gotten older that have become strongholds in our minds – that have become things that would keep us from following God – that we would choose this way rather than what God’s will is – that we would follow this idea rather than God, because of these strongholds that have come up in our minds.  They can be all sorts of things. They can develop at all different stages of our lives, if we allow them to. But God says we need to pull them down. Just because they are a stronghold – and you have all these excuses why they are there – it doesn’t give us an excuse not to remove that thing that is controlling us and keeping us from doing God’s will. For pulling down strongholds and casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God. And aren’t there a lot of high things that exalt itself against the knowledge of God? Don’t we have a lot of people in the world who say, “I really know better than God” – some people that we can even meet in church that know better than God – right? – because their idea is better than what God has said. Their idea trumps what God says in His word. They just don’t yield to God and follow the truth, but they allow something else to control them.

So, even our own minds can become little g-o-d ‘s, if we allow them to. Be very careful, because Satan is very cunning and very clever, and before we know it, we can develop some little g-o-d’s that could keep us from being what God wants us to be. God said, “I am the LORD your God. You will have no other gods before Me.”

What are some of the things, just briefly, that we can do to be putting God first in our lives and making sure that He is first, or finding out from Him that He is first, or that we are following what He says? You know, one thing that we can do is, every morning, no matter how rushed you are, pray to God first. You know, when I worked outside, there were some days I would get up late, and I would be rushing around, and I would just be like, “I just have no time to pray. I’ll have to do that later.” I learned over time, that even if it is one minute or two minutes, don’t leave the house without praying to God. Acknowledge Him. Put Him first before you walk out that door, no matter how late you are, because that orders your step. That trains your mind. God first! I never do anything or go anywhere without Him. He is the God who leads me. Make sure you come back later on that night, or when you have time, and pray. Don’t let the little gods of entertainment – the little gods – take away your time. Because we all have time, no matter how many hours we work in the day, to pray. There are so many things we can put away that we can always find the time to put God first and to make sure we are acknowledging Him.

The other thing we can do is to pray the prayer that David prayed in Psalms 139. You know, in verse 23, here’s a man after God’s own heart, and what he prayed was, “Search my heart. Search and let me know if there is anything in me that is contrary to You. What are the things in my heart God? Show them to me.” When those were revealed to David, he put them out. He put those gods away, because his mission was, he would have one God that was controlling him, one God that he looked to, one God that was providing for him, one God that he would look to and trust in. We can pray that same prayer. And when we find it, not matter how painful it is to put that out, ask God for the strength to put it out and put away that god.

Turn to Hebrews 4. When we study – when we read the Bible – I hope we are reading the Bible not just to punch a clock or put a check mark on the paper. “Yep, I read my one chapter, two chapters, three chapters, four chapters. Yes, I spent my ten or fifteen minutes” – however much. I hope we are reading it, realizing it is the word of God and it speaks to us, and that we allow it to show us, and let God speak to us the truth that it is, and take a look at ourselves. In Hebrews 4, verse 12…as we read the Bible – and I know this has happened to you; it has happened to me – I’ll read something, and I’ll think, “You know what? I do that. I never saw that before, but I do that. I can’t do that anymore,” or, “That behavior has to change,” or, “That thought process has to change. Verse 12, Hebrews 4:

Hebrews 4:12 – The word of God is living and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit. If we let it, it will show us the intent of our heart. It will show us what we are. It will show us our motives. If we let it, if we pay attention, It will pierce even to the division of soul and spirit and of joints and marrow and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.  You want to know if you are keeping the First Commandment the way God wants you to? Read the Bible. Pray to Him. Ask Him. And when you read the words of the Bible, let them take hold. Don’t make excuses for yourself. Yield yourself to God and remember the First Commandment: I am the LORD your God. You shall have no other gods before Me.