The sermon for this Sunday was entitled “The Impossible Path to Salvation”. The primary text for the sermon was Exodus 20:1-17 (the Ten Commandments). I also used Romans 2:17-27 and Romans 3:19-20. The main point of the sermon was that the Law is a path to salvation, if one can follow it all the days of their lives without breaking it. Since no one can follow the Law all the days of their life, no one can use the law as a path to salvation. What the law does is show us that we cannot save ourselves through our own actions; we need Jesus. A main focus of the sermon was the first two commandments.
You shall have no other Gods before me.
You shall make no idols.
No matter how devout or loyal a Christian we are, all of us have broken these two commandments.
Modern-day idolatry does not look like first-century idolatry. Idolatry today is more covert, but nonetheless, we still do have our idols. Anything we put before God is an idol. Sometimes our idols are people. Sometimes our idols are achievement. Sometimes money is our Idol, and sometimes we have our iszums that we make idols. It is these iszums that I want to focus on for this post
Now iszums are not necessarily bad, in fact, any many cases they can be good, if they are put in the proper context and not put ahead of God. The problem is that often we get so involved with our iszums that we elevate them above God. At that point even if the cause is good we have perverted the cause and made it more than it should be. The cause has become our faith, it has become our reason for being, it has become our God. Let’s look at a few of the big iszums in our society today.
Christians should be activist. We should stand up to racism and sexism. We should fight for the poor and we should stand for justice. All of these are good things. These are all things that God has called us to do. The problem is that some people become so connected to a cause that they forget about to one who called them to fight for the cause. We must remember that the cause is not greater than God. We must make sure that we are not getting so involved in our activism that we put it ahead of God.
As Christians, we are all called to be environmentalist. Genesis 1:28 states
28 God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over every living thing that moves upon the earth.”
To have dominion over something is to rule over it. In biblical times to rule over something was to have the responsibility of caring for what you ruled over. God has given humanity rule over the earth. We are free to take what we need from the earth, but we also have the responsibility to care for the earth. Environmentalism is not bad, it is one of our Christian responsibilities. We must make sure that we do not become so radical in our environmentalism that it becomes our faith. If you truly think about it, it is foolish to take the creation and worship it above the creator. When environmentalism becomes our faith, we are doing exactly that.
The Bible is the inerrant Word of God. The Bible is authoritative. The issue that many Christians run into when it comes to the Bible is legalism. Sometimes Christians can become so legalistic that the Bible becomes more than authoritative scripture, it becomes a something that is worshiped. We should have a high view of scripture, but scripture is not above God. The Bible only has authority because it is Gods Word. There is no biblical authority absent God. We must remember that we worship God not his Word. Just like it is foolish to take the creation and put it above the creator, it is foolish to take the Word and put it above the author of the Word.
I love my country. It is truly a great and wonderful place. Yes, it is imperfect, as all counties are, but I do believe that our country has been a force for good more often than not. That being said one must remember that as Christians we have dual citizenship. We are citizens of our country and we are citizens of the kingdom of God. When Christ returns all earthly countries will cease to exist and there will be one kingdom, Gods kingdom. Ultimately our citizenship in the kingdom is our most important citizenship. It is good and proper to be a patriot. One should support, defend and yes love their country, however; one cannot put their country above kingdom if we do that is idolatry.
The first two commandments are:
You shall have no other Gods before me.
You shall make no idols.
Examine your life and ask yourself, what have I put ahead of God. What are my Idols? What are my izums. We all have them If we can identify them, the power of the Holy Spirit will allow us to get rid of them or at least get them under control. Put God first. The God who gave all that he had so that we can have an opportunity for salvation. Put God first and let go of the izums.
Thank you for another informative website. Where else could I get that kind of info written in such an ideal way? I have a project that I’m just now working on, and I have been on the look out for such info.
This actually answered my downside, thank you!
When I originally commented I clicked the “Notify me when new comments are added” checkbox and now each
time a comment is added I get several e-mails with the same comment.
Is there any way you can remove me from that service? Appreciate it!
Undeniably believe that which you stated.
Your favorite reason seemed to be on the web the simplest thing
to be aware of. I say to you, I certainly get annoyed
while people think about worries that they plainly do not know about.
You managed to hit the nail upon the top and defined out the whole
thing without having side-effects , people
could take a signal. Will likely be back to get more. Thanks
Please let me know if you’re looking for a author for your weblog.
You have some really great articles and I feel I would be a good asset.
If you ever want to take some of the load off, I’d absolutely love to write some material for your blog in exchange for a link
back to mine. Please blast me an email if interested. Cheers!
I think the admin of this site is actually working hard in favor of his site, because here every material is
quality based information.
It’s amazing for me to have a web site, which is beneficial for my experience.
thanks admin
What’s up i am kavin, its my first occasion to commenting anywhere, when i read this paragraph i thought i could also make comment due to this sensible post.
WOW just what I was looking for. Came here by searching for minecraft
wonderful publish, very informative. I wonder why the
other specialists of this sector don’t realize this.
You should proceed your writing. I am sure, you’ve a huge readers’
base already!
Hey there! Do you know if they make any plugins to assist with Search Engine Optimization? I’m trying to get my blog to rank for some
targeted keywords but I’m not seeing very good success.
If you know of any please share. Thanks!
I was recommended this blog by my cousin. I am not sure whether this post is written by him as no one else know such detailed about my trouble.
You are amazing! Thanks!
I’m gone to tell my little brother, that he should
also pay a visit this website on regular basis to take updated from
newest news.
hello there and thank you for your information – I’ve definitely
picked up something new from right here. I did however expertise a few technical issues using this site, as I experienced to reload the web site many
times previous to I could get it to load properly. I had
been wondering if your web host is OK? Not that I’m complaining, but sluggish loading instances times will often affect your placement in google and can damage your quality
score if advertising and marketing with Adwords. Anyway I am adding this
RSS to my email and could look out for much more of your respective fascinating
content. Make sure you update this again very
soon.
Excellent beat ! I would like to apprentice while you amend your web
site, how could i subscribe for a blog website? The account aided me a acceptable deal.
I had been tiny bit acquainted of this your broadcast offered bright clear concept
Good replies in return of this matter with real arguments and describing the whole thing on the topic of that.
What’s up, this weekend is pleasant in favor of me, since this moment
i am reading this impressive educational post here at my home.
I all the time used to read paragraph in news papers but now as I am a user of net so from now I am using net for
content, thanks to web.
WOW just what I was searching for. Came here by searching for minecraft
free download 2018
I believe everything wrote was very logical. However, what about this?
suppose you added a little content? I am not saying your content isn’t good., but
what if you added a title that makes people desire more?
I mean Let go of the Izums – Rev. Ruff's
Blog is kinda boring. You should peek at Yahoo’s front page and watch how they create article titles to grab viewers to open the links.
You might try adding a video or a related pic or two to get readers
interested about what you’ve got to say. In my opinion, it might bring your website
a little livelier.
Hi there, just became alert to your blog through Google, and found that it’s really informative.
I am going to watch out for brussels. I will appreciate if you continue this in future.
A lot of people will be benefited from your writing.
Cheers!
Your style is very unique compared to other people I have read stuff from.
I appreciate you for posting when you have the opportunity, Guess I’ll just book mark
this web site.
Hi, this weekend is nice designed for me, as this point in time i am reading this wonderful informative piece of writing
here at my house.
What i don’t understood is in truth how you’re now not
really a lot more neatly-liked than you might be now.
You’re very intelligent. You realize thus significantly
relating to this matter, made me individually consider it from so many
numerous angles. Its like men and women are
not fascinated unless it’s one thing to do with Girl gaga!
Your personal stuffs outstanding. At all times take care of it up!
Howdy! I know this is somewhat off topic but I was wondering which blog platform
are you using for this site? I’m getting tired of WordPress
because I’ve had problems with hackers and I’m looking at options for
another platform. I would be awesome if you could point me in the direction of a good platform.
I do not know if it’s just me or if perhaps everyone else
encountering issues with your blog. It appears as if some of the
written text in your content are running off the screen. Can someone else please comment and let me know if this is happening to them too?
This could be a problem with my internet browser because I’ve had this happen previously.
Cheers
I want to to thank you for this very good read!!
I absolutely loved every bit of it. I have got you saved as a favorite to
look at new things you post…
Appreciate this post. Let me try it out.
Excellent blog! Do you have any tips for aspiring writers?
I’m hoping to start my own blog soon but I’m a little lost on everything.
Would you suggest starting with a free platform like WordPress
or go for a paid option? There are so many options out there that I’m totally confused ..
Any suggestions? Many thanks!
I’m not that much of a internet reader to be honest but your blogs really nice, keep it up!
I’ll go ahead and bookmark your website to come back later
on. Many thanks
Descargar facebook
Hi there everyone, it’s my first visit at this web
page, and post is in fact fruitful in favor of me, keep up posting these content.
Descargar facebook