I can almost hear people say; what god’s, I don’t worship foreign god’s. If you will recall the blogs about the family of God, we talked about the separation we must make from foreign gods. Yesterday Joshua recapped this and we also have to be aware of this. Moses said, Deuteronomy 32:15 “They abandoned the God who made them and rejected the Rock their Savior. 16 They made him jealous with their foreign gods and angered him with their detestable idols. 17 They sacrificed to false gods, which are not God— gods they had not known, gods that recently appeared, gods your ancestors did not fear. 18 You deserted the Rock, who fathered you; you forgot the God who gave you birth. 19 The LORD saw this and rejected them because he was angered by his sons and daughters. 20 “I will hide my face from them,” he said, “and see what their end will be; for they are a perverse generation, children who are unfaithful. 21 They made me jealous by what is no god and angered me with their worthless idols.”
While today in the church most do not worship actual idols, though you see them more and more in gardens and households, the idols are false gospels and the seduction of other religions into Christianity. 2 Corinthians 11:4 “For if someone comes to you and preaches a Jesus other than the Jesus we preached, or if you receive a different spirit from the Spirit you received, or a different gospel from the one you accepted, you put up with it easily enough.” The gods that recently appeared are also doctrines of demons. For example we have talked about dispensationalism a lot. This is a god that recently appeared. So we must get rid of it. This weak yielding our hearts to God means tearing down and destroying idols just like Josiah did. I am also not going to list all the isms but they need to go too. Here are a few. Catholicism, Anglicanism, Calvinism, Lutheranism and the list goes on and on just add ism to all the names worshipped in the church. You can add intellectualism to the list also. Most in the church do not realize they are worshipping other gods, gods they had not known, and gods that recently appeared.
The church also worships doctrines, theology, men and women in leadership enough to make statues. As I have talked about before the seminary I attended did this. Other worship comes in the form of books. They also worship buildings and the idea of having a bigger one, programs, finances, and teaching. They worship feelings over truth but are not concerned if truth prevails as long as they feel good about themselves. Since we were talking about isms you can add narcissism to the list.
Also as we talked about last week because of this worship of other gods there is also included in this sexual sins. When you look at the Old Testament sexual sins were usually part of the Baals and Ashtoreths. 1 Samuel 2:22 “Now Eli, who was very old, heard about everything his sons were doing to all Israel and how they slept with the women who served at the entrance to the tent of meeting.” 1 Kings 14:22 “By the sins they committed they stirred up his jealous anger more than those who were before them had done. 23 They also set up for themselves high places, sacred stones and Asherah poles on every high hill and under every spreading tree. 24 There were even male shrine prostitutes in the land; the people engaged in all the detestable practices of the nations the Lord had driven out before the Israelites.” 2 Kings 23:7 “Josiah also tore down the quarters of the male shrine prostitutes that were in the temple of the Lord, the quarters where women did weaving for Asherah.” Hosea 4:14 “the men themselves consort with harlots and sacrifice with shrine prostitutes— a people without understanding will come to ruin!” Revelation 17:5 “The name written on her forehead was a mystery: Babylon the great the mother of prostitutes and of the abominations of the earth.” No matter what anyone says these days, homosexuality is an abomination before God. But having said that also remember Proverbs 26:22 “The words of a gossip are like choice morsels; they go down to the inmost parts. 23 Like a coating of silver dross on earthenware are fervent lips with an evil heart. 24 Enemies disguise themselves with their lips, but in their hearts they harbor deceit. 25 Though their speech is charming, do not believe them, for seven abominations fill their hearts. 26 Their malice may be concealed by deception, but their wickedness will be exposed in the assembly. 27 Whoever digs a pit will fall into it; if someone rolls a stone, it will roll back on them. 28 A lying tongue hates those it hurts, and a flattering mouth works ruin.” Proverbs 6:16 “There are six things the LORD hates, seven that are detestable to him: 17 haughty eyes, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood, 18 a heart that devises wicked schemes, feet that are quick to rush into evil, 19 a false witness who pours out lies and a person who stirs up conflict in the community.
Paul said 1 Corinthians 6:13 “The body, however, is not meant for sexual immorality but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body. 14 By his power God raised the Lord from the dead, and he will raise us also. 15 Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ himself? Shall I then take the members of Christ and unite them with a prostitute? Never! 16 Do you not know that he who unites himself with a prostitute is one with her in body? For it is said, “The two will become one flesh.” 17 But whoever is united with the Lord is one with him in spirit. 18 Flee from sexual immorality. All other sins a person commits are outside the body, but whoever sins sexually, sins against their own body. 19 Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; 20 you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your bodies.” We also talked about 9 Or do you not know that wrongdoers will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor men who have sex with men 10 nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. 11 And that is what some of you were.” Now someone may say I have never been with a prostitute yet as Hosea says in Hosea 4:12 “My people consult a wooden idol, and a diviner’s rod speaks to them. A spirit of prostitution leads them astray; they are unfaithful to their God.” Hosea 5:4 “Their deeds do not permit them to return to their God. A spirit of prostitution is in their heart; they do not acknowledge the Lord.”
Another area is Hinduism and yoga. I saw one article that said “Yoga has deepened my relationship with God.” Kundalini yoga "the coiled power", a force which ordinarily rests at the base of the spine, described as being "coiled there like a serpent." Yes Christians stay away from yoga. Guess who the serpent is. Another area that has infiltrated businesses, hospitals is Buddhism. You can’t be a Christian and use the teachings of Buddhism. They are in direct conflict. So if you are looking for help by being mindful it will not be by God. “Mindfulness is being integrated into many workplaces, as it enhances stress management and promotes employee self-care.” Another writer said “While mindfulness can be practiced quite well without Buddhism, Buddhism cannot be practiced without mindfulness.” Another writer said, “what first attracted me to Buddhism in the years that followed my slow abandonment of formal Christianity wasn't anything intellectual but had to do rather with imagination, with images of liberation. Nevertheless, Buddhism was attractive and it seemed to be a way of rediscovering something that seemed to be missing, without requiring an entrance fee in the form of religious or metaphysical belief.” Lets just say people stopped testing the spirits. Remember spirituality is not Christianity, sorry Oprah. We could talk about all the self help books that people depend on more than God. Today is not about listing every god out there but to ask you to be aware, turn and run and yield your heart to God.
The problem is that the church doesn’t even know that God has turned his face because we have been a perverse generation by worshipping other Gods. Most do not even care they have angered God by their actions nor do they care what their end will be. Deuteronomy 30:17 “But if your heart turns away and you are not obedient, and if you are drawn away to bow down to other gods and worship them, 18 I declare to you this day that you will certainly be destroyed. You will not live long in the land you are crossing the Jordan to enter and possess.”
