Exodus 20:1-17
And God spoke all these words:
"I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt
"You shall have no other gods before me.
"You shall not make for yourself an idol in the
form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters
below. You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the LORD your
God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the fathers to the
third and fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing love to a
thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments.
"You shall not misuse the name of the LORD your
God, for the LORD will not hold anyone guiltless who misuses his name.
"Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy.
Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath
to the LORD your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your
son or daughter, nor your manservant or maidservant, nor your animals, nor the
alien within your gates. For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the
earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day.
Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.
"Honor your father and your mother, so that you
may live long in the land the LORD your God is giving you.
"You shall not murder.
"You shall not commit adultery.
"You shall not steal.
"You shall not give false testimony against your
neighbor.
"You shall not covet your neighbor's house. You
shall not covet your neighbor's wife, or his manservant or maidservant, his ox
or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor."
Who knows the motto
of the Boy Scouts?
Be prepared!
Here is a question
ONLY for men – how many men know the motto of the Girl Scouts?
Be prepared!
States have
mottos. One that I like is Arizona Arizona
That motto has been criticized for appearing strange or even nonsensical at
first hearing. However, it is a 2000 year old quotation from a Latin poet. It refers to the sound of a thunderbolt
increasing in strength as it moves across the sky, and as a motto it refers to
a symbol of dynamic progress. "It grows as it goes.” Now it makes sense.
Countries have
mottos – the motto of the nation of Belize
It just sounds so relaxing.
What is the motto of the United
States
“In God We Trust.”
We had no official motto until 1956.
Until then, E Pluribus Unum,
“Out of Many, One,” was the unofficial motto, but in 1956, at the beginning of
the Cold War, congress adopted “In God We Trust” as our motto.
Only one state in the nation shares that same motto, “In God We Trust.”
The only problem with this is that we don’t live by it.
This is NOT the motto which gives direction to our lives.
Imagine a Boy Scout or Girl Scout living by the motto, “Be
unprepared.”
Or imagine Arizona
In the bulletin today the sermon title is correct. It may look like a typographical error, but
it is true. We don’t trust in God, but
we trust in many, many Gods.
In GodS (plural) we trust.
Where your greatest trust is placed, there you will find the
God you worship.
The Second
Commandment teaches us, “You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of
anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. You shall not bow down to them or worship
them.”
Now granted, idols
in the days of Moses were statues of false gods. People would make these things and then bow down and literally worship
them.
We don’t do that –
at least I don’t think anyone here is doing that.
However, we do put
our trust in things that are often made with human hands.
We put our love in things.
We cherish and
adore these things.
We worship gods of
all sorts.
John[1]
was a man who lived a lavish life style.
He and his wife, a former Olympic champion, traveled all over the world,
but had never ridden in a commercial jet – they’d always flown in their private
jet.
One day, he had to
go somewhere that was unfamiliar, and John was known to have trouble following
directions. In those days before GPS systems,
his solution was to hire a taxi. But he
refused to ride in a lowly
taxi, and insisted on driving his own, expensive Bentley. So he hired a taxi to drive in front of his
car, so he could follow.
One day, his wife Lisa was checking her
messages. She thought her husband was at
work, and when she checked her messages, there was her husband.
"I love you
very much, I love the children very much,” it began.
The message continued. John said he couldn’t go on with his
life.
He gave detailed instructions where to
send the police to recover his body.
By the time the police arrived, he was
dead.
At his funeral, one
of his friends said, “This suicide will always be a mystery. John had everything. He was successful in business. He had the best cars. He had the biggest homes. He was rich beyond comprehension.[2]
It was as if the
one giving the eulogy was listing the gods in whom John had trusted.
Business. Success. Cars.
Fine homes. Prestige.
How many gods do
you trust?
How many gods do
you adore?
How many gods have
you made in your life for you to worship?
The second
commandment instructs us not to worship idols, and keep in mind that idols are
more than simply graven images, statues or inanimate objects which primitive
people bow down and serve.
Our idols can be
almost anything.
Success is
an idol which some worship.
We teach our
children and grandchildren to be successful.
We want them to be a success in life.
As pastor, I want my church to be a success.
Who would NOT want
to be successful?
But for many, this
good and healthy goal becomes an idol we worship and adore.
And when success is
the idol we worship, we find it is a god that does not satisfy.
Years ago, there
was a comic strip in the newspaper showing in the first panel a young worker in
the mail room. Above his head was one of
those “thought balloons” revealing what he was thinking – “Oh if I could just
become the Supervisor of the Mail Room, I’d be so happy.”
The next panel
showed the Supervisor of the Mail Room, and he was thinking, “Oh if I could
just become the General Manager, I’d be so happy.”
The next panel
showed the General Manager, and he was thinking, “Oh if I could just become the
President of the Company, I’d be so happy.”
The last panel
showed the President of the Company. He
was sitting at his desk thinking, “Oh if I could just be a simple worker in the
mail room, I’d be so happy.”
King Solomon once
reflected on his success, which I would dare say outpaces any success any of us
have.
“I undertook great
projects: I built houses for myself and planted vineyards. I made gardens and
parks and planted all kinds of fruit trees in them. I developed water systems
for the community. I had a tremendous
number of workers under me. I owned more
than anyone in the community. I had gold
and silver. I became greater by far than
anyone.….Yet when I surveyed all that my hands had done and what I had toiled
to achieve, everything was meaningless, a chasing after the wind; nothing was
gained under the sun.” (Paraphrased from
Eccl 2:4-11)
Do you trust God,
or do you trust your own success?
What will save
you? What will give your life
meaning? God, or your own success? Which do you bow down and worship?
Money is another idol we worship in this society.
St Paul said in his
New Testament book of First Timothy (1 Tim 6:17-18), “Command those who are rich in this present
world not to be arrogant nor to put their hope in wealth, which is so
uncertain, but to put their hope in God, who richly provides us with everything
for our enjoyment.”
Wow, even more
applicable in this present day. “Do not
put hope in wealth, which is so uncertain.”
Some of us have learned
all too well how uncertain our wealth can be.
In the Old
Testament, Job examines himself very carefully. (Job 31:24-28)
"If I have put
my trust in gold or said to pure gold, 'You are my security … then those would
be sins to be judged, for I would have been unfaithful to God on high.”
Job knew full well
that idol worship involved so much more than graven images.
Now there is
nothing wrong with money – but a lot of people misquote the Bible. They believe that the Bible says, “Money is
the root of all evil.” But that is not
what the Bible says. It says “LOVE of
money, is the root of all evil.”
So which do you
love more? God, or money? Which do you worship?
For others, it is not so much the money, as the
possessions and things money helps us buy.
You’ve heard the
satirical comment perhaps, “The one who dies owning the most stuff, wins.” Meaning, of course, that it really doesn’t
matter how much “stuff” you have accumulated.
At the end of your life, what is it worth?
In Luke’s Gospel,
Jesus warns us, “Be on your guard a person’s life does not consist in the
abundance of possessions." And he
told them a parable about a man who was so successful in his farming business
that he decided to build more and more barns.
He was thinking that if could accumulate enough “stuff” in life, then he
would be able to say to himself, “I have plenty of good things laid up for many
years. I can take life easy; eat, drink and be merry." But as the parable goes, the man dies before
he can get around to enjoying life. (Luke 12:15-26)
Possessions in and
of themselves are not bad. We all have
them. We need them. But what do we love the most? God, or the “stuff” that clutters our
closets?
Who is your God?
And for others their idol is security. They want to be secure in their future.
What could be a
better goal than this? None of us want
to become a burden on society or on our children. We want to be secure today and save and have
a secure future for ourselves.
And
yet, for some of us, security is not a goal, it is a god.
It
is not responsibility, but it becomes irresponsibility.
Somewhere
the desire for security crosses the line so that it becomes a god we worship,
rather than something we trust God will provide.
Some
of you have probably heard the story about a young New York
He
asked the man how long it took to catch this much fish.
“Not
long at all,” the fisherman replied.
“Well,
why not stay out longer and catch more fish?” the young New Yorker asked
smiling.
“I
have enough for today,” said the fisherman, “this is what I need to feed my
family.”
“What
do you do with the rest of your time?” the young man asked curiously.
“I
sleep late, fish a little, play with my children, take a siesta with my wife,
Maria, and stroll into the village each evening where I enjoy some wine and
laughter with friends. It’s a full and happy life,” the fisherman replied.
“Well,
I'm a Harvard MBA and I think I can help you. You could spend more time fishing
and with the proceeds from the larger catch, buy a bigger boat. Then you could
catch even more fish. With those profits you could buy several more boats and
hire captains to fish for you, and eventually you could open your own cannery.
Then you would control the product, processing, and distribution. You would
need to leave this small coastal village and move to Mexico
City or LA or even New
York
“How
long would that all take?” asked the somewhat bewildered fisherman.
“Fifteen,
maybe twenty years, max.”
“But
then what?”
“Well,
when the time was right, you could sell your company stock to the public, and
become very rich. You could be worth millions,” declared the proud young
investor.
“Millions?
Wow! Then what?”
“Then
you could retire and move to a small coastal village like this one where you
could sleep late, fish a little in the morning, play with your grandkids, take
a siesta, and enjoy wine and music with your friends in the evening.”
The
fisherman looked at him and asked, “Isn’t that what I’m doing right now?”
Jesus warns us in
the New Testament book of Matthew (Matt 6:19-21): "Do not store up for yourselves
treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and
steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do
not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your
treasure is, there your heart will be also.”
So what about you –
is security a goal? Or has it become a
god?
Others worship sex, and no one did that
better in the Old Testament than King Solomon.
For all of his wisdom, he seemed to lack wisdom when it came to
women. He had 700 wives and 300
concubines.
A
thousand women!
And
at the end of his life, aging old Solomon reflects on his sexual pursuits. He said in the Old Testament book of
Ecclesiastes, (Eccl 2:10-11), “I denied myself nothing my eyes desired; I
refused my heart no pleasure. (And yet)…everything was meaningless.”
So
what is your god?
What
idols do you pursue, adore and worship?
Sex,
alcohol, drugs, power, prestige, the biggest home, the most expensive car, the
most money?
So
where do you put your trust? What do you
love the most? What do adore?
Love
the Lord your God, and worship only him.
Everything else in our lives should be for his glory.
And now unto
God the Father,
God the Son,
And God the
Holy Spirit be ascribed all might, power, dominion and glory, today and
forever, Amen.
Copyright 2016.
Dr. W. Maynard Pittendreigh
All rights reserved
Ministers may feel free to use some or all of this sermon in
their own ministries as long as they do not publish in print or on the Internet
without ascribing credit to the author.
[1] I
have taken the liberty of changing this individual’s true name for this
sermon.
[2]
The Man Who Had Everything, by Beth Landman.
New York
News and Features, November 22, 2002. http://nymag.com/nymetro/news/crimelaw/features/n_8053/
