Ten-Lords A-Leaping.....

12/20/10.........is our sermon series showing the 10 commandments as the pathway to joy. All of us want enjoyment in life but time and again we look for it in all the wrong ways. Too often, these ways, (especially in excess) can be ways of pain---relationships, adultery, alcohol, achievement in workplace, praises of others, etc. We can actually become enslaved by these pursuits of pleasure and significance. Exodus 20:2 keeps me considering what I’m enslaved to. I am becoming more and more aware of desires, excessive, possibly) and “pursuits” (many well meaning) that I think will bring me joy. What are the gods in my life? That’s the question I have begun asking myself.
Here's a peek at page one of my "sermon notes."

• Idolatry is…..desiring something else more than God.
  
• Idolatry is….conflict with God---most intense where our idols (desires) are most appealing.
  
• Human hearts are idolatry factories.
  
• We might not carve out idols with our hands but we create our own idols when we carve God out of our hearts.
  
• We’ve upgraded idol technology so that it’s not so overt----SELF.
  
• Desire in and of itself is not wrong but…….must consider where those desires are placed, i.e. success & achievement.
  
• Idols get our priority, time, attention & sacrifice.
  
• New Jeep Cherokee ad says, “the things we make, make us.” (an idolatry axiom of our culture today)
• Emerson quote, condensed,---"Gods we worship write their names on our faces…..that which dominates his life will determine his character………..what we are worshipping we are becoming."

1 And God spoke all these words:
2 “I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.
3 “You shall have no other gods before me.
4 “You shall not make for yourself an image in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. 5 You shall not bow down to them or worship them; (Exodus 20: 1-5a)

Use these words today to help you consider which gods are foremost in your life. Choose to worship the only true God, the One worthy of worship. Carve out time during this season to return to the Lord who gives the kind of love that will have you (and me) leaping for joy.