Lettsom Inn

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to stand before God and see Him?

The Apostle John saw the Lord, high and lifted up. John says, he fell at His feet as one dead… John saw the majesty, glory, awesome power and fearfulness of the LORD . John had nothing to say. He fell down at God’s feet as if he was a dead person.

Job, believed God and suffered greatly as God allowed it. Job speaks to God, but he tells us, that he put his and over his mouth… Job had nothing to say…

What we say to God is important, and our understanding of Him, is crucial. Some day it will be our turn to stand before Him. Will we make excuses? Will we try to make ourselves out to be better than we are?

Our third commandment is about speaking about God.

“You shall not misuse the name of the Lord your God, for he will not hold us guiltless if we misuse his name.”

We all have been given names. Our parents gave us our names usually for a reason.

Micah means, “like unto Jehovah…”

Constance means, “Strength and faithful…”

We like it when people remember our names, say our names properly, and spell them accurately.

If our names are important, then how much more important is God’s name.

God’s name has supreme importance.

His name is eternal and unchangeable (immutable) His name is to be reverenced and spoken with ultimate respect.

1. What’s wrong with swearing?

 Swearing is everywhere. When we hear God’s name in public – TV, films, school, etc it is not respectful of God.

 When we use God’s name as a swear word, it is not respectful.

If I say O G… I dropped it..! I am actually blaming God for my mistake..! A lot of swearing is this.

For G.. sake..! Do it or I will blame God..! OMG… this is calling on God, but I don’t mean it. I am using God’s name for effect to get a response from other people and to add weight to what I am saying…

This is called Blasphemy… Blasphemy is using God’s name in a low way… Speaking about God as if he is just an object or ordinary person.

At the bottom of this sinfulness is my attitude to God. I really don’t care about Him, nor do I respect Him and His authority.

If I really understood who God is, I would be very careful and very worried about speaking about Him in a reverent way.

2. We talk about God to back up our promises, and then not keeping them.

I promise I will share my snack with you – God be my witness… God is the highest authority and so I use His name to back up what I say…!

We don’t keep our promise – we have used God’s name falsely.

Even if I do keep the promise, should I be using God’s name to back up what I say?

God’s name is greater than me, and using it to give weight to what I say I am going to do, is called profane. Unholy, ungodly…

I am going to get you a birthday present… Your friend doesn’t believe you, so you say a back up… “I promise to God…” This is blasphemy, using God’s name to back up something trivial…

3. When we talk about God to anyone, it must be with fear and reverence. God is almighty. He holds our lives in his hands, and he owns everything and everybody. He made everything that exists and all power is His.

God has always been and always will be… No beginning or ending, unlike us. We are just a vapour, like the steam that comes out of the spout of the kettle when it boils. It only lasts for a moment.

We must remember who He is and that He is a kind and loving God – completely GOOD… All reverence belongs to Him.

We should not be making jokes about God, or spiritual things, like people who have no knowledge of God. Foolish people make jokes about Jesus and draw foolish pictures about God.

4. I call myself a Christian and people know I am Gods’ child, yet I do not live and speak as I aught.

I do not show respect for God in front of others, because I want to fit in with their bad talk.

I am taking the name of JESUS and disrespecting His name, because ~~I don’t honour Him by what I say and do.

I am taking the name “Christian” in vain…. I am disrespecting God by what I do.

So we see it is quite complicated the idea of taking God’s name in a disrespectful way….

There was a super powerful king in OT times Sennacarib… He had no respect for God or for God’s people, of King Hezekiah. Sennacarib surrounded Gods’ people in Jerusalem and his magnificent army of 185,000 soldiers. His intention was to cower God’s people into submission and kill them all and bring down God’s name before all peoples and of course to exhalt his own name..! No one will forget Sennacharib… God completely humbled him. In one night, the angel of the Lord killed every single one of them.

To lift ourselves above God is foolish and He will not give His own glory to anyone else. How we live our lives should bring glory to God and people should see what God is like by looking at us.

• So we see, God’s name is supreme.
• He will not give His glory to anyone else.
• How I speak God’s name is really important.
• God is King over all and not my convenience.
• I need to respect God and honour His name with reverence and respect.

I hope you can see that what we think of God is crucial. I will not please Him or know Him, unless I have come to the point where I have given Him my whole life and trusted Him to forgive me and save me.

When I reach that point of FAITH, I will understand who God is and what it means to reverence Him.

I enter a new relationship with Him and I now walk my life with JESUS and the Holy Spirit lives in me.

I am ALIVE TO GOD…. therefore I can understand who exactly he is.

This law isn’t just something we have to look out for and try not to do. It is a way of thinking about GOD that changes my whole life.

“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,

The second commandment God says, we are not to have idols. We are not to worship anyone or anything apart from Him. He is jealous of us, because He knows that only HE is sufficient to save us and keep us. He will not give His children to someone else!! Satan can never take us away from Him.

We are not to make pictures, images, statues, any kind of likeness to “help” us with worshipping GOD.

We say: Everyone is responsible for themselves… which is true, but at the same time, my spiritual heat or lack of it, will affect the impact of God on their lives too….

If I am following idols, then my family and friends will follow too. Following idols is a fools game.

God says I am not to make any kind of effigy, because he knows what we are like, and He knows we end up worshipping them…

What do I mean by following idols?

The commandment says, you are not to make a likeness of any creature or human being, and then think you can worship me.

Likenesses: the usual ones we see… Buddha, Shivva Ganesh, Lakshmi, Ancient Gods and deities from Egypt… in every culture there are these things. We can even go to ”church” and see images of people who are supposed to help us to worship God.

God makes it very clear, that we are not to try to picture Him, or His Son JESUS.

We worship God is Spirit and truth. God is Spiritual and each Christian has a spiritual soul whereby we can worship and know and talk to God. Everything else is worldly, and is off our low human desires for what we see, hear and touch.

When God awakens the soul, the things of this life take second place. Our motivations and desires change and we become spiritual, we have everlasting life…

So we can see that we must keep out all the godless desires that separate us form God.

Every culture has its own “idols”

It doesn’t always take the form of a wooden statue. It isn’t always a picture in our house or church.

Definition of an idol:

an image or representation of a god used as an object of worship.

Idol, god, image, statue, totem pole, fetish, etc. We are not to make anything to “help” with worshipping GOD.

And idol can be a person or thing that is greatly admired, loved, or revered.   “a soccer idol”   hero, heroine, star, celebrity, pop idol, etc.

As humans, we really do like to have people to look up to. We see people who are really good at something, and we idolize them… We put pictures up, we watch them, we maybe try to copy them in what they do. We take on their attitudes and we admire their work.

Sounds like what we should be doing towards GOD!

It is so easy to set up an idol in your mind. It is so easy to find ourselves worshipping someone, or some thing more than God.

There are so many things that pull us away from God, and steal our love and worship for HIM.

When we are unhappy, we tend to do things that cheer us up, and we get interested in the wrong things, and that love separates us from GOD.

These toys, make us happy for a while, but ultimately they will destroy our faith make us this world orientated. THEY HAVE BECOME IDOLS..

God is not willing to let people be duped by these glamorous things and people we worship. If he loves you, he will follow after you and bring you back.

WILL YOU LET GO?

Maybe some day you will have a family, and what you believe and teach them, will be of huge importance.

Maybe right now, there is no one in your family who is a Christian. They never hear about JESUS, but you do… what if you were to come to JESUS, and maybe the whole family will all believe too..!

So how I carry out my Christian life is of huge importance to me and to others around me, and we seek to point them to the true and living GOD, the God who resurrects our souls…

God is also making an amazing statement here. He says that whatever I do affects others… The fact that I do not love Him and serve Him only- effects the people around me. Family, friends, work friends, everyone. If I do not live for God, they will never see God. My unbelief winds its tendrils around my heart and the hearts of others too.

If God is not my number 1, then it will affect my Mum and dad, my brothers and sisters, my children one day.

The seriousness that God is not my Lord and Master, is really something we try to shut out. But we need to worship only Him in Spirit and in truth….

What right has God got to tell me what to do?

I can make my own decisions… I have the right to do whatever I want with my life, my body, my mind, my belongings….

This is a usual human response. I belong to myself and no one has the right to tell me what to do…

Misconceptions:

1. I do not belong to myself… I belong to God. He made me and he has the right to tell me what to do. He cares for me, and he knows better than me what I need and should have..
2. I can make my own decisions… We do not. It might seem that we do, but there are greater powers than us in our world, and they hold us fast in their grip. We either belong to God or the enemy of our souls – the devil…
3. I know what I want… We want what the media tell us we want… We do what others around us do. We are not strong without God’s Holy Spirit living in us, so we are really at the mercy of the loudest, or most attractive person..

 The 10 commandments: GOD gave them for our benefit.

People do not like them because they stop us doing stuff we want to do, and they make me feel guilty. This is what we think anyway…

GOD gave them to us to show us the right way- to teach us. To show what he is like so we can know HIM. GOD is kind and is not willing for anyone to perish..

Commandment 1: “Thou shalt have no other god’s before me.”

In a way, this is the only one we need.

That’s quite straight forward… Only one GOD. We are to worship HIM. If there is only one God, then all the others are false.. Its that straight forward…

Why should I worship GOD?

1. He is the only one. He made me and has designed me to love and worship Him. If I dont love and worship Him, I will worship something or someone else.
2. God gives me life and breath. He keeps me in my life, wether I know it or not. He decides what happens to me- good or difficult.
3. God keeps me safe and protects me for bad things. He delivers me in times of trouble.
4. God is a jealous God. Because He wants the best for me, he wants me for himself. Friends- they go off with another person- sad, hurt, jealous… Married people- jealous when the other person goes off with another. Wanting the best for the other person.
5. Faith in God and trust in God is the basis for all other good.

Can I be good without God?

Motivations and reasons for what we do. Some times I am good because I want others to think I am good.

I want to make a good impression.
I want a reward.
I want to avoid a punishment.
I want to feel good about myself.

Do I do good things when no one sees? Do I really do good things for totally good reasons?

When I am honest with myself, I find that I am not really that good after all.

The Bible says that without God I am blind, deaf and actually dead!

My soul is dead..!

I cannot change myself… I cannot worship and love God properly.

I actually need a miracle.

To keep this command, I need a miracle from God. I need to be resurrected!

My dead soul needs to be brought to life..

You see, there is no good thing in me.. and in reality, I don’t want the true God anyway… So God has to work in me, so that I actually want Him. I also need to see my need of Him. When I look inside and see my sins, how bad they are, how strongly they hold me.. There is a desperation to get them dealt with. Who can do this? Maybe the minster, the councellor, teacher…

No, only the God I have offended can cleanse me.  Why Him?

Because it is his laws I have broken and I have not loved Him. Only He has the power.

God is able to forgive me and make me new- resurrect me, because he sent JESUS to die for me. He paid the penalty for my wrong. He took the blame instead of me.

I do not love GOD, but HE LOVES ME…!!

He went to these extrordinary lengths to get me free from sin. He wants me for himself… he wants me to be in heaven with Him forever..!

When you become a Christian there is a big realisation of what JESUS did for you, and you realise how much He loves you. That makes you love HIM back.

If you do not love Him back, you do not belong to Him.

If you are a Christian you will want to keep this commandment. In fact, it will be the purpose of your life and the motivation behind what you do, think, say.

GOD IS REAL

I need to say this… everything in our society is saying the opposite. The media is completely biased about the reality of GOD and His involvement in our world.

GOD made the world and everything in it, and he upholds everything by His power and might.

The most important thing we have to face up to, is that He has a say over all things, and he has the right to judge us.

God is not to be trifled with. He is not a soppy friend- He is the GOD of all eternity- eternal, sovereign, all powerful, holy, fair, majestic, supreme…

It matters how we view Him and how we revere Him.

The Bible says “the fool has said in his/her heart , there is no God..” You can see how this is true.

So tonight, look inside and see if you really love Him and have repented of your sins.

Is pleasing Him your goal in life?

Maybe you need to adjust yourselves. Maybe you need to lay yourself down at Jesus feet…