Transcription
The things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to demons and not to God. When you make these sacrifices, when you involve yourself in these offerings, when you're eating the food at uh at the temple as they have sacrificed this this this meat to a demon, you are identifying with all that that symbolizes. Do not identify with what is offered to demons. Eating food offered in a sacrifice to the idol to whom the sacrifice was made. He's saying to the church, stay away from this. Stay away from this.
Why? Verse 21, you cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons. You cannot partake of the Lord's table and of the table of demons. You cannot love Jesus and Satan at the same time. God is a jealous God. You are to worship me with all that is within you. In Deuteronomy chapter 6:5, you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength. And God is saying, I will not share you with anyone.
As a husband in a practical way, I would never even the thought that I would share my beloved, my wife, with somebody else. It's just, it's a repulsive thought. It, it's, it's insane. I, I didn't say to my wife when we married, or I didn't, when I married, I didn't say, Marie, you know what? I'm going to be yours on Wednesday and Sunday. But the other days of the week, I'm mine and I can do what I want. But you need to know that I will love you at least two days out of the week. If she would have married me under those conditions, what kind of marriage would that be?
When I gave my life to Christ, I didn't give him my life part-time, and I didn't give him ownership of my life as kind of like an agreement. Listen, it's like a house. Jesus, I'm going to give to you pretty much every room in the house. It's yours. You can have the kitchen. You can have the front room. You can have the bedrooms. You can have every, every room. But I want to keep one closet for myself. Just one closet. Just a small one. And in that closet, I want to keep certain things that I enjoy. Now listen, you have run of the whole house. It's yours. Come in the front door. Come in the back door. Come in the side door. Climb, come in the window. It's all yours. Go into any room you want. Just don't go into the closet because in that closet I have reading material or in that closet I have a friend of a girl, I have something that's mine. And do you think Jesus would say, you know, that's cool. I'll be, I, I'll handle just, you can have that closet. I just don't know a scripture that teaches me that he only wants a portion of my life. I don't know a scripture that, do you? I don't know a scripture where God says love me with almost all your heart. Any more than when I married Maria and I made my vows to her. I did not say I'm going to love you with 99% of my heart. I never said that. If you got married and said that, I wonder if you're still married now because you don't love with half of your heart. You love with all of your heart and you are committed and devoted for the rest of your days until death do us a part. That's the vow I took. And when I gave my heart to Christ, I didn't say, you know, I'll give you most of it, but some of it I want to keep for myself.
Listen, I enjoy, I enjoy marijuana and I have glaucoma. It's legal. You see a lot of people today, if it's legal, it's also right. No, just because it's legal doesn't make it morally acceptable. Just because it's legal does not make it right. But Americans are very caught up with, if it's the law, then it's okay. Look at some of the laws we have and you, you'll see exactly what I mean. Get into a discussion about the sanctity of life with somebody and where's the argument go? It goes to the law. It goes to the law. It's legal, right? And now the same thing is being used, what, for marijuana? And it's, and it's, it's spreading to various things. I know that I'm, you know that. I'm just making a point. So when I gave my life to the Lord, I didn't say to him, I'm going to give you part of it. You can influence part of me. I still want to participate in certain things. I still want to involve myself. And Paul is saying, no, you cannot do that. You can't love the Lord with all of your heart and still have a place in it for the enemy.
He said in 2 Corinthians 6 and 17, he had already said, "What agreement is there between the temple of God and idols? We are the temple of the living God. As God has said, I will live in them and walk among them. I will be their God. They will be my people. Therefore," he says, "come out from them and be separate. Touch no unclean thing and I will receive you." And so he says, you cannot partake of the cup of the Lord, the cup of blessing, the unity we have in Jesus Christ as the body of Christ celebrating the reality of what Christ has done on our behalf, and the cup of demons. You can't do both. You love me with all of your heart, or don't even claim to love me at all. Don't even claim to love me at all because you don't. Because you don't. Because I am separated from the world so I might be joined with him. Or verse 22, "Do we provoke the Lord to jealousy? Are we stronger than he?" God has what has been referred to as a holy jealousy. He does not in any way tolerate competition for our affection. God has a holy jealousy. What does that mean? Simply means this. Every, every married couple in here should know this for sure. There is a proper place in relationships and this, I'll develop it in a spiritual sense in a moment, but there is a, a proper place in human relationships for a proper sense of, and I'll use a word that people sometimes get offended by, but I'll try to develop it with you so it at least you'll know why you're offended, for a proper ownership, for a proper ownership in relationship. I'll develop it slowly.
In a relationship, we'll say Marie and me. We use that as an example. I asked her out. My brother tells me, "Are you a jealous guy?" I don't think so. "You better not be, cuz she knows a lot of guys." I said, "Oh, no." I said, I said, "Oh." He goes, "David, she's friendly and everybody loves Marie." I said, "Are you a jealous guy?" I said, "No, no, we're just going to go out. No, we'll go wherever she wants to go, whatever she's willing to pay for. I hope she's not cheap, cuz I want a steak." So, so yeah. So, I date her and if a guy looks at her or whatever, so what? So what? You know, I never thought about it. Our very, our second date, we went to a movie and we're there at the movie and we stand up and she says, "Oh, I know those guys over there." She walks all the way around this movie theater and walks up to these two guys and taps one on the shoulder. "Hi, how are you?" And I'm standing there kind of awkwardly. I don't know these fellas. So, I'm just kind of standing there and they, you know, guys are weird because the guys look at Marie and then they look up at me like I'm going to be mad. I don't care, you know, whatever. You know, and yeah, I'm fine. And so, we walk away. She was that way from the beginning. From the beginning. I never cared. So, and then one day after months, we're at a place. She walks away from me for a moment. And she comes walking back and there's a guy standing over here and he's looking at her and he's giving her that look like I'm interested. That look, man. You know that look. And you women know that look too because all of a sudden you go, you know, you know that look. And I saw it and I thought, "Hey, he's checking out Marie." Marie didn't notice. At least she pretended. Did you? And he watches her as he walks to me. And so when she walks up to me, I take her by the hand. I'm not a publicly affectionate man. I'm not. But I take her by the hand. I pull her and I gave her a kiss. Then I looked at him. That's mine. Actually, I didn't. He'd have torn me limb from limb. He was a big old dude. That's a mark of ownership. Is that jealousy? Is that sinful jealousy? No, it's ownership. It had moved from uh whatever to a, this is mine. Is it wrong? Every husband who loves his wife has an ownership and every woman who loves her husband has an ownership. Is it petty? No. It's part of love. It's also called commitment. It's also called a godly jealousy. That's what it is. It isn't bad in itself. Jealousy is bad when it's not founded in the proper foundation in a relationship.
God says, "I'm a holy God and I'm a jealous God." What are you saying? I gave my son for you. He poured every ounce of his blood out on a cross for you. He prayed for you. He prays for you. He died for you. And he bought you. You belong to me. You are mine. And I love you with every beat of my heart. And I will not tolerate you loving, saying you love me and loving Satan. I will not tolerate that. Are we stronger than he? No. God had commanded us to be completely his and to avoid idolatry. Exodus 25 verse 5. Exodus 20:5, "You shall not bow down to them or worship them. I the Lord your God am a jealous God." That propensity towards idolatry, that moving back to idolatry caused him to judge the nation. He does not let idolatry go unpunished, unpunished. And that's why Isaiah 42:8, God said, "I am the Lord. That is my name. My glory I will not give to another, nor my praise to graven images." Paul said, "You cannot worship God and the devil. You cannot participate in these sacrifices. You have to make a choice. And you are to avoid idolatry." Like 1 John 5:21 says, "Little children, keep yourselves from idols." And so we believers are not to have divided hearts. My love for my wife is 100%. It's 100%. There's no portion of my heart that doesn't belong to her outside of the wholeness of my love that goes to Jesus Christ first. Because when we were talking about marriage, I said to her this, Marie, I said, I want you to know something. Before there was Marie, there was Jesus. And even with Marie, there's Jesus. I can lose you, but I will never stop loving him. He is the foundation of everything we do. And she said the same to me. Our first love is the Lord. And our love for him has made us united in him. There is no room for an idol. There's only room and a throne for the one occupant and that's Jesus Christ.
Our Father, we ask that we would remember that because we live in a day of compromise and a lack of holiness and a lack of devotion. Lord, even your children can sometimes have two hearts. And Paul is saying very clearly, have nothing to do with divided hearts. Love God with all. And so Lord, we, as a, as a church, I, as a, a believer, I want to, I want to love you with all of my heart. And from that may love flow for, for others. And Lord, I just ask that we would listen to what your word says as it pertains to these kinds of things. Even as our eyes are closed, there may be some who, who know that you don't love the Lord with all of your heart and you need prayer because you want to be right with him. Or you may, you may have never even opened your heart to him and you say, you know, I want to worship the Lord. I, I want him in my life. I need to get away from the sin. I need to turn to him. I need to get away from the things that are really idols in my life, things that are taking up space that is really reserved for him. And I want to get away from that. I want to have my priorities in order. Whatever the case may be, if you have a desire to be right with the Lord, as our eyes are closed, our heads bowed, then I would encourage you. If you need prayer and want to be right with him, raise your hand. Let me pray for you right where you are at.
Father, you see these hands. You know the reason why they're being raised to you. Lord, in Jesus' name, I pray that you would reach down. Touch each person who's saying, "God, be merciful to me. I desire you, Lord." I pray that as they open up, they'll turn from anything that keeps them from you and will embrace you with all their heart. And Lord, I thank you because you have told us in your word that whoever comes to you, you will in no wise turn away. So as they confess and come to you, thank you, Lord. I pray that you would just welcome them now and may they sense from this moment on that they will pursue you. May they hunger for you, your word, fellowship. May they walk in your spirit, learn what that means. But even now, Lord, as they yield, I pray that you would bless them. And we thank you. You can put your hands down.
And Lord, I ask also that you would work in the lives of these who have a need, a physical need. Is if you have a need for the Lord to touch you. If you're asking, God, Lord, I've got a condition. Would you please heal me? If you have a desire to at least ask and prayerfully receive God's help in and maybe even healing and need that, would you raise your hand and let me pray for you? Lord, we do ask that you would work right now in, in each person whose hand is being raised. And we simply are asking and you are a God who heals. And so, Lord, I just ask that you would do that. And I, by faith, we would receive and we're simply asking and we pray that you would because it brings glory to you and we look forward to you touching us. Would you please in Jesus' name? Thank you, Lord. You can put your hands down.
Lord, I ask that you keep working in us in your name. Amen. Let's all stand. Amen. Let me share a couple of things and we'll close with a song. Um, you know, I'm gonna, I, I've said this before and I, I'm not doing it, but I just say it. Uh, I really ought to write these things down. Uh, I got, I, I talked to a, a doctor, a medical professional, a doctor at church on Sunday, just this Sunday, and uh, he said, you know, and this is what he said, and he didn't mean to say it this way, and I smiled when he said it, but he said this. He said, "You healed me on Wednesday, and I'm not a healer. God is a healer." So I smiled. I said, "Really?" And he is a doctor, a medical doctor. And he tells me the condition I have was some kind of a pituitary condition. And he, he went into it and I'm just smiling like, like, "Yeah, right. I don't know what you're, I don't know what you're talking about." But it's cool because he said, "God," he said, and he tells me what was happening with him, the whole nine yards. And he says, and I, he says, "I'm not affected by it." He says, 'I believe that God, what he said, you, I said, 'You know, the Lord is our healer and thank God because he heals.' Well, praise the Lord. Then I had a lady the week before who approached me. She was in stage 4 cancer. She said, "I was going to go into an operation for the removal of a couple of of cancerous nodes uh this upcoming week." She said, "I had to go in for a pre-op uh examination and they can't find anything." She said, "God healed me." You know what? That's why we just ask. I'm no healer. And I smile at that. I'm no healer, but I certainly believe that God heals.
And why not ask him? And I say that I tell you these things. So, so then it might increase your faith, that it might awaken you and say, "What? Well, Lord, how about me?" I think that's a good thing. How about me? I would like to be touched, you know. And so, Father, we bless you. We thank you for the work that you do. And I ask that you continue, Lord, to your glory. We've taken your word in. There are things that we need to examine within ourselves, but Lord, I ask that we would live for you more completely now than we ever have before. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. God bless you.
Walking into the night, wanting a place to hide this weary soul. This back and I try with all my might, but I just can't win the fight. I'm slowly drifting, a bag of just when I ran out of the road, I met a man I didn't know. He told me that I was not. He picked me up. He turned me around. He placed my feet on solid ground. I thank the master. I thank the savior because of you, my heart. You changed my name. Forever free. I'm not the same. I thank the master. I thank the savior. I thank God. I cannot deny what I see. Got no choice but to believe. My doubts are burning like ashes in the wind. So long to my, my burning bitterness. You can't just keep them moving. No, they don't welcome me. I feel, I feel you see my soul. You picked me up. You turned me around. My feet. I thank, I thank the savior because of you, my heart. You changed my name. Forever free. I'm not the same. I thank my savior. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Solid ground. I thank the master. I changed my free. I that get out of that. Hallelujah.
Lord, would you fill us with your spirit, Lord, and go before us for your glory this week in Jesus' name? We all said, "Amen." Family, God bless you. If you need prayer tonight, come on up front. Leaders are going to be here to pray with you right now. We'll see you this weekend, family.