12-03-26 – ‘True Worship: Keeping Ourselves from Idols’

In this message from the True Worship sermon series on the Midweek Church Service, Reverend Hayley Ace teaches that true worship requires God to have the first place in the believer’s life. She warns against reducing our relationship with God to a series of requests, as though He were a genie or a provider of blessings, rather than the Lord who deserves wholehearted devotion.

Drawing on passages such as Ezekiel 14, Colossians 3:5, Matthew 15:8, and 1 John 5:21, the message explains that idolatry is not limited to physical idols but often begins in the heart. Desires, priorities, sins, and attachments can quietly take the place that belongs to God alone. Reverend Hayley encourages believers to examine their lives honestly, asking the Lord to reveal anything that has become an idol.

Reverend Tim Gutmann reinforces the message by reflecting on Israel’s history, noting that the nation was strongest when it remained faithful to Yahweh but became vulnerable whenever idols were allowed in. The message concludes with a call to reconsecrate our lives to Christ, remove anything that competes with Him, and restore God to the central place in our hearts.

Viewers can watch the full Midweek Church Service live every Thursday at 7pm on Revelation TV.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:11

I um I always say to our kids, you know, God, the God that we worship, is not Santa Claus. He is not the genie in the bottle. He is not this um thing that exists in the world. So whenever you have problems, you that's the only time you turn to him, or you just have a relationship that's very much like a cash machine. Um, I need this, give me that. And I feel that sometimes we can, in our Christian walk or in our faith walk, we can put God into this box of our communication with him is very much in the morning, um, give me a nice day, give me this thank you, you know, all with a nice pleas and thank yous. And at the end of the day, um, give me a good dream, give me this, help me at work. Which, first of all, doing that is no problem. But if that is all we do as believers, uh, this is a problem, you know, because then all we're doing is we're treating God like He is like the genie in the bottle or Santa Claus that is just exist to serve us, make us successful, do everything for us. There is nothing that we could give God that he doesn't already own, doesn't already have. Even this idea that when you will read through scriptures, and some people have said to me in the past, you know, God seems like he just is desperate for this worship, like he's narcissistic. And that's not it at all. Whether you worship him or not, he is still glorious, he is still the king of the universe, he is still the creator, we are his creation, and all we can ever do is worship him in spirit and truth. Idolatry is such a big thing, isn't it, my love for the Lord? It's such a big thing. And if I can liken it to a marriage, our relationship with God, if I always came to my husband, and our only communication was me speaking talking at him, asking him for things, and then that was it, that is not a relationship. We would not be as happy and as as back and forth as we are.

SPEAKER_02 2:27

That's right.

SPEAKER_00 2:28

And it works because we communicate with each other, it is uh a two-way relationship, and it's not just honour in our communication verbal, it's how we conduct our lives. Like I am faithful to my husband, he is faithful to me, and it's the same with God. The reason why it's such a big deal to him, idolatry, and why it can even like prevent us from worshiping him better, is because if there is anything else in the place that he should have, and he needs to be number one, all of our priorities upside down. And I just want to open with this. We often um will see this idolatry situation. I don't know about you, my love, but when you think about idolatry, you always think about a lot of people say, well, you know, Israel, they uh bowed down to the golden calf, or you imagine idolatry is like bowing down to a statue. But this isn't actually the point that God was making. And in Ezekiel, I think he just lays it out very clearly through the prophet Ezekiel in Ezekiel chapter 14, and he says this Son of Man, these men have taken their idols into their hearts and set the stumbling block of their iniquity before their faces. Should I indeed let myself be consulted by them? This is the Lord speaking, which is the next. Therefore, speak to them and say this to them. Thus says the Lord God. Remember when you see the Lord, it's Yahweh. Anyone of the house of Israel who takes his idols into his heart and sets the stumbling block of his iniquity before his face, and yet comes to the prophet, I the Lord will answer him. As he comes with the multitude of his idols, that I may lay hold of the hearts of the house of Israel, who are all estrained from me through their idols. And now, as we're reading this, we're taking it as we're looking at this scripture through the unchangeable God and how he relates to us. It's actually the condition of our heart. He doesn't just look at our outside, we might say all sorts of nice things to other people, we might act a certain Christian way when we go out and about. Um, but actually, if the condition of our heart is far away from him, then we are not able to fully worship him. What do you think, my love, about that?

SPEAKER_02 5:05

Idols and um you know what? Actually, I was just thinking earlier as you were speaking, yeah. The whole we we did a series on lessons from Israel's wandering in the wilderness.

SPEAKER_00 5:14

Exactly.

SPEAKER_02 5:15

But the whole of Israel is a lesson for us as well because this was a land, this was God's inheritance. It was a piece of land and a people, both God's inheritance. Now they were surrounded by nations and idols. Yeah. They were surrounded by enemies and demons, and they were constantly wanting to attack Israel, but they were safe as long as they were connected to Yahweh. Exactly. As long as they were worshiping. Their biggest danger for Israel, and the times when they were invaded, was when they allowed idols in themselves. Now, what a powerful message for the church.

SPEAKER_00 5:44

Absolutely. So let's look at Colossians 3, 5 and see what idolatry is defined as in some ways. Put to death, therefore, what is earthly in you sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. See, people don't think that if they're sexually immoral or covetous, people don't think of that as idolatry.

SPEAKER_02 6:10

It's huge, isn't it?

SPEAKER_00 6:11

It's huge. It's the same as people will may judge other brothers and sisters in the faith for having a divorce or going through some problems, but then they have no problem gossiping, have no problem slandering somebody, have no problem having evil desires in their heart towards another person and hatred. And so this is what I feel the Lord wants us to get rid of out of our lives. Any any room for idolatry, and I love what Matthew 15 verse 8 says, and this just ties into what I was just saying. It talks about this. This and these people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. These people honor me with their lips. How many times have we all honoured God with our lips, but then our hearts have been far from Him? How many times have we said, you know, I'm a worshiper in church, and then have spent the whole entire week gossiping, slandering, coveting, putting earthly desires as the number one thing? And I know this doesn't may not seem like a really like upbeat, you know, life life inspirational message, but like sin is important to God in terms of getting it out of our lives so that we can step into more of his presence, so we can even step into his presence, get rid of idolatry so that we can inquire of the Lord, it is important. And so, um, as 1 John 5 21 says, He just says, put all and any idolatry away. Little children, keep yourselves from idols. My encouragement is to us all is to remember and not think that we're above having idolatry in our lives. Um, anything can be idols, sometimes even relationships, you know, your children. How do you know what idolatry you've got in your life? Is where do you spend most of your time thinking about? Um, what do you spend most of your time doing? And where is your heart? Is your heart to want to please the Lord? Is your is your heart to want to follow what the God of Israel wrote in this book that he gave us, the Word of God and through Jesus, who did not come to replace, but came to. Do you want to finish my sentence?

SPEAKER_02 8:49

To include and bring in and uh uh re-inherit, to bring the nations unto him, because he's the king of all nations.

SPEAKER_00 8:57

That's right.

SPEAKER_02 8:58

Salvation for all man.

SPEAKER_00 9:00

Yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_02 9:00

That's such a wonderful word, thank you.

SPEAKER_00 9:02

Thank you, my love.

SPEAKER_02 9:03

And yeah, sorry.

SPEAKER_00 9:04

Yeah, no, I was so I so really from our perspective, I just that's been on my heart all week. To really encourage us, in order for us to be able to truly worship in spirit and in truth, we need to have no place where we've got idols in our life, that we're putting our priorities out of order. God should always be number one. And I encourage us all to spend time actually with the Lord and say, search me, O Lord, search me if there is any offence in me, if there is any idolatry in me, if things need to be reordered, please help me and show me so I can change. And I think our goal is always to become more like Jesus.

SPEAKER_02 9:44

That's so, so, so good.

SPEAKER_00 9:47

Can you pray for everyone, my love?

SPEAKER_02 9:49

Actually, Haley just brought a word, and it's about having no idols. And sometimes it's good to take stock in our life. Just to look inside. And she also quoted from Psalm 139, by the way, search me, O Lord, look in my heart, see if there's any offensive way, see if there's any anxious thoughts. Sometimes we need to do that. It's good, it's a good thing to do, to reconsecrate, if you like, reconsecrate ourselves and say, Lord, I want nothing before you. I want no idols. Jesus, I want you to have the center place because he is our savior, and his grace redeems and restores and saves, which is wonderful, but he's also our Lord and He's He lovingly takes us by the hand and leads us, and sometimes we just need to say, Lord, anything else in my life, I want nothing before you. Why don't we do that now? Because this is such an important thing to do, and it's such an important message. As I said, when Israel was close to Yahweh, they were impenetrable, they were unbeatable, they were mighty. And in fact, their enemies weren't any threat to them. Because that's what God is. He is our shield, he is our reward, he trains us for war, prayer, worship. He he surrounds us, he goes before us, he's so good, he carries us. Think of that picture of the shepherd with the lamb around his shoulders. But it's when Israel turned from the Lord in disloyalty or with idols and brought idols in. That's when they were vulnerable to attack, that's when vulnerable to invasion, the walls were broken down. We don't want that in any of our lives. We don't want any defensivelessness, defensive uh any of our defenses down so the enemy can attack in any way. We want Christ to take the center place, Jesus. Why don't you just maybe just think about that in your own life for just the next 30 seconds or so? This is between you and the Lord now. Just search your heart. Ask the Lord to search your heart, bring to mind anything, and then we're gonna pray together.

SPEAKER_00 11:49

Yeah. Yes.

SPEAKER_02 11:51

For the next couple of seconds.

SPEAKER_00 11:54

Thank you, Lord, that we can trust in you, that you have our best intentions like a good father. I pray for everyone who has tuned in tonight. May they feel you nearly and dearly in their hearts as you speak to them and they have a moment to actually talk, not just a one-way street. We thank you for that. Thank you for the work that you are doing in your people, in your church, in your nation, Israel, uh, today. And we ask for blessing over our brothers and sisters who have who have um tuned in this evening. In Jesus' name, we pray for blessing. Amen.

SPEAKER_02 12:46

I think we should pray as well if you've never asked Jesus into your life, or maybe you asked him a long time ago, and you know that you've gone away from God's plan for your life and you need to reconsecrate yourself. Or if you've for the first time, or you're coming back to Jesus, because you know what I mean by this when I say backslidden. Why don't you say this prayer with me in your heart? Father, I thank you that you love me so much that the Bible says you love the world so much you gave your only begotten Son. Jesus, I thank you that you came and died on the cross for me. That Lord, you willingly, in fact, your word says for the joy set before you, you endured the cross. I received now that gift. That that was what gave you joy, my salvation. I choose to make you my savior, but also my Lord and King. I repent when I've lived life my way, I've chased idols, and I've turned my back on you. I want to come home now to you, Lord.

SPEAKER_01 13:55

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 13:55

Help me through your Holy Spirit to live for you in Jesus' name. Amen.