by Marcia Vogl - December 18, 2020

Teaching Notes

December 18, 2020 - Online Workshop

Worship is the issue here.  We were created with the innate ability to worship to connect us with God. not someone or something else. Whatever is the center of our lives is what we worship.  You give power in your life to whatever you worship.  Idols only have the power we give them. 

Because we have the power of free will, we can decide who or what we will worship.

(Exodus 20) Four out of the Ten Commandments address worship and the danger of idols.

1. You shall have no other gods before me.
2. 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. You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God.
   Jealous means God wants you to himself.  He does not want to share you with any other god. God wants you for himself not because he is selfish, it’s because he knows if your attention is toward another god, He cannot bless you to the fullest he has to offer. You might give the other god the credit and worship him.
3. You shall not misuse the name of the Lord your God, for the Lord will not hold anyone guiltless who misuses his name. Misuse His name: The names of God tells us his character. He is the I AM who can be all things to us. If you make someone else or thing your provider, you have misused His Name.
4. Observe the Sabbath day by keeping it holy, as the Lord your God has commanded you. …Therefore the Lord your God has commanded you to observe the Sabbath day. God wants you to rest and enjoy his presence.

Since God is the creator, everything else is lower as a created being, even ourselves.

1. Hard Idolatry:  Buddha, Allah, Krishna, Hindu gods, or any idol that people worship.  Mary Mother of God, St. John, St Christopher, etc to whom prayers are directed.
2. Substituted Idolatry:  Any person we believe we cannot live without: husband, child, father, mother, boss, boyfriend, etc.  Those become idols.
3. Soft Idolatry:  Any thing that we believe our lives depend:  money, fame, education, drugs, medicine, stock market, promotion, etc.
4. Self-idolatry:  When we believe we can be our own god.

Idols take, God gives.

1. Idols will drive you to do more, to make its reality live.
   1. I’m not good enough.
   2. I can do better.
   3. I have to have something to give.
   4. I have to keep my idol happy.
2. Idols live on lies that drive you to accomplish or push beyond your capability in the flesh. You become its slave.
   1. You must be successful.
   2. You cannot fail. (you live in fear of failure, mistakes, and will do anything to be deemed a success.  Compromise your integrity or health, or relationships.)
   3. Everybody has to like me> You are afraid to make friends. Compromise your values so that people will like you.  Get ulcers if you perceive someone does not approve of you.  Live in fear.
3. Idols obscure your vision of God.
   1. I have to work for or earn everything God gives.
   2. God does things for others but not me.

Let God be God.

1. God is already happy. You don’t have to make him happy. He wants to make you
2. He asks that you live in obedience according to His laws, not make your own laws.
3. He wants to give to you, not take from you.
4. He already loves you.  You don’t have to make him love you.
5. He wants to make you successful with His power to reach your destiny.
6. He wants to show himself to you clearly.
7. Rest is a sign He is Lord.  You don’t have to work endlessly.