The 1st Commandment

“You shall have no other gods before me.” Ex.20:3
Man is made to worship…the question is what do we worship? God put this commandment first because all others stand or fall under it.

There are many idols in this world and yet there is but one true living God.
“Therefore, as to the eating of food offered to idols, we know that “an idol has no real existence,” and that “there is no God but one.” For although there may be so-called gods in heaven or on earth—as indeed there are many “gods” and many “lords” yet for us there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things and for whom we exist, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things and through whom we exist.” 1Cor. 8:4-6
Do you worship a god, or the one and only God?
The biggest idol ever worshiped, and it’s worshiped by all, is the idol of "I" (noticed how “idol” begins with “I”). All other idols are an expression of self.

1 John 2:15-17 –“For all that is in the world -- the desires of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and pride of life—is not from the Father but is from the world.” This is the trinity of the god “self”, which are categorized in the following.
The three “P” gods-

• Pleasure – “the desires of the flesh”. James 1:13-15 tells us that we are not tempted by others, or God, but by our own lusts. We become addicted to sin, we are controlled by it. We worship it, it’s our god, our life, our everything, it’s us.
• Position- “pride of life”. Today everything is about self-esteem, and becoming someone. Just watch any show on the Disney channel, and you will learn all about loving yourself. Later that accumulates into having a great career, being a big hot shot…all we want is position! Eve, when she ate the forbidden fruit, wanted to be equal, the serpent knew that he could win her using that argument, she wanted position. But the first step towards salvation is to be humble, to realize who you are compared to God. James 4:1-6 says that “God opposes the proud”. Position is indeed a god.
• Possession- “lust of the eyes”. Our world is covered in materialism; we all fall into this trap. Then this trap will lead us to covenanting, we’ll want what we don’t own. Matt. 6:24 shows us that we cannot serve God and money. But people today will worship their business, so that they can make more to buy more. If getting is your god, then you will never get enough.

We need to remember what Paul said in Phil.1:21- “For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain.” We all need to stop worshiping our idol of self and make Christ our life, our all in all.

-Kenny Anderson
(my notes from his sermon)