Break To Pieces All Our Images

Text:  “Now when all this was finished, all Israel that were present went out to the cities of Judah, and brake the images in pieces, and cut down the groves, and threw down the high places and the altars out of all Judah and Benjamin, in Ephraim also and Manasseh, until they had utterly destroyed them all.”—2 Chronicles 31:1.

Often we come into the house of God only to forget the presence of God we just felt and the message we just heard and the anointing and miracles we just received.  It is sad when we think we have done what we should do just by coming to church, only to leave the service unchanged, unmoved, unstirred, unconcerned for the souls around us.

We must never forget that the preaching of the gospel is sowing for the harvest…that is why we can say with faith that we can literally preach a harvest into existence….it is a slow process…but that is the way it works!

The structure must be built stone by stone through daily practice until the last stone is placed on the top with shouting and gladness.

There was a Scotch woman who came home from church service a bit earlier than usual.   When she walked through the door, her unsaved husband said to her…”Is the sermon all done?”No, Donald,” She said, “it is all spoken, but it is only beginning to be done!”

That woman had a wisdom that we too often forget…the sermon (I prefer message)  takes on its real effect when it is woven into our daily lives….if a sermon can’t rearrange your schedule, either the sermon isn’t powerful enough, or it didn’t take in the soul of the person who heard it!

A holy life should be the result of our devout worship….we must worship our way into the kingdom of Heaven!

I. To begin then, the true result of all our gatherings should be, in the first place, to BREAK TO PIECES ALL OUR IMAGES. “Thou shalt have none other gods before me.” Every place is before God. Everything is before his face and open to him. Therefore by this command we understand that we are in no way, and in no sense to have another god, but the Lord our God,  who is Jesus Christ.

We might be tempted to think that idols only are worshipped in the heart of Africa somewhere, but I want to tell you that North America has its share of Idol worship that must be broken to pieces….let me share with you a few:

Self righteousness:  The Pharisees were the high priests of this god.  They burn incense every morning and evening to the god of self righteousness.  Your great moralists worshipped at the feet of this god.  You even find non-moral people who bow down and worship this false god.  There have been people who felt that they would be saved based upon what good they did and what evil they did not do.  The problem with this thinking is that it totally avoids the life of Jesus Christ, His ministry, the cross, burial, resurrection, and the new birth at Pentecost.  Outside of that pattern of the gospel…there is no salvation.

You must come to God on His terms and say, “Lord, I confess to you that I have no good works in which to trust…I have no self righteousness in which to boast in and rely…I simply come to you as a poor, guilty, helpless sinner.

(Example of man who called himself evil and claimed to be suicidal yet thinking that by doing good that he could somehow gain favor with God…..there is only one way….The Cross, The Cross, The Cross!  All of our efforts will come to nothing.

Another god that needs to be destroyed in the Christians life is the god of lust and greed:  it is a god that finds itself welcome in many professing Christians lives…. But it should not find any place in our lives whatsoever.

Another huge god that has its roots in the good ol’ USA is the god of business….many get caught up in putting business before the Spirit…..this is a shame because the spirit of this god strangles out the love of God if it is allowed to rule…its throne must be cast down.