When Your Defining Moment Comes... What Does It Say About You?
A True Picture of Idolatry
Idolatry begins with a heart that forgets or forsakes God!
Deuteronomy 8:3
Deuteronomy 8:3 ESV
And he humbled you and let you hunger and fed you with manna, which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that he might make you know that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord.
Deuteronomy 8:19
Deuteronomy 8:19 ESV
And if you forget the Lord your God and go after other gods and serve them and worship them, I solemnly warn you today that you shall surely perish.
Exodus 20:3-4
Exodus 20:3-4 ESV
"You shall have no other gods before me. "You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.
2 Corinthians 6:15-16
2 Corinthians 6:15-16 ESV
What accord has Christ with Belial? Or what portion does a believer share with an unbeliever? What agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God; as God said, "I will make my dwelling among them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.
1 Kings 18:21
1 Kings 18:21 ESV
And Elijah came near to all the people and said, "How long will you go limping between two different opinions? If the Lord is God, follow him; but if Baal, then follow him." And the people did not answer him a word.
Galatians 5:19-20
Galatians 5:19-20 ESV
Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions,
Isaiah 45:20
Isaiah 45:20 ESV
"Assemble yourselves and come; draw near together, you survivors of the nations! They have no knowledge who carry about their wooden idols, and keep on praying to a god that cannot save.
Habakkuk 2:18
Habakkuk 2:18 ESV
"What profit is an idol when its maker has shaped it, a metal image, a teacher of lies? For its maker trusts in his own creation when he makes speechless idols!
Galatians 4:8
Galatians 4:8 ESV
Formerly, when you did not know God, you were enslaved to those that by nature are not gods.
Ephesians 5:5
Ephesians 5:5 ESV
For you may be sure of this, that everyone who is sexually immoral or impure, or who is covetous (that is, an idolater), has no inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God.
Revelation 22:15
Revelation 22:15 ESV
Outside are the dogs and sorcerers and the sexually immoral and murderers and idolaters, and everyone who loves and practices falsehood.
Defining Moments Reveal the true Heart
This episode in the life of Elijah reveals three responses people have toward God and the accompanying results.
A callused heart
Ahab - Ahab’s reaction reveals the dreadful progress of a hard heart.
The Performers
They perform in public to get included in the group of the godly in the eyes of the world.
The Afraid
They live like the world for fear of what friends might think of them and then attempt to live for God for fear of what God might see in them.
Revelation 3:15-16
Revelation 3:15-16 ESV
"'I know your works: you are neither cold nor hot. Would that you were either cold or hot! So, because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth.
A Wholly Devoted heart
Elijah - Real confidence and courage comes from a life lived completely surrendered to God and fully committed to His will.
Ezekiel 14:1-6
Ezekiel 14:1-6 ESV
Then certain of the elders of Israel came to me and sat before me. And the word of the Lord came to me: "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? Therefore speak to them and say to them, Thus says the Lord God: Any one 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 estranged from me through their idols. "Therefore say to the house of Israel, Thus says the Lord God: Repent and turn away from your idols, and turn away your faces from all your abominations.