Checking in on the No Other Gods study <3
As I have mentioned, for this summer’s No Other Gods study, I am using my original study guide from 2016.
It is interesting and poignant to read the words I penned in the margins and how I answered the questions.
There has been growth and change in some areas, some remain unchanged but I can rejoice to know that what God revealed has not been covered back over again.
He and I have moved forward, not backward. He has waited for me to my part as He faithfully has done His.
We have farther to go, He and I…but it’s a Journey…remember.
On Day 4 of Session 4 I noted that our Pastor Brian had returned from sabbatical on July 31, 2016.
Isn’t it interesting that I did this study about the same time of year in 2016 as I am doing now?
Brian came back from sabbatical, walked into the pulpit and God led him to talk to us about ….
functional idols.
Yep.
He called our “more than God god’s” just the new term I had learned in the study while he was sabaticalizing…FUNCTIONAL GODS
Idols are functional gods because they are what we have turned to that “work” for us and meet our perceived needs without having to really change or face our sin nature.
So this morning I am sharing the notes that rest in the margin of my study guide.
From Brian Talty, God Thoughts: Faith in God’s Faithfulness, July 31, 2016 First Christian Church
“Put your faith in God’s faithfulness: take this faith ‘test'”
FUTURE: Is your faith in God or in anxiety and worry? When we choose to remain in anxiety we have made a “functional god or idol” to place our ‘trust’s.
PRESENT: Is your faith in God or in anger and bitterness? When we choose anger and bitterness, we map THAT onto our present and make it a functional idol because our identity has become challenged. Don’t be imprisoned behind bars of anger and bitterness over a current situation but place faith in God’s faithfulness.
PAST: Do you place your trust in who you know God to be? Or do you place your “trust” in the guilt and shame of your past mistakes? Guilt and shame are idolatry projected on the past. Jesus died to FREE us from guilt and shame and we know this because of Romans 8:1-2
Brian Talty (paraphrased from his sermon to my notes)
With the arrival of Jesus, the Messiah, that fateful dilemma is resolved. Those who enter into Christ’s being-here-for-us no longer have to live under a continuous, low-lying black cloud. A new power is in operation. The Spirit of life in Christ, like a strong wind, has magnificently cleared the air, freeing you from a fated lifetime of brutal tyranny at the hands of sin and death. Romans 8:1-2 The Message
So there you have it…straight from a three year old sermon and the promises of the New Testament all based on the truth from the One True God.
Idolatry stinks.
That’s why God wants us free from it.
Be blessed as you progress <3
You can find the sermon I am referencing here: https://www.firstdecatur.org/messages/god-thoughts/