Question for you? What or who would you consider your most valuable asset, commodity, person in your life? Don’t think about it, don't mull over it, but write down or say the first thing that comes to mind. Be honest now, because the God who sees hearts, and knows unthought of thoughts already knows your true response. This isn’t a trick question but it is an honest assessment of where we are spiritually. We never have to think hard about the answer because your heart already knows your answer. How can I say that, you may be asking? Well I’ll let Jesus respond to your question.
“Wherever your treasure is, there the desires of your heart will also be.”
Matthew 6:21 NLT
Wherever your treasure is…where is your treasure? Who or what are you willing to lay your life down for? Or let me ask the question another way. Who or what are you willing to go to HELL for? What or who drives your decisions or passions? When you wake up in the morning or before falling asleep at night, what are your first and last thoughts about? Is it your job, family, spouse, bank accounts or lack thereof, desire for a mate, desire for a child, your earthly possessions, health? What consumes your life? None of the things I mentioned are bad in and of themselves, but if they become the source from which you draw or make decisions, be careful that they don’t become idols in your life.
An idol is anything that takes center stage in your life. You may not think you’re worshipping it or them, but God sees it very differently. He and He alone is to be our Source for everything. Since all things come from Him, we never want to make the resources He has given us the source for our lives.
“because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.”
Romans 1:25 ESV
That word creature actually means created thing or a resource. What helps us put things in its proper perspective? Recognizing God for who He is and having a heart of gratitude. That’s why I never understood atheism. Even if they believe that they evolved, they had to have evolved from something. They may not want to acknowledge Him as God. But unless they created themselves, someone or something (I’m being facetious) got them here. If it all came from the Big Bang, and they weren’t yet banged, where did they come from? Their momma must be a fictional character. As a society, we make light of that which is weighty. The Word of God carries the full weight of its Author. So they can pretend all they want, but God said this about them in the same scripture I just quoted.
“For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For His invisible attributes, namely, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. For although they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks to Him , but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.“ Romans 1:18-23 ESV
He also said this: At the Name of Jesus Every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord! Bow now or bow later. But bow you will! Atheist knee, agnostic knee, Hindu knee, Islam knee, Buddhist knee, did I miss a knee? They will all bow to the Source of life. This won’t be a suggestion, this ain’t taking a knee, this is a command! Philippians 2:9-11. Please read those verses.
When you don’t want to be accountable to God’s laws you’ll find a religion that helps you live without or go against the healthy boundaries given you by your Creator called conscience. Yes atheism is its own religion, it's agnosticism. God says, what needs to be known of Him is in plain view. Just look in the mirror or look around you. When we become our own judge of what is right or wrong, the masters of our own fate, relying on our own strength and ability or of others, we have in fact placed the resources in the place of Creator God. And we all know that has never turned out well. Oh, on the surface it may seem like we’re driving our lives. But The Source of all things, visible and invisible says, not so fast.
“Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done. They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless. Though they know God’s righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them.”
Romans 1:24, 28-32 ESV
Who gave them up? Who gave them up? The Source. We may think we’re large and in charge but no matter what lie we tell ourselves we’re not. When the Source gives us up, He allows Satan to wreak havoc in the lives of those who worship the resource rather than the Source from which all things flow. Your health, your family, your job, your money, your next breath. The Bible says this;
“The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, nor is He served by human hands, as though He needed anything, since He Himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything. And He made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, that they should seek God, and perhaps feel their way toward Him and find Him. Yet He is actually not far from each one of us, for “‘In Him we live and move and have our being’; as even some of your own poets have said, “‘For we are indeed His offspring.’ Being then God’s offspring, we ought not to think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and imagination of man. The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now He commands all people everywhere to repent, because He has fixed a day on which He will judge the world in righteousness by a Man whom He has appointed; and of this He has given assurance to all by raising Him from the dead.”
Acts 17:24-31 ESV
Now we come to the heart of the matter. God has but one Source. And He sent Him to us, the only Source through which the whole world could be reconciled to Him. The Lord Jesus Christ. I don’t care what your answer was to my opening question. If Jesus wasn’t your first response and you are a Christian, I invite you to get born again again. There is no other person in heaven or earth who should mean or worth more to you than Jesus. Absolutely no one! I asked who or what are you willing to go to hell for. Who would you deny Jesus for? Whenever you deny the truth of God’s Word to make up your own truth, you’ve denied Jesus. You may not like what you read, but it doesn’t change the fact that it’s His Word. It has been given to us to show us who He is and what He expects of us. It’s His way or the highway. No inbetween no compromise.
He is the Source and He will not share His glory with mortals or created things. He’s the source and the resource. For without Him nothing exists. Isaiah 42:8
“All things were made through Him, and without Him was not any thing made that was made.”
John 1:3 ESV
So who’s your Source? Where is your treasure? If it’s not Jesus Christ the Son of the Living God, then I’m here to tell you that you’re on your way to a Godless hell. A place where the worms don’t die as the fire is never quenched. Mark 9:48. Sounds harsh? I didn’t say it, the Source did. We are living in precarious times. This is not the time to pacify sin and make folks feel comfortable in their disobedience. The religious church asked John the Baptist who he was. This was his response using the words of Isaiah the prophet. “ I am the voice of one crying or (shouting out) in the wilderness (world) prepare the way for the Lord.” John 1:23 Don’t get it twisted. The things you have been blessed with can never be your source. Jesus, God’s Son, He was, He is, and forever will be THE SOURCE of and for all things! To Him be all glory, dominion, authority and power forever. Amen.
Written by permission of the Holy Spirit
W. Tennant
July 15, 2021