American Idols - Isaiah 2:8-9,11

"Their land is full of idols; they bow down to the work of their hands, to what their fingers have made. So humanity is brought low and man is humbled...Human pride will be humbled and the loftiness of man will be brought low; the Lord alone will be exalted on that day."

We tend to think that idolatry is an Old Testament phenomenon.

Long ago, unenlightened people made little figurines from wood or stone or they built altars in the woods or on mountaintops. To us, that's idolatry.

We think we're more sophisticated today, so idolatry isn't a big problem like it was in the Old Testament.

However, it's not that idolatry isn't as prevalent today as in the Old Testament. It's just that our idolatry manifests itself differently. It's more sophisticated like we presume to be.

The Secret Disciple - Luke 23:50-52

"There was a good and righteous man named Joseph, a member of the Sanhedrin, who had not agreed with their plan and action. He was from Arimathea, a Judean town, and was looking forward to the kingdom of God. He approached Pilate and asked for Jesus’ body."

Joseph of Arimathea was apparently a member of the Sanhedrin and a man of wealth. He was a good and righteous man so he had disagreed with the injustice of the Sanhedrin's decision to execute Jesus.

Now Joseph was a secret disciple according to the Apostle John: "After this, Joseph of Arimathea, who was a disciple of Jesus—but secretly because of his fear of the Jews—asked Pilate that he might remove Jesus’ body" (John 19:38).

But you can't remain a secret disciple of Jesus for long.

Relentless - Luke 18:35-43

"Jesus stopped and commanded that he be brought to Him. when he drew near, He asked him, 'What do you want Me to do for you?' 'Lord,' he said, 'I want to see!'"(vs. 40).

We're all familiar with the old saying, "The squeaky wheel gets the grease." Well, that's sort of what happens in this story.

As Jesus drew near to Jericho, a blind man was sitting by the road begging. In his gospel, Mark said the blind beggar's name was Bartimeaus and in Matthew's version there were actually two blind men by the side of the road.

Upon hearing that Jesus the Nazarene was passing by, the blind man cried out, "Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me" (vs. 38).

The Best of the Worst - Luke 18:14

"Everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted."

Jesus told His disciples a story about how some people trust in themselves for their righteousness--that is, they are self-righteous--and in so doing, they look down on everyone else.

In the story that Jesus told, a Pharisee and a tax collector went to the Temple to pray.

Tax collectors were Jews who collected taxes from the Jewish citizenry levied by the the Roman government. Therefore, they were turncoats, sellouts, traitors.

Undoubtedly, some tax collectors used their position and authority to deal unscrupulously with their Jewish brothers and padded their own pockets.

Pharisees were learned practitioners of the Jewish law and, likely, were extremely loyal to Jewish culture and tradition.

So the contrast between the two men entering the Temple could not have been keener and was certainly clear to those hearing the story.

Tragic Song or Hymn of Hope - Deuteronomy 32:36

"The Lord will indeed vindicate His people and have compassion on His servants when He sees that their strength is gone."

Deuteronomy 32 is called the Song of Moses. It is a song that was intended to warn Israel through the ages of the consequences of apostasy and disobedience to God.

Sadly, Israel's future behavior mirrored her past and the Song became forever a constant reminder of Israel's disobedience, sin, and rebellion even though they were God's chosen people: "But the Lord's portion is His people, Jacob, His own inheritance" (vs. 9).

The Song of Moses sounds like an aria from a tragic opera. The Song recounts how God made Israel His people and blessed them and yet they rebelled and turned away from God.

Holy Slavery - Luke 17:5-10

"When you have done all that you were commanded, you should say, 'We are good-for-nothing slaves; we've only done our duty.'" (vs. 10)

Slavery in the first century Roman world was much different from slavery in early American history. Roman slaves were either taken as the spoils of war or were slaves because they sold themselves into slavery, called bond-servants.

Slaves could marry, accumulate wealth, purchase their own freedom, run a business, and engage in many other normal activities. As much as two-thirds of the Roman empire in the first century may have been slaves.

In this parable, Jesus used the practice of slavery to make a point about our faith and duty to God. It doesn't mean that Jesus endorsed slavery; it only means that since it was a common practice that people knew and understood, it was, therefore, useful as metaphorical material for Jesus to articulate the message of the Kingdom of God.

Prayer Changes Me - Jonah 2:1-2

"Jonah prayed to the Lord his God from inside the fish: I called to the Lord in my distress, and He answered me."

You probably have a quiet, peaceful place where you like to go to pray.

Jonah's place wasn't quiet or peaceful. He tried to run from God and ended up being thrown overboard from a ship into the ocean and swallowed by a large fish.

Some say it was a whale.

Yet, God still heard him from inside the fish.

And answered Jonah's prayer!

The problem with Jonah was not that he needed God to hear him. Jonah needed to follow God's will.

And that's what prayer can do.

Doing Right Things Wrong - Luke 11:42

"But woe to you Pharisees! You give a tenth of mint, rue, and every kind of herb, and you bypass justice and love for God. These things you should have done without neglecting the others. Woe to you Pharisees! You love the front seat in the synagogues and greetings in the marketplaces. Woe to you! You are like unmarked graves; the people who walk over them don’t know it."

Jesus was invited to the home of a Pharisee to dine with him. Presumably several scribes and Pharisees were also present at the dinner.

Soon after they sat down to eat Jesus pronounced three "woes" on the Pharisees. Maybe insulting your dinner host was not the most polite thing for a guest to do, but Jesus just couldn't keep quiet about hypocrisy.

In the first woe pronounced by Jesus on the Pharisees, He recognized that they tithed on everything down to the smallest detail. Yet, in their zeal to obey the letter of the law they disregarded the spirit of the law. They did not practice justice and love for God.

They couldn't see the forest for the trees!

Fascinated - Luke 10:20

"However, don't rejoice that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven." 

After Jesus had commissioned and sent out the twelve disciples to proclaim the Kingdom of God, He sent out seventy other of His disciples. They were to go ahead of Him in pairs to every town where He was about to go and heal the sick and proclaim the Kingdom of God was near.

When the seventy returned to Jesus they were filled with excitement because they were able to cast out demons in Jesus's name.

Jesus commended the seventy by quoting a prophetic verse from Ezekiel in reference to their deliverance ministry: "I watched Satan fall from heaven like a lightning flash" (vs. 18). This verse from Ezekiel spoke of God's initial judgment against Satan after he rebelled against God. Jesus seemed to assign it a further fulfillment in the deliverance ministry of the seventy.

Then Jesus warned them not to rejoice because they were empowered to cast out evil spirits but because their names were written in heaven in he book of life!

Establishing the Sacred in Your Life - Deuteronomy 12:8-11

"You are not to do as we are doing here today; everyone is doing whatever seems right in his own eyes. Indeed, you have not yet come into the resting place and the inheritance the Lord your God is giving you. When you cross the Jordan and live in the land the Lord your God is giving you to inherit, and He gives you rest from all the enemies around you and you live in security, then Yahweh your God will choose the place to have His name dwell. Bring there everything I command you: your burnt offerings, sacrifices, offerings of the tenth, personal contributions, and all your choice offerings you vow to the Lord."

Beginning in Chapter 12 in Deuteronomy and for about the next 10 chapters a series of laws and statutes are given by Moses during his second address to the Israelites. In this chapter Moses specifically addresses the chosen place for the Israelites to worship.

Moses told the Israelites that when they entered the promised land, they could not offer sacrifices to God from anywhere, but they were only to worship God from the place that He would choose.

The first permanent central place of worship after the Israelites crossed the Jordan and entered Canaan was Shiloh, near the center of the promised land. The tabernacle remained there nearly 300 years, from the latter days of Joshua until the early years of the prophet Samuel.

So why establish one centralized place of worship with a lot of rules and regulations about how to worship?