Fresh Manna 2021

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Strong Tower Radio

The Ten Commandments By Philip Mills

Philip Mills

Do Not Make an IDOL

♪♪♪ Fresh manna fell to the ground as a gift from God while the Israelites were in the wilderness.

It was Fresh from the Ovens of Heaven, Baked by the Master Baker Himself.

How the Israelites must have anticipated the taste and the smell of each morning's delivery.

Just like the Israelites, you too can now experience the taste and smell of fresh manna.

Today you will be listening to Phil Mills, pastor of Lansing Seventh-day Adventist Church.

I tell you, our Children are a gift from the Lord, are they not?

What a blessing it is to see them with parents that are dedicated to raising them to love Jesus with all their hearts.

And we don't raise children to just live a few years.

Forever in the great throne of God, there to travel through eternity and to sing his praises.

That is an incredible honor, to be able to raise children to God.

Well, as we move into our sermon today, I would invite you to bow your heads with me 1 additional time, that we will seek the Lord's mercies as we open his word.

Oh, Father in Heaven, we thank you for the privilege of seeking your throne and seeking your grace.

We ask that here, in this sanctuary, your spirit will mightily move upon every 1 of our hearts.

We want to be converted by the power of His grace.

So I ask that you'll hide me behind the cross that you will take control of the words that come out of my mouth, the expressions that are on my face, and that every 1 of us will hear the message we need to hear, that will be transformed by your grace.

We thank you now in Jesus name we pray let everyone say amen.

You have your Bible, start with me to Exodus chapter 20.

Over the last few weeks we've been going through the 10 commandments and I found it to be very, very convicting to be looking at these rules of life that God has blessed us with that show us how to live happy and fulfilled lives.

Last week I really appreciated Clinton's sermon.

If you weren't here or you missed it, I would encourage you to go and listen to it.

And part of revival is understanding where our lives need to be changed and where the power of the Holy Spirit needs to come in and recreate inside of us the character of Jesus Christ.

Are you there in Exodus chapter 20 in verse 4?

You shall not make for yourselves a carved image, any likeness of anything that is in the, what, church?

Heavens above, or that is in the earth beneath or that is in the waters under the earth verse 5 you shall not bow down to them nor why for I the Lord your God am a jealous God so the commandment goes on You might be reading this and saying, you know, Pastor, I don't understand why we're talking about idols.

That's not something that we really have here in Western culture.

It's not something we really have in America.

There aren't carved images that I bow down to, and I'm assuming if we were to go to your home, we wouldn't find an incense altar, we wouldn't find an image that's been carved out of wood or stone and that you're doing there obeisance to it every morning and evening.

And so we might be able to, if we were to have a checklist of commandments, we'd be able to go down and say, well, you know, that 1 is 1 I can just kind of check off and move past, because I don't really struggle with idols in my life.

And as I've been studying this this last week, we talked a couple of weeks ago about idols and by way of review for those of you who are here, we saw that idols are anything I desire over the Lord.

It's an acronym, idol, I desire over the Lord.

And we talked about how when we were looking at the first commandment, we shouldn't have any other gods before the Lord.

That we need to be careful that Nothing in my life becomes more important than my walk with Jesus Christ and His transforming power within me.

But as I moved into the second commandment and was specifically looking at images and image worship, I started doing some research on what's happening in our culture and our society today.

And I was amazed at what is happening in this culture right now.

You may think that this is a Christian nation, but I stand before you and say, and you've probably seen it in our culture, There is a shift happening underneath our feet right now.

People, our culture is less and less Christian and there is a movement of spiritualism in our culture that's astonishing.

Spiritualism is on the rise in the United States at an alarming rate.

And it's put on different garbs, it's got different, Satan has put it under all kinds of different disguises to make sure that we don't recognize what's happening, but it's rising.

I read an article this last week that I found very interesting.

It was talking about the rise of spiritualism and it said the following, over the past few years, witchcraft long viewed with suspicion and even hostility has transmuted into a mainstream phenomenon it's like whoa okay what does it continue on the coven is now the squad there are sea witches city witches cottage witches kitchen witches influencer witches as you share recipes for moon or water, dream photos of altars bathed in candlelight.

A 2017 survey from the Pew Research Center examined the New Age beliefs in America and found that 40% of respondents believed in psychics in the US.

And 40% believe that inanimate objects like mountains and trees are imbued with some type of mystic or spiritual energy that can help fix the energy inside your body.

Magnets that you can buy in little tiny things that you wear around your wrist, and the magnet's supposed to help keep you protected and safe.

Special stones that you can put on as a necklace around.

There are all kinds of different things that you can have, ways you can purify the energy inside your house.

This has gone from being a side area to a mainstream cultural event within our society today.

I was reading about a new TV show that's come out that is 1 of the most watched right now.

And it's about a witch, and I'm not gonna get into too details, but she has all these magical powers and mystical things.

They try to put it in a package of science and special ideas, but church, don't be fooled.

If our young people are watching this, they are being indoctrinated with a concept that if you do certain things you can have special powers.

Almost every Disney and Netflix movies, plus many others, are saturated with concepts of the supernatural or interacting with dead loved ones or some other form of spiritualism and mysticism.

Church, its inner society, and Satan's goal is to destroy our children through these influences.

Yesterday I was listening to a Christian show.

They're interviewing a Christian lady, a well-known, I believe from what they were saying, well-known author in other circles, who was talking about how important it was in the morning to get up and spend time in devotions and prayer.

And I was going, amen, that's right, we gotta do that, and then she goes on, and then once I finish that, I make sure to take my time to meditate, and I went, whoa.

I'm not here to preach on meditation, but I do wanna take a side, because it was very distressing to me.

And I think that Satan has taken this concept of meditation and it's started creeping into Christian circles.

Meditation is this idea that you empty your mind of everything and you allow influences to be able to come in and either give you peace or speak to you.

And in church, we are to spend time in prayer with Jesus.

But biblical praying is very different from the world's meditation.

The world's meditation is empty your mind, say a mantra over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over again.

And you might do it for 30 minutes, 45 minutes, an hour until your mind begins to have this heightened state of hypnotic effect.

And you might feel peace and you might have interactions with forces outside of you, but I don't find that concept in the God's Word.

Church, in our culture today, there is a serious awareness of occult and occult practices.

In fact, it is so saturated that we may not even realize that we've allowed occult influences into our home.

I want to read something from Acts of the Apostles.

If you're taking notes, it's Acts of the Apostles, page 289, paragraph 2.

It is fondly supposed that heathen superstitions have disappeared before the civilization of the 20th century." Now that quote hit me between the eyes because I kind of landed in that boat.

You know how when you're reading along and God says, yeah, you need to wake up, right?

I was kind of there, but Then she goes on and she says this, but the word of God and the stern testimony of facts declare that sorcery is practiced in this age as verily as in the days of the old time magicians.

The ancient system of magic is in reality the same as what is now known as modern spiritualism.

Satan is finding access to thousands of minds by presenting himself under the guise of departed friends.

Remember the Sabbath Day

It was fresh from the ovens of heaven, baked by the master baker himself.

Today you will be listening to Phil Mills pastor of Lansing Seventh-day Adventist Church and now here's Pastor Phil.

Well today we're going to continue our series in the 10 Commandments and as we begin would you bow your heads with me as we ask God to guide.

I need Him to give the message for today.

My brothers and sisters here need the Holy Spirit to take the message and uniquely apply to each 1 here that will walk away with a deeper appreciation of Jesus' love and a greater understanding of how we can draw close to you and the mission for this time.

Thank you for the angels that are pressing close.

Thank you for the rejoicing in heaven over the baptism.

I invite you to take your Bibles and turn with me to Genesis chapter 2, right there at the beginning of your Bible.

I saw some stats earlier this week as I was preparing for this sermon, and they were similar to stats I've seen quite a while ago, that people are stressed and concerned.

For some, the pandemic has been a time of, great, I've been able to reconnect with my family, and that's been good.

For others, the pandemic has been extremely stressful and concerning.

For some, it's been a time of relaxation.

For others, It's been a time of extreme busyness.

As I look at the mess in our world right now and I see the tension rising between different individuals and different groups, you know in heaven I'm so glad that there isn't going to be any tension between different parties, aren't you?

There's not going to be the this angel party and that angel party, we're all going to be Jesus party, amen?

But as we see all of that, there's a place in the Bible that we find that God established a palace in time, a crystal in time, if you could, a time crystal, if you could, that God has established to remind us that He is the creator of all of us, He is the uniter of all of us, and He is the great reestablisher.

When we are broken, He has a time in the week that He says, this is the time where you can focus on my healing power in your life.

When we are discouraged, He has a time when He says, this is when I can lift you up and restore you back to who you should be.

When you are feeling like everything has fallen apart and that you are useless to God, he has a palace in time to remind you that you are so valuable that God was willing to die that you might live forever with him.

As the earth came forth from the hand of the creator, we Spent some time at prayer meeting going through the Creation Week.

You'll notice that if you go through the Creation Week, God creates and then he fills.

Someone tell me, what did God create on the first day of creation?

God created the first day and he created light.

Genesis chapter 1, are you there, church?

Verse 6, what did God create on the second day?

Second day, air with dividing the waters.

Now, if you go to the fourth day, what does God fill the light with?

What does God fill the air and the water with on the fifth day?

And then what does God fill the land with on the sixth day.

If you were to build a pyramid, you've got on the bottom here, you have first day light.

And over here, fourth day, sun, moon, and stars.

And then if you were to go up 1, you'd have on the second day, God created the air, separating the waters.

And over here, you would have the fish and the birds.

Then you'd go up another layer and you'd have over here, you would have the third day, God created the land.

And over here, you'd have day 6, he created the plants and the animals.

And then the top of the triangle is this crowning act of creation.

You see, God takes all of this, but if he had stopped creating with the sixth day, his creation would not have been perfect.

Because if you only have things without a relationship with the creator of all things, you're missing out on everything.

You know, a lot of us may have a lot of things in our lives that God has blessed us with.

But if we're not building a relationship with the God of all things, we are missing out, church, on everything that's important.

Adam and Eve, if they had just had the creation and not the Sabbath, it wouldn't have been perfect.

You realize Adam and Eve did see God create something.

A lot of people don't realize that God didn't just create things, but He also created how we count time, the week.

Created the third, the fourth, the fifth, the sixth day.

But God also, in the presence of Adam and Eve creates which day?

To me, that's 1 of the most powerful examples or evidences in the Bible that the Sabbath is God's gift to mankind.

So I want us to focus in on this point number 1.

Thus the heavens and the earth and all the hosts of them were finished.

Day, God ended his work which he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had done.

Blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it he rested from all his work, which God had created and made.

What an incredible day that must have been.

Can you imagine spending the first Sabbath with Jesus?

He says, Adam and Eve, I want you to understand this day is specially set aside.

Hate Murder on the Inside

It is good to see you all here this morning.

Are you glad to be in the house of the Lord?

There are some weeks where you're just really glad that it's Sabbath.

I think we're always glad that it's Sabbath, but there's some where it's like, I haven't breathed all week.

Well, we are going to study God's word, so I'm gonna invite you to bow your heads with me as we ask the Lord to guide us as we open his word.

Father in heaven, what a joy it is to come together and to worship you.

What a joy it is to be able to have the freedom which many people in this world today do not have to gather, to study, to meditate.

Father, we want to be taught of Jesus today and so we ask right now as we're ushered into your omnipotent throne room, that right at this moment, angels that excel in light will press close to this sanctuary, that you will banish, in Jesus' name, Satan and his angels from having any access.

May we leave with a greater understanding and appreciation of your love for each 1 of us.

If you have your Bibles, turn with me to Exodus 20, and verse 13.

As a reminder, we've been studying through the 10 commandments as a church.

Of course, we've had a few weeks that we've taken off, so it's taken us just a little bit to get through them, but we've been meditating on what lessons God has for us in these powerful, beautiful ways of living.

We spent time on the first 4 looking at how we can build a deeper and closer relationship with Christ.

And last week we talked about the fifth commandment, the first commandment of the next 6 that deal with how we can build close, loving relationships with those around us.

And we talked about how it's interesting God starts off when he's laying how we love our brothers and sisters, he starts with an understanding of how to relate with authority.

We spent, I'm not gonna go back into that sermon today, but it's something that's been on my mind for a while, how we interact with authority.

That's where God starts, and he starts right with the first place that all of us had authority, and that's in the home, your parents.

That's your first understanding of authority.

We went through that in heaven, things are the opposite of earth.

The higher you are in heaven, the more you serve people.

The lower you are in heaven, the more you respect those who are over you.

We talked about how important it is as we would become like Jesus that we do everything we can to mirror Him and serve those around us.

And husbands, we talked specifically to you for just a little bit that, yes, God has called you to be the husband, the head, and the priest of your home.

But that is a calling to serve your family.

Well, today we move into the next commandment, the sixth commandment.

You know this commandment is so important that God says those who break this commandment will make it into heaven.

Revelation chapter 22, and we're gonna be looking there in verse 14 and 15.

When you're there, if you let the preacher know by saying amen, I hear those pages turning.

It is a blessed sound to hear people opening their Bibles to study God's word.

Blessed are those who do his, what's that next word there, church?

Commandments that they may have the right to the tree of life and may enter through the gates into the what city now just in case you've misunderstood who is the 1 that gives us the right to be able to enter the city of God.

So the only way we get into heaven is through Jesus.

But in Jesus, he gives us victory to keep his commandments.

And as we allow him to give us that victory and we become victorious in Christ and we live the righteous holy life, then it is that we get permission to enter into the city.

But outside are dogs and sorcerers and sexually immoral and what's that next word there?

Murderers and idolaters and whoever loves and practices a lie.

Now he lists several commandments there, John does in Revelation, but he points out the 1 we're looking at here, the murderers will not be allowed into heaven.

Well, I can hear someone sit back and say, well, pastor, it's good news.

But the 10 Commandments deal with more than just the action.

See, a lot of times we read the commandments and we think, oh, action, great, don't steal, don't commit adultery, honor.

But God, when he wrote them, Jesus specifically, when he wrote the 10 commandments, was very much specifically focusing not just on the action, but the 10 Commandments are dealing with what happens up in our minds.

Let's look at a couple of verses together to kind of lay this out.

You see, God isn't, yes, God is concerned about what we do, but God is far more concerned about what's going on inside yours and my mind and my heart.

What he cares about is where you at in your thinking, what is happening inside of your heart, because church, the reality is, what we think determines who we become.

How you think, what you process has a tremendous impact on the man or the woman you will be in the future.

Solomon is talking here in a list of things about what to do with different people.

And then he says this very incredible thought right at the beginning of verse 7.

And then he goes on to talk about eat and drink, he says, but his heart is not with you.

He's dealing with people in hospitality and a number of other pieces that we don't have time to get into.

What you think, what happens in your mind determines who you will become.

And the commandment we're looking at is far more than just worrying about whether you physically murder someone, it's worrying about what happens in your mind.

Now, there's 1 more verse we've gotta look at to pull this together, Matthew chapter 15 and verse 19.

The point we're looking at as we move to Matthew chapter 15 and verse 19 is this, It starts in the mind.

Whatever you're going to be, it starts in the mind.

The Safeguard of the Mind

Let's bow our heads for prayer as we begin.

Father in heaven, as we come before your throne this morning, how thankful we are for the blessings that you give us.

How thankful we are that you love us so much that Jesus died on Calvary, that you are coming back to take us home.

In a few moments we're going to be meditating on the seventh commandment.

I pray that as we look at this very important topic, that we won't lose sight of the fact that it is Jesus who does all the work in us.

Let the glorious love of Christ move among us, we pray.

We thank you in advance in Jesus' name, amen.

If you have your Bibles, if you turn with me to Exodus 20, in verse 14, if you'll remember, we've been working through the 10 Commandments.

It's taken us a few months, because we've had a couple of detours on the way.

But we started with the first 4 commandments and worked through those.

And we saw those dealt with our relationship with God.

And if you'll remember, we saw the importance of God wants to make sure that first nothing comes between us and Him.

And so we had this abbreviation for idol, anything I desire over the Lord.

Series

The Ten Commandments By Philip Mills

Do Not Make an IDOL

Transcript

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