This is a sermon manuscript in 4 parts from a message I preached on Sunday, July 30, 2023.

Hosea 8:1-7 – Set the trumpet to your lips! One like a vulture is over the house of the LORD, because they have transgressed my covenant and rebelled against my law. To me they cry, “My God, we – Israel – know you.” Israel has spurned the good; the enemy shall pursue him. They made kings, but not through me. They set up princes, but I knew it not. With their silver and gold they made idols for their own destruction. I have spurned your calf, O Samaria. My anger burns against them. How long will they b incapable of innocence? For it is from Israel; a craftsman made it; it is not God. The calf of Samaria shall be broken to pieces. For they sowed the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind.

The story goes that in 1949, science fiction writers L. Ron Hubbard & John. W. Campbell were talking together at a dinner party.  Hubbard had an interest in psychology and thought he had a cure for the PTSD experienced by many of the men who had returned from World War II with “shell shock.”  He called his program Dianetics, and tried to market it as a medical solution to anxiety.  But the medical community required proof of successful trials for this new treatment and Hubbard had done no such analysis.  It was at this point in the discussion that Campbell made a suggestion:  classify this new psychological ideology as a religion and the medical community and government would have to back off.  Not to mention that anything he charged for the treatments would be considered a non-taxable contribution.  Thus, the religion of Scientology was born from an unproven psychological theory and a desire to avoid the incursion of healthcare regulations and taxes.

While it seems that anything in our world can be branded as a “religion,” we are forced to ask what kind of faith is actually pleasing to God?  Anyone who drinks coffee can tell you that all steaming cups are not created equal.  You’re most pleased with the strength and brew of coffee that you like and are displeased with a cup that doesn’t meet your standards.  Just because it’s a cup of coffee doesn’t mean it’s the coffee you’re pleased with.  So is any old system of belief all that is required to please God?  In the Bible God tells the Israelites that He is pleased with only the worship, obedience, and service that He has prescribed – nothing more and nothing less.  So if we are going to approach God in worship, honor, and service, then we must approach on His terms and not our own. 

After King Solomon’s rule, trouble arose among the people of Israel and the united Kingdom of Israel divided into two kingdoms – a northern kingdom made up of roughly ten of the tribes and retained the name of Israel, and a southern kingdom which went by the name of Judah and retained roughly two of the tribes, the capitol of Jerusalem, and the God-ordained temple.  King David’s descendants continued to reign in Judah, but the first king of the northern kingdom was a man named Jeroboam.  At the outset of his reign, God spoke to Jeroboam and promised that if he would be faithful to the Law, then God would bless his reign and his dynasty as He had blessed the family of David.  Jeroboam, however, quickly went astray.  The temple of God was still in the land of Judah, and Jeroboam’s people – if they were to remain faithful to the Lord – would have to travel to that temple several times a year for sacrifices, feasts, and festivals.  Jeroboam just knew that if his people continued to travel back and forth to their neighbors, eventually they would have a desire to reunite the two kingdoms and Jeroboam’s family would lose its power.  So Jeroboam devised a plan.  He established two new temples in his own territory – one in the southern part of his land at the town of Bethel, and one in the northern part of his land at the town of Dan.  He said that these temples would be devoted to the worship of the Lord God of Israel… except for one radical change.  Since Jeroboam didn’t have the Ark of the Covenant as a focal point of his new temples, he needed an object of power upon which his people could focus their worship.  So he had golden calves prepared and placed these idols in his temples.  Even though the Lord had expressly forbidden idolatry as a form of worship, Jeroboam incorporated it as an integral part of his new religious system.  And “the sin of Jeroboam” continued to pull the Israelites further and further from God and ultimately brought about their destruction.

Our society might say, “What’s the problem?  They were still worshiping the same God.  Their situation had just forced them to worship God differently than their neighbors.  It looks like their hearts were still in the right place.”  Let’s explore three questions during our time together that will shed some light on why we are incapable of dictating to God what is good, faithful, and worshipful.