No other gods

Paradigm for Transformation of Society
Commandment No. 1  - No other gods
Senior Pastor Dr Daniel Ho

LA is built on the St. Anders fork. It is built on an area prone to earthquakes. On 17 Jan 1994, an earthquake of 6.7 on the Richter scale shook LA for 20 seconds. 72 died and USD 20 million was spent to fix the damages. Why would the Americans build tall buildings in an earthquake zone? The tall buildings go deep into the foundations. That’s why LA is still standing. When the foundation is strong and solid, the city is able to withstand the stress and pressures.

What foundations do we build our lives on? What about our community and our nation? When a community and a nation is built on the wrong foundations it is headed for doom. Communism is built on a foundation based on human ability without God. It cannot stand the test of time. The communist leaders know it (the idealism) cannot stand on its own.

The Beijing Factor describes a change taking place in China – only a Christian faith can bring true depth, health and strength and development in any civilization. That’s why Western civilizations are more advanced – the nations are founded based on the Word of God. But they are turning their backs to the Bible and they are headed for troubles.

Human beings are worshipping beings and if we don’t know the right God we will be worshipping the wrong things.

There is a God-shaped vacuum in us that only God can fill and satisfy.

Worshipping wrongly leads to:
•    Dissatisfaction. There is emptiness in us that only God can full. Man cannot be satisfied without God, he will keep looking for activities to excite himself which may end in destruction.
Ecc 2:24-25 There is nothing better for a person than that he should eat and drink and find enjoyment in his toil. This also, I saw, is from the hand of God, for apart from him who can eat or who can have enjoyment?
•    Enslavement. The enemy is trying to put us under bondage especially under the fear of death.
Heb 2:14-15  Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things, that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery.
•    Emptiness. When life is divorced from God, everything is meaningless.
Ecc 1:2  Vanity of vanities, says the Preacher, vanity of vanities! All is vanity.
Ecc 12:13  The end of the matter; all has been heard. Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man.
We must know the ultimate purpose in our lives.
•    Loneliness. The Christian faith is more than a religion, it is a relationship. God has designed a relationship with Adam and Even. There is intimacy with God day by day. We must look around for lonely people and reach out to them. We can make an incredible impact.
•    Fear. People who know God have no fear about death, natural disasters, etc. If it is time to go, we will go. We are not afraid.
1Jn 4:16,18  So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. … There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love.
•    Death.
Joh 10:10  The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.

To worship rightly means to worship in truth. We cannot say we believe in everything. Our belief must be founded on truth.
Joh 4:23-24  But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him.  (24)  God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth."

•    Truth is more than a set of beliefs. It is not just a certain set of dogmas.
•    Truth is a person. There is no other person in the world who has ever made this claims. When someone makes this claim, he is a liar (telling untruths), a lunatic (a mad person) or he is Lord.
Joh 14:6  Jesus said to him, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
•    Truth in a Person always has consequences.
•    When we worship in truth we experience forgiveness.
•    The first and most important thing is life is not happiness, it is forgiveness. We may pretend and we may hide and put up a nice picture, but everyone has sinned and fall short of the glory of God and hence we need forgiveness.
•    Only when there is true forgiveness first can there be real happiness.

Consequences of true worship:
1.    It leads to freedom. When we know Jesus, we are set free. Superstition can grip the whole nation, e.g. no 4th floor in Taiwan.
Joh 8:31, 32, 36  So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed in him, "If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples,  (32)  and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free."  … So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.
2.    It produces fearlessness. When we walk in God, we have no fear. We have peace and joy/
Act 4:29-31  And now, Lord, look upon their threats and grant to your servants to continue to speak your word with all boldness,  (30)  while you stretch out your hand to heal, and signs and wonders are performed through the name of your holy servant Jesus."  (31)  And when they had prayed, the place in which they were gathered together was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and continued to speak the word of God with boldness.
1Jn 4:4  Little children, you are from God and have overcome them, for he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.
3.    We realize our full potential in God, e.g. Philip (Acts 6:5 and Acts 8) God wants to use us. When we worship God rightly and submit to God, we live to our full potential.
Act 6:5  And what they said pleased the whole gathering, and they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit, and Philip, and Prochorus, and Nicanor, and Timon, and Parmenas, and Nicolaus, a proselyte of Antioch.
4.    We enjoy life, health and wholeness.
The Ten Commandments came up for the 2nd time in Deuteronomy. God wanted Moses to repeat the Ten Commandments to His people before they cross the Jordan River. God wanted them to remember and to use the Ten Commandments as the foundation of their community.
Deu 5:29  Oh that they had such a mind as this always, to fear me and to keep all my commandments, that it might go well with them and with their descendants forever!

If the Malaysian society is to be transformed, we must first live out this first commandment, i.e. with freedom, without fear, with our full potential and enjoying life, health and wholeness.