After reviewing our session notes from the first meeting of ASK Daegu, what follows is a summary of the teaching that as a group we were given by the Holy Spirit. Each member contributed something to the message that follows. We pray that our group encourages you in the same way that it encouraged all of us. We’ll have a new ASK recap up next Wednesday.

Do we have idols? Are there things that we turn to for relief, satisfaction or joy before we turn to the Lord? Do we try to hide the fact that we have idols? Are we so convinced in our power to confine God to a day, time or place that we become certain that our secrets are in fact ours alone?   Do you know the commands and teaching of Jesus Christ? Do you know them beyond memorization into the place of salvation where they rightfully belong? Do you know why the teaching was given to us? Are you burdened by the commandments, as if they were there to prevent you from reaching the potential that could truly bring you joy? These are not fun questions but they are absolutely necessary for us to ask if we truly profess faith in Jesus Christ. If we don’t ask them, what are we doing? What is the point? Stop wasting your time.

The truth is, we all possess idols. We have all been tempted by them and our relationship with God has suffered as a result of our flippant and childish view toward His love for us. The truth is, God desires us. We were created to receive His love and then return His love with a heart in tune with his own. The pleasures and cravings of the flesh are merely vessels for the nature of sin to prolong and imbed the deception of sin that we don’t actually need God. The truth is, while idols tempt us with grand promises of satisfaction and fulfillment, they will inevitably only achieve two things. They will slowly but effectively destroy us, reducing us to shadows and dust. More importantly, they will exile us into a place where God can reach us but we become so deaf and blind to his presence that we deny the presence of his power and the hope of his salvation.

So, what? What can we do? Admit it! Admit that you have idols. Go to God with this shameful confession trusting in His promise to embrace, forgive and love. Seek his way and his will. Reject the idea outright that you have something to say in the matter of what is or isn’t good for you. You don’t know! We as his children have never known so why would it be different for us today? It isn’t. Invite the Holy Spirit to make his commandments sweet to you. Ask the Holy Spirit to bring you close enough to the cross to touch the blood but then close enough to the tomb to verify that it no longer contains the body.

There is nothing in this world that can ever give you what we have been given in Jesus Christ. Nothing is worth it! God is patient but the promise of his patience does not even compare to his promise to ultimately judge what is right and wrong. We have been warned. Heed the warning and grab ahold of the hand of Christ and choose to live!