Alvin Missionary Baptist Church
Sunday, August 2 2026
      • Bible Trivia
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  • Crown Him With Many Crowns
  • Glory To His Name
  • What A Friend We Have In Jesus (Converse)
  • Above All

      • Galatians 1:13–16KJV1900

  • There is a basic principle in forensic science called Locard’s exchange principle. Dr. Edmond Locard was called “the Sherlock Holmes of France.” He is the one who created the system for cataloging fingerprints, and founded the first police laboratory in 1910. But the principle named after him is that when two items came into contact, they always exchange material. Shoes leave marks in the mud, and the mud sticks to the shoe. Blood stains clothing and clothing fibers stick to blood. It’s summed up as “every contact leaves a trace.”
    This is a scientific principle, but we know that it’s true in other domains as well. You know that spending time with people changes you. Sometimes it’s obvious, like someone changing the way they dress to fit in with a new group, or picking up expressions or mannerisms from their friends. Sometimes it’s deeper, like some friends who bring out a positive perspective in you and other who make you complain. But it’s never a one-way transfer. We’re accountable for who we are influenced by and how we influence those around us.
    What’s true in our body and true in our soul is even more deeply true in our spirit. That principle is expressed in 2 Kings 17:15, when God describes the collapse of Israel.
    2 Kings 17:15 KJV
    15 And they rejected his statutes, and his covenant that he made with their fathers, and his testimonies which he testified against them; and they followed vanity, and became vain, and went after the heathen that were round about them, concerning whom the Lord had charged them, that they should not do like them.
    They followed after vanity - useless idols, and became useless themselves. Their hearts followed the pagans around them, and their behavior followed. We are made to worship. If we do not worship God, we will worship something. And, ultimately, we will become like what we worship, whether for our glory or our doom. The Living God is not to be represented by dead idols, but by His living image bearers. If we refuse that responsibility, we don’t stop being images, we just become images of something else instead. But when we worship God, we give Him glory, and He gives us Himself. Every contact leaves a trace.
    A couple of weeks ago, we started a series on the Ten Commandments. We started by considering the big idea: rules come after the relationship. God led His people out of Egypt by grace, and their works follow that. Today, we are going to start looking into the commandments themselves, with the first two. They are sibling commandments: The first commandment: thou shalt have no other gods before me tells us who to worship. The second commandment: no graven images tells us how to worship. And both of them are followed with a blessing and a warning.
    Exodus 20:3–6 KJV
    3 Thou shalt have no other gods before me. 4 Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth: 5 Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me; 6 And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments.
    One of the things I want to do as we work through the Ten Commandments is to help us see the ways that they don’t surprise us when they should. But let’s think about it in comparison. Let me read Title 18 of the US Code, Section 2113, subsection a: “Whoever enters or attempts to enter any bank, credit union, or any savings and loan association, or any building used in whole or in part as a bank, credit union, or as a savings and loan association, with intent to commit in such bank, credit union, or in such savings and loan association, or building, or part thereof, so used, any felony affecting such bank, credit union, or such savings and loan association and in violation of any statute of the United States, or any larceny—Shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than twenty years, or both.”
    Compare that to: Thou shalt have no other gods before me. Three differences: First, the ten commandments do not focus on consequences. There are consequences elsewhere in the Torah. Actually, all of the Ten Commandments other than coveting are punishable by death, at least in some circumstances. Talk about burying the lede! You would think the penalty for these crimes would be on top. But they are simply moral absolutes. Second, normal laws include a lot of elaboration and explanation. “Whoever robs a bank” has to become whoever is “obtaining or attempting to obtain” “property or money or any other thing of value belonging to, or in the care, custody, control, management or possession of” a bank. But rather than details which invite loopholes, these are fundamental principles which invite reflection. What does it mean to have other gods? How does that imply that we should have God as our God? Which leads to the third, most important distinction. These are deeply relational. God says: you shall not have any other gods before me. Not: whoever has other gods shall be liable. Not: worshipping other gods is punishable by death. It’s personal. “You and me” “I/Thou.” You shall not have any other gods but me. “Have” is marriage language: to have and to hold. You shall not give your heart to any other gods in my presence. Before the definitions, before the consequences, God says, “I am the one who brought you out of Egypt. I took you from slavery, washed the filth off of you, and now I want your whole heart to be mine alone. For better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health. Even death shall never part you from my love and presence.”
    That’s the first commandment. It implies that we need to have God and, in some ultimate sense, no other gods. I doubt that many of you are going to be tempted to worship Marduk or Baal later, but that does not mean we have conquered idolatry. An idol is anything that you serve which offers you security and satisfaction. It’s what you give your heart and life to instead of God. Or, since “no other gods before me” means “no other gods in my presence,” it is giving your heart and your life to something else alongside God. The easiest example is the one Jesus gave us in Matthew 6:24, when He said, “No man can serve two masters… You cannot serve God and [money].” You can see how money can easily fit the definition of idolatry. Do people give their lives to serve it? Absolutely. They will sacrifice their health, their integrity, their marriage, and their kids on the altar of a few more dollars. Do people try to find security and satisfaction in it? Of course. I’d be happy if I just had that car, or that boat. I wouldn’t worry any more if I had this much in my bank account or that much for retirement. But it’s a deceptive deity. The money is never quite enough, and it can grow wings and fly away in an instant. It demands more and more, and there is never peace or comfort in the meantime. People try to serve God and money at the same time or try to baptize their idol: if I have a little more money, I can give more. I can make a better life for my kids, so they can serve God. I can do more in retirement. But you know better when anyone tells those lies but you. And the person you are with a little money is the same person you will be with a lot of money. If you’re generous with a dollar, you’ll be generous with a thousand. If you’re stingy with a little, your appetites will grow to swallow your income. You know that. You’ve been there before. But idols blind us.
    Maybe even more relevant: every contact leaves a trace. We become what we worship. Wealth is a cold love. It is transactional: if you give this, then you will get that. And when we love money, we become like that too. Our heart starts to look for what we can get out of the situation instead of how we can serve in it, and every moment becomes an opportunity for a little bit more. We become what we worship. If we worship God instead: the one who loved us and gave Himself for us, then we are looking for what we can give instead of what we can gain. When our eyes are fixed on Jesus, we are not going to be the kind of people who float in and out of a rough situation, we are going to be the kind of people who get our hands dirty and wade in where others won’t go. Neither one happens instantly. But like rubbing a knife on a whetstone, that steady, consistent action determines our shape. Every contact leaves a trace: usually a small one, but then there is another, and another, and another. Idolatry is a double-sin because it gives the Devil something he doesn’t deserve and takes from God something that He does. Every dollar you have in credit card debt is a dollar you don’t save for retirement, and the interest is either working for you or against you. The best day to start investing in your relationship with God is yesterday. The second best day is today.
    Some people here have made idols of your politics. If this person gets elected, I will have security and satisfaction. If they don’t, I will never be happy or safe. King worship is probably one of the most ancient forms of idolatry: it goes back to the Pharaoh’s, at least. If you give some political ruler the veto power over your day, that’s idolatry. You can tell when politics are your idol because it consumes your attention, determines your mood, and sets your reaction to everything else. Some people can’t have an opinion until they see what their “team” has to say about it, and some people think that compromise is treason because the other side is the devil and your side is perfectly holy. That’s idolatry, and Jesus will tolerate no rival gods. When you become like what you worship, the politics-idolator develops short-term memory loss. Nothing goes further than the next election, and usually not beyond the next news cycle. We lose all sense of perspective and purpose because everything becomes about winning, and everything gets filtered through a lens other than the Lord. I’m not saying you should be disengaged from politics. I am saying that if the news is the first thing you put into your head every morning and the number one source of your fears and your peace - look out! It’s time to tear that idol down before you are made in its image instead of God’s.
    Some of you have made idols of family. If I can marry this woman, I’ll be happy, and I will give my time, talent, and treasure to making it happen. If he’s my husband, I won’t have to worry any more. Brothers and sisters, that’s a weight no human being was built to carry. No sinful man or woman can fulfill the deepest needs of your heart, and you will only disappoint yourself and be unfair to them when you try. Your security in God’s love for you has to come first. Or maybe you are already married, and make your kids into an idol. Their whims and preferences run your budget and your schedule. You say, “we don’t have a favorite kid, but there is one that we’re more scared of than the others.” But, just like making an idol of romantic love destroys it, making an idol of your children destroys them. And it makes you like them! You become what you worship. Every contact leaves a trace. You start to become chaotic and unbalanced like a child, instead of steady and thoughtful. Like a child, you start to constantly seek approval and attention. If you don’t believe me, come out to the ballfield with me and look at how many parents start to throw fits like an eight year old, and who seem to be shouting their kids’ last name, not their first name. We become what we worship! But if you put God first, and you become like Jesus, you will be the kind of dating partner, spouse, or parent who loves sacrificially and boldly, but who is sometimes willing to hurt someone so you don’t harm them. Real love means telling people no sometimes. Real love means making someone like you less sometimes. If you can’t do that, you have discovered your god.
    We could spend all day thinking through more examples, but I think those three have made the point. What is the thing you were hoping I wouldn’t say? What’s the thing that you look to for security and satisfaction? Or, put differently, what scares you the most? Can you see how it makes you like it, and how being like Jesus would be different instead? That’s the absolute heart of the first commandment. It’s the reason that you can never break any other commandment without breaking that one, because if we really find our peace and our joy in Jesus, we would never sin! So my question is not whether or not there are idols in your life. Just what they are, and what you’re going to do about it.
    The second commandment is a little harder for us.
    Exodus 20:4 KJV
    4 Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth:
    Doesn’t this seem like a repeat? In fact, some groups treat this all as the first commandment, and split the one on coveting up to get to ten. But it is a little different, because the rule is not just about worshipping false gods through statues, but worshipping through statues at all. You can’t even worship the real God through a carved image, whether it be of an angel, a cow, or a fish. And this is the one that they broke right away. After God gave the people the Ten Commandments, Moses went up on Mount Sinai to get the rest of the Law. But the people, without a leader to see, and with the voice of God fading in their memories, decided to make a golden calf instead. When Aaron made it, he did not say, “This is Baal” or “This is Aman.” He said, “These be thy Elohim, which brought thee out of Egypt.” He pointed at the golden calf and said: this is the God who rescued you. In Psalm 106, the psalmist remembered this story and said
    Psalm 106:19–20 KJV
    19 They made a calf in Horeb, And worshipped the molten image. 20 Thus they changed their glory Into the similitude of an ox that eateth grass.
    They changed their glory! The brightness they should have become like, into the image of an ox that eats grass. They worshipped the creature instead of the Creator, and in doing so, they robbed themselves of their destiny to be conformed to the likeness of His Son. Paul referenced this is Romans 1:23: “they changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things.” They tried to tame Him. The second commandment is about worshipping false gods, yes. But is is also about taming the true God. By making a statue of God, you are saying, “here is where He is allowed to show up, here is how He is allowed to show up, and I’ll come to Him when I need Him.” It’s the “don’t call us, we’ll call You” model of religion. It’s looking at an eagle and saying, “Yes, that’s what God is like.” Or, in the case of Israel, a golden calf. Is God like an ox? In many ways, of course. He’s strong, He is diligent, and He can leave the earth transformed in His wake. Is He like gold? Absolutely. He is pure and precious. But the problem is that God is not only or always like an ox, and is not always or only like gold, and when we create some box to be His image, we will miss out on the truths that are uncomfortable or inconvenient. We don’t get to pick a box: God is the God of the sky, the land, or the sea, and keep the rest for ourselves. No, He is beyond all of that.
    In “The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe,” that great allegory of the Gospel, CS Lewis wrote about the children meeting Aslan:
    A Year with Aslan: Daily Reflections from the Chronicles of Narnia February 2: Good but Not Safe

    “Ooh!” said Susan, “I’d thought he was a man. Is he—quite safe? I shall feel rather nervous about meeting a lion.”

    “That you will, dearie, and no mistake,” said Mrs. Beaver; “if there’s anyone who can appear before Aslan without their knees knocking, they’re either braver than most or else just silly.”

    “Then he isn’t safe?” said Lucy.

    “Safe?” said Mr. Beaver; “don’t you hear what Mrs. Beaver tells you? Who said anything about safe? ’Course he isn’t safe. But he’s good. He’s the King, I tell you.

    Friends, the second commandment warns us against the danger of trying to tame the Lord. He’s not tame, and He is not safe. He is alive, and He is King. In the ancient world, people created statues to worship their gods. But you cannot worship the living God through dead statues. No, God is not to be glorified through the way we treat graven images. We are supposed to serve Him by serving His living images! That’s why Jesus said the greatest commandment is to God, and the second is like it - to love your neighbor as yourself. When God made Adam, He said, “Let us make man in our own image, after our likeness.” God has made you in His image. It’s imperfect, and it is broken by our nature and our choices. But the Bible says that if you say you love God who you have not seen, but don’t love your neighbor who you have seen, you’re a liar.
    Worshipping a statue is safe, whether of man or bird or beast. Or, in more modern language, coming to a church service is safe. I know what’s expected of me, I know what it will cost, and I know about how long it will take. You’re welcome, Jesus, I am squared up for another week. But loving people is wild. You never know what it is going to cost, what situation God is going to put you in, or how quickly your ideas and dreams will be swallowed up by reality. But the God-ordained way to serve Him, most of the time, is to serve other sinners. That’s why the whole, “I can be a Christian on my own” movement is so silly. No, you need somebody else to carry out those one-another commandments with. You need somebody else to tell you no when your pride says yes, and you need somebody to love who has sinned against you to remind you just how patient Jesus has been with you.
    How can you tell if you’ve turned God into a frozen image? Well, we become what we worship! If you get rigid and frozen in your thinking and in your service, then you are probably worshipping that kind of God. If you need your church service to fit into a very specific box and you get frustrated and irritated if it doesn’t - here be thy gods. If I think that any deviation from my preferences or my comfort is sin, I have probably been worshipping a dead image of God and become a dead, frozen image myself. I’ve traded the glory of the living God, who made the majesty of the skies, the mud of the earth, and the mystery of the seas, for a god of my own imagination. But I should be able to see His glory in all of it.
    Because no one person perfectly represents God, learning to love and be loved by others is a cumulative process. You learn kindness from one person, generosity from another, and faith from the next. You become more like Jesus when you bump into people here. Maybe you think I’m stretching this too far, but consider this passage:
    Hebrews 13:15–16 KJV
    15 By him therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of our lips giving thanks to his name. 16 But to do good and to communicate forget not: for with such sacrifices God is well pleased.
    “Communicate” is King James for “share,” and maybe your Bible translates it that way. What kind of worship does God want? The sacrifice of praise, and the sacrifice of good works and generosity. That seems so basic, doesn’t it? But if your faith doesn’t lead you to the kindergarten rules: tell the truth, share, keep your hands to yourself, then it probably doesn’t work at all.
    God demands our worship, exclusively. And He demands it correctly: not in rules of our own imagination or deals we decide to make with Him, but through the love He has commanded us to pass onto others, which He has already shown us. And these commandments are rooted in a final warning and promise in verses 5-6.
    Exodus 20:5–6 KJV
    5 Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me; 6 And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments.
    This language is shocking to us, but let me break it down. First, “I the LORD thy God am a jealous God.” Why is God jealous? In Greek and Hebrew, the word translated “jealous” can also be translated “zealous.” So sometimes it refers to passion, and sometimes it refers to possessiveness. Only context can tell us which one is right in a specific passage. A husband should be zealous for his wife: protective, devoted, and committed to her exclusive love. But that’s not the same thing as the sinful jealousy of an insecure husband. God’s jealousy is His rightful desire for our whole hearts, for our good, because He knows that we will become like what we worship.
    Now, here’s the real sting: visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children for three or four generations. That is not God holding people responsible for what others have done (Ezekiel 18 says that the soul who sins is the one who will die), it’s the Locard principle again. Your life is not just about you. Your actions bear fruit in your children’s lives, and their children’s lives, and sin casts a long shadow. An abusive marriage can set children up to have their own unhealthy marriages, which affects their children as well. And God will continue to judge that sin, despite the circumstances of the family legacy. Some people have made sin their family idol, and it holds their family in its sway for generations. Your life is not just about you. Your idolatry tells your children what is important, and tells their children what is important. If I set the example for my kids that church is the right place to be every week, unless the weather is nice, or the weather is bad, or something else is going on, or I don’t like the guest speaker, or I have family coming into town, or, or, or. They get the message. It echoes through generations.
    But verse 6 is where it gets good. God’s judgment is real, but it is limited. His mercy is lavish. God says that for the righteous, the blessings flow through thousands of generations. That’s like when Jesus said to forgive seventy times seven times: there is no limit. God has no grandchildren - no one can go to heaven or hell because of someone else’s sins, it is about your personal relationship with Jesus. But some of us stand in the glow of what others have done before us, and we continue to reap the blessings of their faith and faithfulness. You can leave that kind of legacy for your family too, and it means that all of your idolatry is swallowed up in His faithfulness.
    The supreme example is, as always, Jesus. When you admit your sin and trust Jesus as your Savior, you become His child, and His faithfulness is credited to your account. Thousands of years later, His mercy continues. Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man comes unto the Father except by me.” There’s the first commandment again, put in even more intimate terms. If you want God, you will have Him through Jesus. If you don’t have Jesus, you do not really have the true God at all. We said that people are imperfect images of God, but Jesus is God made flesh, the exact imprint, the perfect image of the invisible God. That is the ultimate and final place for our worship to be received. And when we enter into His family, we leave the season of sin for an eternity of satisfaction.
    If you’re looking for your security and satisfaction in anyone or anything else, you will never find it. If you have tried to tame God and say, “I’ll serve in this way and under these circumstances,” while rejecting what He really wants from you, it’s time to really have Him as your God. He will not share His glory with another, and there is no room for compromise. He’s a jealous God, for your sake, and He will not share His blood-bought loved one. Are you ready to lay your idols down and give your heart to Him? Every contact leaves a trace, and the decision you make today matters. You can choose to lean more into Him, and become more like Him, or you can choose to sing to Him in this invitation while your heart worships elsewhere. What will it be?

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  • Trust And Obey
Alvin Missionary Baptist Church
alvinmbc@sbcglobal.net
(281) 331-6726
http://alvinmbc.com
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