Hope Community Church
August 16 2026
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      • Lamentations 3:22–24NASB95

      • Exodus 20:4–6NASB95

      • Exodus 20:4–6NASB95

  • The Second Commandment

    Text

    Exodus 20:4–6 ESV
    4 “You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. 5 You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, 6 but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments.

    Worship as Defined by A. W. Tozer

    Tozer describes worship as an inward response of awe and reverence toward God that is expressed outwardly in fitting ways. True worship humbles us, placing us before God with reverence, dependence, and surrender. It involves the whole person—heart, mind, and will—as we respond to the greatness and mystery of God.
    The depth of our worship is shaped by the depth of our view of God. High and holy thoughts of Him produce pure worship, while a diminished view of Him leads to shallow or distorted worship.
    For Tozer, worship is not merely an outward act. When a person yields to God’s truth and is filled with the Spirit, even a quiet whisper can be genuine worship. Without surrender and the Spirit’s presence, however, worship can become empty performance.
    Believers, therefore, are called to be worshipers before they are workers. Meaningful service flows out of a heart that has first learned to adore God.
    Several forces can keep us from being truly “Free to Worship”:
    Constant activity leaves little space for stillness, prayer, wonder, and focused devotion.Busyness:
    Phones, media, entertainment, and endless information can train our hearts to be scattered rather than attentive to God.Distraction:
    Wanting approval can make us hesitant to honor God openly or obey Him faithfully.Fear of people:
    Worship requires humility; we struggle when we believe we can manage life without God.Pride and self-sufficiency:
    Sin burdens the conscience and weakens our willingness to draw near to God honestly.Unconfessed sin:
    Religious habits can continue outwardly while the heart is no longer engaged.Empty routine:
    A small, distorted view of God produces shallow worship; seeing His holiness, mercy, and greatness calls us into deeper awe.Misunderstanding God:
    But the largest problem is:
    We give our deepest love, trust, or attention to success, money, pleasure, relationships, or self instead of God.Idolatry:
    “The problem is not that God has withheld freedom to worship; it is that competing masters continually seek to capture our hearts.”

    Preaching Theme

    God must be worshiped according to who He has revealed Himself to be.

    Sermon Idea

    True worship refuses to replace or reduce the invisible God with something created by human hands or imagination.
    We need to return to Wholehearted devotion, sacred stillness, focused attention, courageous obedience, humble dependance, and a high view of God that we may respond to Him with every inch of our lives!
    There are a few points to consider as we explore our second command today out of Ex 20:4-6 that we may be Free to Worship.

    Points

    1. Boundaries of Worship

    Exodus 20:4–5 NASB95
    4 “You shall not make for yourself an idol, or any likeness of what is in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the water under the earth. 5 “You shall not worship them or serve them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, on the third and the fourth generations of those who hate Me,
    Israel was forbidden from creating an image to represent, replace, or redefine God.
    Word Biblical Commentary, Volume 3: Exodus Comment

    A paraphrase of the commandment might even be, “Not a one of you is to have a shaped image for the worship of Yahweh.”

    Habakkuk 2:18 NASB95
    18 “What profit is the idol when its maker has carved it, Or an image, a teacher of falsehood? For its maker trusts in his own handiwork When he fashions speechless idols.
    Isaiah 42:17 NASB95
    17 They will be turned back and be utterly put to shame, Who trust in idols, Who say to molten images, “You are our gods.”
    Isaiah 45:16 NASB95
    16 They will be put to shame and even humiliated, all of them; The manufacturers of idols will go away together in humiliation.
    God cannot be reduced to something human beings can manufacture, manipulate, or control.
    John 4:24 NASB95
    24 “God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.”
    For worship application, the prohibition extends beyond mere idolatry of false gods. The second commandment deals with the manner of our worship, forbidding us to worship even the true God unworthily—it is a demand for spiritual worship.
    Deuteronomy 4:15–20 KJV 1900
    15 Take ye therefore good heed unto yourselves; for ye saw no manner of similitude on the day that the Lord spake unto you in Horeb out of the midst of the fire: 16 Lest ye corrupt yourselves, and make you a graven image, the similitude of any figure, the likeness of male or female, 17 The likeness of any beast that is on the earth, the likeness of any winged fowl that flieth in the air, 18 The likeness of any thing that creepeth on the ground, the likeness of any fish that is in the waters beneath the earth: 19 And lest thou lift up thine eyes unto heaven, and when thou seest the sun, and the moon, and the stars, even all the host of heaven, shouldest be driven to worship them, and serve them, which the Lord thy God hath divided unto all nations under the whole heaven. 20 But the Lord hath taken you, and brought you forth out of the iron furnace, even out of Egypt, to be unto him a people of inheritance, as ye are this day.
    There is a purpose for the iron furnaces in your life. God is working on you and me ….
    Sin has messed us up, but the Lord put us in the furnace to burn away the mess, that we become what He wants us to be. To walk in His purpose.
    Genesis 1:26 NASB95
    26 Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”
    We don’t make an Images of anything, but God has cast His image into humanity. BE THE IMAGE of God! The Boundaries are there to set us Free to Worship God and learn to love people …

    2. The Danger of Distorted Worship

    Exodus 20:5 NASB95
    5 “You shall not worship them or serve them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, on the third and the fourth generations of those who hate Me,
    God, as a jealous God, is filled with a burning desire for our holiness, for our righteousness, for our goodness.
    Donald Grey Barnhouse (American Minister)
    A jealous God will not be content with a divided heart; he must be loved first and best.
    Charles Spurgeon
    danger- 1: the state of not being protected from injury, harm, or evil
    2: something that may cause injury or harm
    Why is it dangerous to worship God in this way?
    One preacher says it best: God, as a jealous God, is filled with a burning desire for our holiness, for our righteousness, for our goodness.
    Spurgeon: A jealous God will not be content with a divided heart; he must be loved first and best.
    An idol does not always replace God completely. Sometimes it misrepresents His character.
    We create a false image of God when we portray Him as:
    Loving but never holy.
    Holy but never merciful.
    Powerful but unconcerned.
    Forgiving but indifferent toward sin.
    Available only when we need something.
    We make the same God who created everything ( moon, stars, planets, sun, tree’s) and reduce Him to the very things , the lesser things that He created for us!
    Transcendance
    God is perfectly present with himself, transcending all limitation of space, and yet present with every point of space with all that he is. Transcendance means that God is greater than and independent of the creation. Immensity refers to the fact that God transcends and fills all space. And omnipresence indicates that God is present with every point of space in his entire being.
    John F. MacArthur; Richard Mayhue
    We can move from distorted worship very quickly….
    Psalm 34:3–4 NASB95
    3 O magnify the Lord with me, And let us exalt His name together. 4 I sought the Lord, and He answered me, And delivered me from all my fears.
    When your Free to Worship, stop making these false gods bigger , stop carving out gods with your own hands then excpectg that god to deliver you from all your fears…
    Psalm 69:30 NASB95
    30 I will praise the name of God with song And magnify Him with thanksgiving.
    Get rid of Dangerous Worship and lets makeHim bigger in our minds and hearts.
    I sought the Lord and He heard and answered (3 times)
    Thats why I trust Him (2 x’s)
    God !

    3. The Promise of Covenant Love

    Exodus 20:6 NASB95
    6 but showing lovingkindness to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments.
    God shows steadfast love to those who love Him and keep His commandments.
    Our response is an act of worship. When we respond in obediance to His word, the Lord is free to respond to us in covenant love.
    John 14:15 NASB95
    15 “If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.
    1 John 5:3 NASB95
    3 For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments; and His commandments are not burdensome.
    John 14:21 NASB95
    21 “He who has My commandments and keeps them is the one who loves Me; and he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and will disclose Myself to him.”
    To Love God is to obey God. He said He will show us mercy.
    Grace is shown to the undeserving; mercy is compassion to the miserable. Thus the synonym for mercy is compassion. Mercy, however, is not simply feeling compassion. Mercy exists when something is done to alleviate distress.
    R. Kent Hughes
    God’s mercy is so great that you may sooner drain the sea of its water, or deprive the sun of his light, or make space too narrow, than diminish the great mercy of God.
    Charles Spurgeon
    Lamentations 3:22–23 KJV 1900
    22 It is of the Lord’s mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not. 23 They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness.
    We live in a world full of Idols, but we must respond to the true and living God in obedience.

      • Exodus 20:4–5NASB95

      • Exodus 20:4–6NASB95

      • Habakkuk 2:18NASB95

      • Isaiah 42:17NASB95

      • Isaiah 45:16NASB95

      • John 4:24NASB95

      • Deuteronomy 4:15–20NASB95

      • Genesis 1:26NASB95

      • Exodus 20:5bNASB95

      • Exodus 20:5NASB95

      • Psalm 34:3–4NASB95

      • Psalm 69:30NASB95

      • Exodus 20:6NASB95

      • Exodus 20:6NASB95

      • John 14:15NASB95

      • 1 John 5:3NASB95

      • John 14:21NASB95

      • Lamentations 3:22–23NASB95

Hope Community Church
hopeccchurch@hopecchurch.org
(443) 759-9277
http://hopecchurch.org
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