Hello, welcome to the Wilton Baptist Church, where we worship God, walk with others, and win to the Lord Jesus Christ. My name is Steve Harness. I'm one of the pastors here at the church, and we are pleased to share this Bible message with you today. Thank you for watching and listening. May the Lord bless you. The day that God was tired. Now, how many of you know who that is and what film that is? Okay, National Treasure, happens to be one of my favorite film series, one and two, and that's Nicolas Cage, and he's Ben Gates, he's Ben Gates in that film, and that's one of my favorite ones. Archeology, I'm into that, and Things of the Past, and I don't know what just happened there. So, anyway, I like the film and the series, and looking at old stuff, and it's a really good theme about it. Today we're going to talk about something that's a really hard subject. And it's used in this passage to illustrate how God's people divorced themselves from God. And God talks directly to his people, and he talks about how they were divorcing one another and then adopting, not only marrying wives that had pagan gods, but then adopting and marrying, essentially, false gods themselves. It's a hard subject, I know. And whether you're divorced or divorced and remarried, all of us have been impacted by divorce. You're loved, you're welcomed, you're accepted, and we cherish and value you. Some of us would not be here if it were not for our parents who were divorced, and then maybe they were divorced and then remarried, and then we wouldn't have been here if that didn't happen. So we value you and your relationship, and I wanna just admonish and encourage you, however you find yourself in, just stick with it in the one that you're in, whatever marriage that is. But this is perhaps a sensitive, and it's a tough subject as well. Nick Cage was married to Erica for four days. Alice Kim for 12 years. Nick Cage has been married five times, divorced three times, has one annulment. I'd imagine that would be Erica. That's just amazing to think about. Larry King, remember Larry King? Welcome to Larry King Live. And all those flashing lights, or the lights behind him there, that was a classic set. Married eight times to seven different women over the course of his life. I thought that was something, then I kept searching. I kept searching, and this is a theme of this chapter in particular, so I kept searching, and check this out, Glenn Wolf. 1908 to 1997. He looks like a happy guy. Doesn't he look... I mean, this guy looks like a happy guy. He was for a while an American Baptist minister. An American Baptist... We're not American Baptist, by the way. Big difference. We're unaffiliated. We're not American Baptist. We're not in that. denominational group, were not even Southern Baptists, were unaffiliated. But Glenn Wolf, an American Baptist minister for a while, he lost his interest in ministry. He became a hotel owner, had several hotels, and he was married 31 times. That's just on paper. Some people say maybe it was a little bit more than that. During that time span, some of those, five of them died during that time. I mean, I wouldn't want to be the next woman who But look at that guy's face. I mean, something about him. Somebody, some reason these women really liked him. Wolf died June 10th, 1997 in a nursing home of heart disease at the age of 88. His body went unclaimed. None of the 28 women he legally married were there. No one claimed his body. The approximately, nobody really knows, 19 kids, none of them attended the funeral service. What a tragedy. What a tragedy. What a tragic life there. So I know this could be a sensitive subject to you, but we're going to just look at how God speaks to this and how he applies that then to really spiritual infidelity and spiritual adultery. So this book, Malachi, is, see the large yellow right here, the people of God. So I love this grand story of the Bible. This is something I've learned and adopted into my ministry the last three or four years. And so the grand story of the Bible, I could take the next five weeks and preach through this and give you an overview of the Bible. But it starts with creation, ends with renewed creation in Revelation. Origin of evil in Genesis 3, the defeat of evil in Revelation 20. Then we have people of God, Israel, from Genesis to Malachi, and then the renewed people of God, that would be the book of Acts all the way to Jude. Right in the middle, X marks the spot, the Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, and everything in the Bible is central to Jesus. Everything revolves around Jesus, when he came and what he did, and then when he left and when he's coming back. And so Malachi is at this part right here. The very end, I'm kind of shaking here for some reason. Sometimes when I preach, I get shaky. I don't know, maybe I'm kind of shaky for some reason. So, all right. That's why it's shaky. You see what I'm saying? What in the world? I can't even hold it straight. Okay. It's still not going to be straight. But anyway, that's where Malachi ends. That's where he lands, rather. So you have the people of God, Genesis to Malachi, and then there's a span of 400 years. It's known as the silent years. And then the birth of John of Baptist is announced. That's the first New Testament message. And then the second one following up, here comes Jesus. The birth of Jesus was announced. The angel Gabriel announces that. Okay, so that's kind of the grand story of the Bible. That's where Malachi falls. I'd like to give you really the whole overview. Last week was more introduction if you happen to miss that. A 2023 survey found that less than half of women and only 34% of men reported a partner or spouse that had ever cheated on them. The General Society survey in 2022 reported 20% of men, 13% of women admitted this would be self-admitting to infidelity. And then, however, considering infidelity in all relationship types, unmarried dating, and what constitutes infidelity, sometimes the definitions change on that depending on the study. Rates could be between 40 and 45% for that. for unmarried or dating couples when you factor that into those who are married. So that's just in America, and you can kind of see how that's an indicator of the spiritual atmosphere. And God does a survey on the people in Israel, and he says a very similar thing here in Malachi chapter 2. So, let's read this passage here. We'll just look at the very last verse, and then I'll give you the ways that these people were departing from God. Now, keep in mind, this is 100 years after the temple was rebuilt, 100 years after the walls were rebuilt. And so, they were living in relative safety. They had been carried away. Now, they were brought back as a people group. and after 100 years they became complacent. Their priests were just going through the motions. Their people did not know why they believed what they believed, and they were just going through the sacrificial motions, and it was meaningless worship. They were not truly exalting and worshiping God, and God was getting wearied of this. So in Malachi chapter 2 verse 17, ye have wearied the Lord. Malachi is preaching this message. He even wrote it down. You have wearied the Lord with your words. Does God get tired? He was getting tired of their behavior and of their activity and of how they were abandoning Him. Yet ye say, wherein have we wearied Him? When you say, everyone that doeth evil is good in the sight of the Lord, and he delighteth in them, or where is the God of judgment? Where is the God of judgment? What's God going to do about it anyway? We're going to call evil good and good evil? And what's he going to do about it anyway? And so they were weary in God. Now this is not just an emotional response on God's part, but you think about when God gave them a, it was a monarchy, and they said, no, we, it was a theocracy rather, but they said, no, we don't want a theocracy. We don't want God as our king. Give us a monarchy, give us a king. So he gave them Saul. And then there was David. And before all of that was the judges. What did the judges do? Think about even further back. So you have Moses. And what did Moses do? Well, he interceded on behalf of the people, and still they would set up false gods sometimes. And then Joshua. The people only did what was right during the time that Joshua and those that were around him. But then after that, they started to do wrong once again. Then you have the judges. Every man did that which was right in his own eyes, and they abandoned God once again. than the kings that I already mentioned, Saul and David. And then you have the divided kingdom and all this conflict between right and wrong. And then finally, by the time you get to Daniel and some of the other minor prophets, you have them being carried away in captivity and carried away and dispersed throughout all of the world because they had abandoned God once again. And now God had brought them back. Nehemiah rebuilt the walls. They erected the temples once again. Zechariah gave them the law, and they were talking about how good God was. 100 years later, it was all just habit, and they didn't know why they were doing what they were doing. And after 2,500 years, God said, all right, here's the last warning. He gives them this warning. They were committing spiritual infidelity. Spiritual adultery. He uses their lives to illustrate that. And for the next 400 years, silence. This is the book of Malachi. So how were they weary in God? There's three ways in particular. The first one is found in verses one through nine. They departed from the way. There was a way. Ultimately, any Old Testament way paves the way for Jesus. And we have the privilege of looking back at Jesus who is the way, the truth, in the life. So notice, if you would, these priests, and he's going to reference a covenant, a Levitical covenant, they departed from the way. And now, O ye priests, this commandment is for you, if ye will not hear and if you will not lay it to heart. To give glory unto my name, saith the Lord of hosts, I will even send a curse upon you, and I will curse your blessings. Yea, I have cursed them already, because you do not lay it to heart. You're not taking your message to heart. You're not living out what I've given you to live as a priesthood and as a society. Behold, I will corrupt your seed and spread dung upon your faces, even the dung of your solemn feast, and one shall take you away with it. To put dung on your face? To smear manure on somebody's face? That's pretty graphic, isn't it? I recall this morning as I was glancing over this, that several years ago there was a drug drop-off on our property. And people were dropping off drugs. It was a drug exchange. And back here, when you go down and below the hill where there's a creek, there's a lot of rocks that we put down there to make the parking and things like it is. And under those rocks, sometimes there's big spaces. I'm giving you a bad idea maybe, but anyway, there's big spaces and it's covered. So you could put all kinds of stuff in there and it's not affected by the weather or anything. So one day I was here and we have cameras and sometimes it's kind of fuzzy. I shouldn't tell you that either. We should upgrade our cameras, but sometimes they're fuzzy. and you can't tell what's happening. But I was back here somewhere and these guys didn't see me. And these fellows pull around and I see these guys jump out. This guy jumps out. He runs down over the hill. I'm like, what in the world? There's no reason to go down the hill. and he had like a package with him. He runs down, then he comes back with a package, different package. So I'm like, okay, what's up with this? So I go down later and find there's drugs, there's drug paraphernalia, stuff like that. So we're like, okay, what are we gonna do about it? So we just threw the stuff away, you know. And the officers that we've talked to, they're really good. They do patrol the place often, and if you're up here some random hour, they usually drive through like that. So I had this idea. Okay, the police aren't here when they are. Somehow they know what's happening. So we have dogs and we have rabbits. So I got several five-gallon buckets of the juiciest dog and rabbit waste I could find and spread that over that path where the guys would go get the drugs. And I just, I would love to have been there. When they made that, what turned out to be their final drop, the guy slides down the hill, he slides back up, and he gets in the car and the other guy's probably like, what in the world? Get that out of my car! But could you imagine? Yeah, I would love to have been there. But for God to say this, not on your feet, but this is the equivalent. He said, I'm going to spear this. on your faces. That's pretty drastic. That's pretty drastic. That worked. If you want some of that stuff to solve a problem, I can hook you up with as many five-gallon buckets as you want. I'm going to spread dung on your faces. You're not taking these solemn feasts seriously. You shall know that I have sent this command unto you that my covenant might be with Levi. Now, this is a covenant. He goes back to that covenant, the covenant of Levi. This has to do with the Levitical priesthood. My covenant was with Levi, saith the Lord of Hosts. My covenant was with him of life and peace. There's going to be priests in Israel, and they're going to come from the Levites. Not all Levites are priests, but all priests are Levites. Some of their singers, some of those who would take care of the property, they were all Levites, and all the priests would come for that. He said, wherewith he feared me and was afraid before my name." And he says, the law of truth was in his mouth. The priests were doing good and iniquity was not found in his lips. He walked with me into peace and equity and did turn many away from iniquity. They were doing good for the priest's lips should keep knowledge and they should seek the law at his mouth. They should be studying the scriptures. But notice, for he is the messenger of the Lord of Hosts. He's the Malachi of the Lord of Hosts. Malachi means messenger. The priests were my messengers. God says, I'm sending you another messenger because my original messengers, the priests, have not been doing a job. But ye are departed out of the way. Ye have caused many to stumble at the law. Ye have corrupted the covenant of Levi, saith the Lord of Hosts. Therefore, I have also made you contemptible and base before all the people, they're repulsive, according as you have not kept my ways, but have been partial in the law." The word ways there, if you know someone named Derek, it's the word Derek. It means like a path, a journey, a manner, a distance away. That's what it is. They departed from the way. Now, the word covenant is very important in the Bible. It's important even in our culture and society. An agreement enacted between two parties in which one or both promises under oath to perform or refrain from certain actions stipulated in advance. Examples of covenants, Noah. God said, Noah, I'm never going to flood the earth again. The entire globe is not going to be underwater in this deluge again. And so the rainbow will confirm that. And that was ratified by the sacrifices that Noah presented. Abraham. Abraham, you're going to be the father of many nations. And when was that covenant ratified? Isaac. Isaac's looking around. Dad, where's the sacrifice? Where's the sacrifice? We have fire. We have wood. We're going up on top of what later becomes a known as Mount Moriah, what are we going to do? I'm willing to give God my son. God said, no, no, Abraham, don't give your son. I'm going to give my son instead. And that's the covenant to Abraham. And out of Abraham, he's going to be the father of many nations. And Jesus would bless all the nations. He's part of that and comes from that lineage. Then the Levites, the ones from today, The priests are going to be the ones who serve. They're going to be coming out of the tribe of Levi. David, David, you're always going to have someone sitting, when it's a kingdom, on the throne forever, and Jesus. He's the testator of the new covenant. The Old Testament's done away. We have the New Testament that was ratified when Jesus shed his blood. There's no covenant without a testator, someone shedding their blood. And in this case, Jesus is the ultimate example of that. So marriage is a covenant. in those forms of covenant. So, I do is a covenant. It's a promise before God to each other. Two parties agree with God and there's witnesses there. The ceremony, what we have, we call a wedding ceremony, is confirmed by two human witnesses who testify to the validation of their new covenant, of their new commitment. So you have a man and his wife, or bride, and they're going to become one flesh, and this is a covenant. But it's not just them, it's like a triangle. God is the witness to that, and in addition to that, so that we know it's valid, we have witnesses on the side who can verify that as well. And so we can call it a covenant. It's more than just an agreement. It's more than just a piece of paper and it's more than a legal document. It's agreement with God for this union that you've created. So Proverbs says, there's a way which seemeth right unto a man. The end thereof are the ways of death. God believes it so much, he said it again in Proverbs. Same word, word for word, there's a way which seemeth right unto a man. The end thereof are the ways of death. Delight thyself also in the Lord. He shall give thee the desires of thine heart. Commit thy way unto the Lord. trust also in him, and he shall bring it to pass." So they departed from the way, they divorced their wives. Notice in verses 10 through 16. Ye have, or have we not all one Father? We're going to come back to this because verse 10 is the answer. Have we not all one Father? Hath not one God created us? We have one Father, one God, and one Creator. So then, why do we deal treacherously, every man against his brother, by profaning the covenant of our fathers? Now the word profaning here is used several times. We talked about it last week. And it means to bore or to pierce. It's like they're taking a shotgun and they're shooting with pellet shot. They're shooting holes in the covenant. That's the idea. They're just blasting at the pieces. It doesn't mean anything to them anymore. There's just a lot of holes in it. Judah hath dealt treacherously. That means faithlessly. They've not been faithful to their commitment or to their covenant with God. And an abomination is committed in Israel and in Jerusalem, for Judah hath profaned, they've shot holes in the holiness of the Lord which he loved, and hath married the daughter of a strange God. The holiness of God means something that's set apart or sacred. They've abused that and instead they've replaced the true God with a false pagan God. The Lord will cut off the man that doeth this. Now he's talking about people. The master, the scholar, the out of the tapper, and Eccles of Jacob, him that offers an offering to the Lord of hosts. So someone who is a business owner, maybe a master, a scholar, someone who studies something, and then an offering. Who would give an offering? Well, everybody would. He includes everybody. So a lot of people, no matter their social class or status, were involved in this same type of activity. And ye have done again. And this have ye done again, verse 13. covering the altar of the Lord with tears, with weeping, and with crying out, insomuch that he regardeth not the offering any more, or receiveth it with good will at your hand." Why isn't God hearing us? Why isn't God answering our prayer? They're crying out. That has to do with the word groaning. And they're weeping. It has to do with bitterness. I mean, they're serious about this. They're crying intensely, but they're not willing to change their ways. They're not willing to step back from their wrong and choose to do what is right. They're not willing to give up the false idols, and they're like, well, God used to answer our prayers, but we really like these idols over here, and we've changed our society after our own image instead of God's, and so why isn't he answering? He says, you've done this. Yet you say, wherefore? Why is it like this? Because the Lord hath been witness between thee and the wife of thy youth. against whom thou hast dealt treacherously or faithlessly or deceitfully. Yet she's thy companion and the wife of thy covenant." You made a marriage vow. You made a commitment. But when a new woman walked by parading her false god, you said, I'm going to abandon my previous wife, the wife of my youth, I'm going to marry her shiny, flashy, different, foreign, just, you know, she's got something I've never seen. It's false god. I'm going to have her instead of her. But poor motivation. What a terrible thing these men were doing. And he says, did not he make one? two become one, right? Isn't that what we say? It's what the Bible says in marriage, to become one. Yet he had the residue of the spirit. People talk about this verse having to do with back when Adam and Eve, God gave Eve to Adam, two became one. He even talks about that in Genesis. And so the residue of the spirit, there is a spiritual connectedness to this, and we're for one. They're one now. That he might seek a godly seed. Therefore take heed to your spirit. That's a key phrase. Take heed to your spirit. And let none deal treacherously or faithlessly against the wife of his youth. For the Lord, the God of Israel, saith, he hateth putting away. That's the Old Testament and a New Testament phrase, which means divorce. For one covereth violence, violence here means wrong or injustice, he covers up the wrong, the violence with his garment, he conceals it, saith the Lord of hosts, therefore take heed, take heed, he says that again, to your spirit, that ye deal not treacherously or faithlessly. they were divorcing their wives. Weeping and wailing would not achieve anything moral because all the moral wrong that was going on when these men were breaking their marriage vows. Now there was a challenge. The challenge facing the Judean community after the return from exile was the reestablishment of its religion, its institutions, the Judaic culture. The men were marrying, however, women from other ethnic groups. And these women worshiped other gods. And just like Solomon a few hundred years before this, they started to adopt then the false religions of those that they were marrying. And in some cases, divorcing their Judean wives, the wife of their youth, to do so. Marriage to unbelievers diluted their commitment to the faith of Israel and resulted in children who were not a godly offspring. We just learned about this godly offspring. that he wanted to bring about. The prophet's overriding concern is not so much marriage as such, but the effect of this unwise mixed marriages on man's relationship to the Lord, the impact of these unions, and how it was really destroying the covenant that God had made with his people. And so it is about marriage, but it's also this illustration. You were divorcing the wife of your youth because you saw this new, attractive, different, unusual, and she has this other religion. I'm gonna go after that instead. And essentially what they were doing was, when they divorced the wife of their youth, they were divorcing God. They were divorcing God. And that's what he's saying. and they married pagan gods instead. Now, speaking of marriage, wherefore they are no more twain but one flesh, but therefore God hath joined together, not man put asunder. They saith unto him, why did Moses give a command to write of divorce, the writing of divorce, and to put her away to divorce? Why did God give that? He knew they were going to do it anyway. So he gave them some rules on how to do it. That's why. It's gonna happen anyway. So here's how to do this as best that you can then. He saith unto them, Moses, because of the hardness of your hearts. Moses suffered you to put away your wives, but from the beginning it was not so. Goes back to Adam and Eve. That wasn't God's intention. Because you're gonna do that, I'll put some some rules in place that you're just not continually hurting each other. So Jesus knew that that would happen. I say unto you, whosoever shall put away his wife, except it be for fornication, and shall marry another, committeth adultery. Whoso marrieth her which is put away, or is divorced, doth commit adultery. So you always get that question, you know, well, I'm married and I was divorced before. Am I continually committing adultery because of that? You could read that verse that way. I don't believe it's that way. I think you entered into that, but it's not an ongoing sin then. I don't think it's an ongoing sin. I would say, Whatever union you're in right now, stick with it. Keep going at it. And this was the past, but you're new, you have a new relationship, you're in a new covenant, so stick with that new covenant. I would encourage you along those lines. But you can see how people interpret that differently. I think it's the most gracious and the right way to understand that in a practical sense. Though to stress that God was no longer accepting their offerings, and the people refused then to face up the seriousness of divorce. Some divorced wives had been married in their youth. All divorce breaks the covenant, the promise made at the time of marriage, and the remarriage violates the pattern that God established at creation. So instead of honoring their covenant, which takes a lot of hard work, If you've been married for two weeks, two years, 20 years, 50 years, 70 years, you know it takes hard work. They saw something new and exciting. Some people are addicted to things that are exciting and new. You know that just from social media. And some people binge relationships. They binge this bad relationship to this bad relationship. The dating relationship scene especially, you see that. It's like, hey, it's just new, it's exciting, somebody different, you know. Some people have a sensation from that. And maybe some of these guys have that problem. New God, new idol, new lady, new woman. But they were committing marriage adultery and spiritual adultery by being married to a pagan faith. Could this be similar to our culture and society today? Has not our society totally married false gods? I mean, almost a majority of people, whether they admit it or not, if they're not following Jesus, they're following some false god. And they've erected some idol in their lives. I do as a promise then before God to each other, two parties agreeing with God, with those human witnesses. And finally, they redefined right and wrong. And the Lord talks about this in verse 17, you wearied the Lord with your words. Where have we wearied him? How'd that happen? When you say, everyone that doeth evil is good. in the sight of the Lord. So wrong is right, and right is wrong, and they redefined. Why do we redefine today? It's bizarre. It's bizarre, but 2 plus 2 is not 5. You shouldn't get an A for that. That's not truth. 2 plus 2 is not 5. You cannot change male and female. Your chromosomes, your XY, all that stuff, it's all the same no matter how you dress up or change what medicines you take or surgeries you go through. You can't change what you are. Vandalism. Well, you know, I'm just and vandalizing and destroying stuff because of my background or the way I think there's perceived injustice. So, you know, I have the right to break all the stuff that I want. That's wrong. That's not true. Right is wrong and wrong is right in a lot of places in our world today. And no matter how you put it, it should only be that man and that woman right there, and not those two guys who are abusing one another. It shouldn't be something like that. And no matter how you put it either, these babies that we're killing, and it's less in the last few years, but that's not right. It is a wrong. No matter the cause that brought that child about. As hard as some of those moments could be, it's still someone created in the image of God. So we have a lot of redefining in our society. Woe to them that call evil good, good evil, that put darkness for light and light for darkness, that put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter. So friends, the main point then would be avoid spiritual adultery. I know we're just getting to this. I thought about breaking this up into two, but I need to give you some hope today. We cannot truly worship God if we're unfaithful to Him. If we're committing spiritual infidelity, we can't just say, I'm worshiping God, God answer my prayers, be here for me. We're not worshiping God if we're unfaithful to Him. So let's avoid spiritual adultery. How do we do that? One main answer would be this. He mentions the word spirit three times. Twice he says this phrase, watch your spirit. Take heed to your spirit. Take good heed, Joshua said, therefore, to yourselves, that you love the Lord your God. Take heed to yourselves, Jesus said. If thy brother trespass against thee, take heed, rebuke him. If he repent, forgive him. If he trespass against thee seven times in a day, seven times in a day return against thee, saying, I repent, thou shalt forgive him. 490 times he's just saying, keep forgiving, keep forgiving. But he says, assess your heart. take heed for yourselves." So what should we take heed to when it comes to watching our spirit? This is a daily practice. Number one, hear the Father. The main points or the answer to verse 17 could be verse 10, because he gives a summary and he's asking, like, why is society like this? Why is our condition spiritually like this? He says, have we not all one Father? Have we not all one God? Have we not one God who created us so we have one God, one Father, and one Creator? Then why do we deal treacherously? Why do we commit these sins? Why are we living as if God does not exist or has no part in our lives. And so we need first off to hear the Father. Gather yourselves together and hear, ye sons of Jacob, and hearken, or take heed to yourselves. Listen to this and to your Father. Here, when I say the word here, I think of the word Shema, Shema, Shema, and it means to listen with intent to act. I read this story, there was a man who was attending special meetings, he was a businessman, he was talking to the special guest speaker at this, he said, I enjoyed the meetings, it was a great week, I appreciate the messages that you brought, but I'm sorry I attended these meetings. businessman said. Why? Why, the minister said. Why? Well, here's why. These meetings have reminded me that I have missed God's best for my life. I was called to Africa as a missionary, and I intended to answer God's call. And so I began to work for money for passage and outfit so that I could go across the ocean. And I learned, I I earned more money and more money and I stayed entered into business and I kept earning money and earning money. And today I own a large business. I have all this money. I have more things than money can buy. I have a beautiful home, lovely wife and children, but down in my heart, I know I missed God's plan for my life. From the world standpoint, I'm ultra successful, but I did not listen to God. Don't let that be you. Hear God the Father. And no matter what life stage you're in, maybe you're a young person looking for your next steps after high school. Maybe you're thinking about what next job should I have or what next home should we buy or what next whatever. You should seek the Lord in that. Seek the Lord and hear, hear what he says about the decisions that you're making. Number two, then worship God. In verse 10, we have one God. One God. Oh, that takes me right back to Deuteronomy 6. One God. But notice what we worship today. We worship money. We worship celebrities. By the way, Taylor Swift, her latest album, eight out of the 10 songs are explicit. They're rated E for explicit. And I wouldn't want my daughter to emulate or listen to a woman who's talking about her boyfriend's male genitalia on a song. And that's some of the stuff that she's putting out there. And millions, if not billions of people are listening to this garbage. That's not an idol to look up to. People worship sex. Those are the male, female symbols there. People worship themselves. I'm it, you know. Humanism, that's part of it. Individualism, whatever I want, whatever's good in my own eyes. And then all the religions. Religions. We're in a church. Yes, religion is the false idol. to a lot of people today. These are images, ideologies, and items that people may worship. Deuteronomy 6, here O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord, one God, shema deos, one God, one Lord. And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all thy soul, with all thy might. Deuteronomy 6, 4 and 5. That's what it is. That's who we should worship. What a challenge sometimes. And even in moments, sometimes as Christians, sometimes in moments we erect idols when we're being selfish or being foolish and we could be like the Israelites and erect a false idol. Knock it down, Lord, knock it down. And I'm gonna worship you and you only. We need to develop an ongoing love relationship with God. Develop an ongoing love relationship with God so that we can avoid spiritual adultery. Hear the Father, worship one God. Be who God created you to be. You notice as he's saying here, we have one Father. Have we not all one Father? We have one God, and that one God is one who created us. Yeah, God made you. And so we need to understand that. David understood that. He said, I will praise thee for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. You're not an accident. Who you are, and we get consumed with things. We get consumed with our brain capacity, our looks, our body image. We get consumed with our abilities and all these different things. But we need, by God's grace, to accept how God made us. Accept that he made you the way that you are. And we should praise that. Marvelous are thy works, and that my soul knoweth right well. Well, that's David. That's David. Well, that's true for you. You know, God doesn't make junk. You're not worthless. You are worth the very blood of Jesus Christ. who shed his blood on your behalf. That's how much he loved you and values you and you're worth it to him. You're worth it to your family. You're worth it to those around you. We've got to embrace and understand that God made us and value ourselves like God values us. I'm not talking about over overestimating ourselves or being lifted up with pride or feeding our egos or anything, but accept yourself for how God made you. Well, I wish I was smart like them, or I wish I had money like that, or I wish I had that talent or skill or ability, or I wish I looked that beautiful as they look. That's all fleeting. That gets erased pretty fast in the whole scheme of things. God loves you for you. And he values you today. And so let's praise the Lord for that. So accept how God made you. Body, mind, personality. And then because of that, another action point, adopt God's plan for your life. God has a plan for your life. You're not flying solo, unless you want to be. You're not just shooting in the dark, like what should I do next? Unless you want to shoot in the dark. God has a distinct path. for your life. He has a will, a desire, a plan. And then in our relationships, whatever relationship you're in at this moment, you're married, you're committed. Acknowledge God in your marriage and in your relationships. Acknowledge it. Commit it to Him. Give it to God. Give those relationships to the Lord. So let's avoid spiritual adultery. Let's not make God tired of us and our choices. We cannot truly worship God if we're not faithful to him. Here's some tips. Number one, focus on an exclusive and devoted relationship with God by prioritizing prayer and scripture and a heart of worship while actively guarding against idolatry, materialism, and other competing affections. So we don't worship God only on Sunday. We worship God every day, or at least we should. Open your Bibles throughout the week. Take moments to pray to God throughout the week. While you're driving a car, listen to the Bible on audio or something. You can get it free on podcasts. It's great. You could do that. You could pray. Don't close your eyes if you're praying while you're driving, but pray. Let's be people who pray. I actually knew a guy that did, and someone behind him grabbed the wheel. It was that bad. Regular self-reflection and accountability with community of believers can help. You identify and remove anything that draws your heart away from God. It's tragic. A lot of American Christians, suppose that American Christians don't have community with their church, but let me tell you, we need it. We need it. If you're really gonna walk with God, we need that community, that accountability. Our identity is found in the body of Christ as Christians, not just as individuals. We need one another. And so, that can help you with avoiding spiritual adultery. Now, I was thinking about sports teams, I'm getting ready to coach junior NBA again. These guys are getting bigger and stronger every year. I'm really excited for this season. But there's a saying, if teamwork makes the dream work. Okay, you get your guys together, what's the dream? Win the game. Okay, what are we going to do? Teamwork to make it happen. If teamwork makes the dream work, then married couples should catch the dream God has in mind for their marriage and work together to achieve it. Do that. Do that by God's grace. Work together. Don't compete. I love Erica Kirk's speech on that funeral Sunday, that funeral a few Sundays ago. She's like, young men, your wife's not your competitor. You know, you're supposed to be helping each other out. You're a team. And we need that in all of our families. Anyone know who that guy is? Kirk Douglas and his wife, Ann? I think her name is Ann. Listen to this. 70 years. 70 years until his death in 2020. What an amazing testimony of devotion and of covenant. Avoid spiritual adultery. Put into motion some of these points that we've talked about here today. Repent of spiritual adultery, spiritual infidelity, or unfaithfulness. Watch out for your spirit daily. Check your spirit daily. Am I walking with God? Am I having a bad attitude about my walk with God? Am I just going through the motions like these priests and the people of Malachi were doing? And then purpose in your present day relationship. Make my relationship stronger and I'm going to actively work and do the things to make it stronger. This is our response time. Let's take a moment to pray together. Number one. I want to just have a moment of silence here and prayer and maybe you would say. I want to repent of spiritual adultery. There's moments, maybe right now, I'm committing spiritual infidelity. There's been something more important than God in my life, and I'm going to confess that. I've erected an idol. It was temporary. God's my God, but I had an idol for a little bit. I need to get rid of that. I'm repenting of spiritual adultery. Anybody like that? Okay, I've committed that. You've committed that. Yeah, it's okay to be honest. I've done that before. Yes. Number two, Lord, help me. I want to watch out for spiritual adultery. I'm going to watch my spirit daily. Lord, I'm going to watch my spirit daily. That's my prayer. I'm going to watch out. I'm going to put things up in my life. Yes, that I'm going to be on the lookout for spiritual adultery. A lot of hands going up. Yes, yes, yes. And finally, Lord, I resolve and purpose in my heart and life right now. It takes work. It takes effort and intentionality. But would you help me and our relationship to become stronger? I'm purposing right now to make my relationships stronger. Hands going up everywhere. Yes. Yes. Yes. Anybody else? Thank you for listening to this Bible message today. What are the next steps? Well, if you have Bible questions, want to know more about Christianity, or have some other question, please reach out to us. We'd be glad to provide a Bible answer to you. This ministry is pleased to come to you weekly, and it's only possible through your prayers and gifts. Thank you for your support.