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Sermon Date: 2006
Outline:
INTRODUCTION:
A. Background Information
1. Jeroboam planted sin two hundred years before.
a. Made some alliances with the enemy.
b. Set up false idols.
c. Turned God’s people against God.
2. Jeroboam was of the tribe of Ephraim.
3. God called Jeroboam Ephraim because his sin affected an entire tribe.
a. God didn’t look at Achan’s sin as just Achan’s but all of Israel.
b. Jonah’s sin affected the whole boat.
c. Your sins are looked at as Open Door Baptist Church’s sin.
d. That’s why I preach like your sins are my business.
4. Jeroboam put some leaven in the bread.
5. Now two hundred years have passed and the leaven has taken its course.
6. The decisions you are making now will have effects way down the line.
7. The people lacked standards so they took Jeroboam’s standards.
a. You should set standards for yourself.
b. If you take the standards of other Christians, you will run into two problems:
1- Your standards will be too low because it is based on man.
2- You may have high standards, but they may not be Biblical.
3- (Illus.) The Catholic Church has a lot of these: Priest not getting married.
B. I would have healed Israel, then… (vs. 1)
1. Some people in here are on the edge of revival.
a. You heard the preaching and God’s begun to stir your heart.
b. You’ve been watching others get involved.
c. Summer Bible Conference was an awesome opportunity for God to work in your heart.
d. God has been speaking to your heart.
2. Just like Israel, God wants to heal your spirit.
3. But because of a sin you are holding on to, maybe He can’t.
4. I never want God to have to say He “would have healed us.”
C. The Bible clearly tells us what Ephraim’s sins are.I. EPHRAIM IS A CAKE NOT TURNED. (vs. 7:8)
A. IT IS GOOD ON ONE SIDE AND RAW ON THE OTHER.
1. This makes it completely useless.
2. Hot – Luke Warm – Cold (Illus.)
Revelation 3:15, 16, “I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot. So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth.”
3. God can reach the heart of a cold person easier than a luke-warm person.
4. Kim Henke (Illus.)
B. THE CAUSE WAS THE CROWD HE FOLLOWED. (Hosea 7:8a)
C. AMNON & JONADAB (II SAMUEL 13:1-20)
1. Explain the story.
2. Amnon couldn’t do it on his own. (vs. 2)
3. But Amnon had a friend. (vs. 3)
4. Some people have a sin that would easily beset them, but have not yielded to it.
5. The wrong friend will cause them to.
6. Amnon would have been healed, but he was a cake not turned.
D. YOU EITHER ARE NOW OR SOON WILL BE WHAT YOUR FRIENDS ARE.
II. EPHRAIM IS A SILLY DOVE. (VS. 7:11)1. I can come into a church and tell who is going to fall into sin.
2. I just watch who they sit by.
3. It may be a boyfriend / girlfriend.
4. Ian Cowans (Illus.)
“You either are now or soon will be what your friends are.”
5. Demonic Girl (Illus.)
6. Some of you will miss church because of your friends.
7. Some of you will be doing things months from now you never would have thought of doing.
8. Your friends will come and go, but your decisions are permanent.
9. Going to the bar with co-workers. “But I’m not drinking. I just go for the fellowship”
10. Going out with someone of the opposite sex as “friends” even though you are married.
11. Who do you spend the majority of your time with outside of church?
12. Single people, who are you interested in having a relationship with?
13. GOD WOULD HAVE HEALED ISRAEL, BUT THEY WERE A CAKE NOT TURNED!
A. WITHOUT HEART.
1. A dove is careless. (Without affection)
2. Some people will never serve God because they just don’t care.
3. Some Christians serve God without affection for Him. Without a relationship with Him.
4. You can be lost and serve in a ministry.
5. I don’t know how we can go through life everyday, knowing that people all around us are headed for Hell, and we just don’t care. How can we not have the natural affection for the lost?
6. (Illus.) Is There A Hell?
7. My friends, Tuesday Night ought to be our biggest crowd.
8. I am afraid that we just don’t have a church that cares. We don’t have a church that is spiritual.
B. CALL TO EGYPT AND GO TO ASSYRIA.
1. A dove has no understanding. (Thoughtless)
2. Egypt and Assyria were enemies. You can’t be friends with both sides.
3. Assyria ended up betraying them. Egypt ended up destroying them.
C. THEY RAN TO TWO WORLDLY NATIONS, BUT NEVER RAN TO GOD.
III. EPHRAIM HIRED LOVERS. (VS. 8:9)1. We run to the world and our flesh.
2. The world will betray you and your flesh will destroy you.
3. (Illus.) Psychologists who killed himself because he was mad at a preacher.
4. (Illus.) We run to Dr. Spock for parenting advice. His son committed suicide.
5. (Illus.) Lady on Oprah who wrote a book about marriage after having a divorce.
6. Do you run to your unsaved friends?
7. GOD WOULD HAVE HEALED ISRAEL, BUT THEY WERE A SILLY DOVE!
A. GOD USES MARRIAGE AS A PICTURE OF OUR RELATIONSHIP WITH HIM. (6:10, 7:4)
1. We are the Bride of Christ.
2. Israel is pictured as the Bride of God, the Father.
a. Abraham married Sarah, but she died. (Picture of Israel’s scattering)
b. Abraham remarried Keturah. (Picture of Israel’s re-gathering as a nation)
3. Israel committed spiritual adultery.
B. WE HAVE A PROBLEM WITH SERVING IDOLS INSTEAD OF GOD.
1. Anything that is above God is an idol.
a. 3 major struggles of a youth pastor. (Sports, Jobs, Parents)
b. Possessions
c. Television (There is no more appropriate name for a T.V. show than “American Idol”)
d. Popularity
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