1/22/17
Demanding Attention
What demands attention in our lives?
We can’t give everything all the attention they demand!
What happens when we ignore these things?
Where is there room for God?
Competing Demands
Deuteronomy 6:1-5
Brown Bible: Page 182
White Bible: Page _
Red Bible:
Page _
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1/22/17
A “thumbnail sketch” of the history of the Israelites
• God promised the Patriarchs a land of their own 2100 BC
• They became slaves in Egypt
1800 BC
• Moses led them out of Egypt
1440 BC
• God revealed Himself: 10 Commandments
• They failed to enter the Promised Land (fear)
• They wandered 40 years in the desert (1 generation)
• Moses prepared people for 2nd attempt to enter 1400 BC
• They entered the Promised Land
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Polytheism
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Polytheism = “many gods”
Where they lived for 400 years: Ancient Egypt
Where they were planning to go: Land of Canaan
Moses was a good teacher: He takes seriously…
– What formed them
– What is about to influence them
Polytheism:
Ancient Egyptian Gods (1,500 named)
Aker – A god of the earth and the horizon
Ammit – goddess who devoured condemned
souls
Amenhotep – deified for his wisdom
Am-heh – A dangerous underworld god
Amun – A creator god
Amunet – Female counterpart of Amun
Anat – A war and fertility goddess
Anhur – A god of war and hunting
Anput - A goddess of the dead and
mummification
Anti – Falcon god (transports other gods)
Anubis – god of embalming and protector of
the dead
Anuket – A goddess of Egypt's southern
frontier regions
Apedemak – A warlike lion god from Nubia
Apep –personified malevolent chaos
Apis – A live bull worshipped as a god
Arensnuphis – A Nubian deity
Ash – A god of the Libyan Desert and oases
Astarte – A warrior goddess
Aten – Sun disk deity
Atum – A creator god and solar deity
Baal – Sky and storm god from Syria and
Canaan
Ba'alat Gebal –patroness of the city of Byblos
Babi –sexuality and aggression
Banebdjedet – A ram god, patron of Mendes
Ba-Pef –underworld deity
Bast –protection from evil
Bat – Cow goddess
Bennu – A solar and creator deity
Bes –protecting children and women in childbirth
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Polytheism:
Canaanite Gods (partial list)
Anat, goddess of war and strife
Athirat, "walker of the sea", Mother Goddess
Athtart, better known by her Greek name Astarte,
assists Anat
Attar, god of the morning star
Baalat or Baalit, the wife or female
counterpart of Baal
Baal Hadad, storm god
Baal Hammon, god of fertility and renewer of
all energies
Dagon, god of crop fertility and grain
El, leader of the pantheon
Eshmun, god of healing
Ishat, goddess of fire
Kotharat, goddesses of marriage and
pregnancy
Kothar-wa-Khasis, god of craftsmanship
Lotan, the twisting, seven-headed serpent ally of
Yam
Marqod, God of Dance
Melqart, God of the underworld and cycle of
vegetation
Moloch, putative god of fire
Mot or Mawat, god of death
Nikkal-wa-Ib, goddess of orchards and fruit
Qadeshtu, goddess of love
Resheph, god of plague and of healing
Shachar and Shalim, twin gods of dawn and
dusk
Shamayim, god of the heavens
Shapash, goddess of the sun
Sydyk, the god of righteousness or justice
Yam the god of the sea and the river
Yarikh, god of the moon
Polytheism
• An “free exchange” with gods
– They promise to give things
– IF people follow their rules,
or give them what they demand
• So find the god who has what you want
and decide if you’ll pay the price it demands
– A “free market” orientation to life
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Polytheism:
The Modern World
Reason & Analysis
Reflection
Science
Twitter / Facebook / Snapchat / …
News
Social life
Entertainment
Food and drink
Autonomy
Freedom
Self-expression
Success
Productivity
Exercise
Control
Praise
Planning
Worry
Our stuff: house, car, bicycle
Friends
Family
Grades
Learning
Self-discipline
Health
Self-fulfillment
Government
Finances
Peer review
Pleasure
Hard work
Distraction
Polytheism
We live lives trying to give what is demanded
by a huge array of things
that promise to give us what we want
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Deuteronomy 6
1-2 Obey the LORD’s teaching to receive a blessing
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4-5
Deuteronomy 6
1-2 Obey the LORD’s teaching to receive a blessing
3 Blessing in hearing and obeying the LORD
4-5
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Deuteronomy 6
1-2 Obey the LORD’s teaching to receive a blessing
3 Blessing in hearing and obeying the LORD
4-5 Only one God (the LORD) means only one authority,
leading to full submission to the LORD
The Big Idea
Since the LORD is the one authority over all that is
and since He is the source of all goodness
we can live fully and completely
only in Him
with great hope
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Application
Every square inch of the universe
and every second of our lives
is best and most alive
in God through Christ
• False divisions
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Sacred / Secular
Faith / Reason
Work / Family / Recreation / Church
Faith / Culture / Country / Personality / …
What God controls / what is out of control / …
Putting it into practice: 2 examples
• Not: Treat reason as a god, or as irrelevant to God
• Rather: Use reason to love God
– All good learning can be to God’s glory
– Study God better than anything else
– Ravi Zacharias talk: “Ask Anything” (February 8)
• Trust God in every part of life
– Last week: when under authority, submit “in Christ”
– Illusion of control
– Illusion of powerlessness
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The Big Idea
Since the LORD is the one authority over all that is
and since He is the source of all goodness
we can live fully and completely
only in Him
with great hope
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Things are not what they seem
• “The LORD our God, the LORD is one.”
– He has authority over everything else
– He is the source of all goodness
• Other “gods” are very deceptive
– They look very powerful
– They seem to control the goodness we want
“But we do see Jesus,
who was made lower than the angels for a little while,
now crowned with glory and honor
because he suffered death, so that by the grace of God
he might taste death for everyone.”
Hebrews 2:9
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“He says, ‘Be still, and know that I am God;
I will be exalted among the nations,
I will be exalted in the earth.’
The Lord Almighty is with us.”
from Psalm 46:10-11
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