Flee Idols with Zeal!

Well, good afternoon, everyone. Wonderful to be with you here on this beautiful Sabbath Day. Brethren, as we think about and begin this message this afternoon, think about human beings, think about yourselves, think about you and I, unlike animals, we were created to worship. We have that natural desire. People have a desire to worship. Now, the first question that you and I might ask is this desire to worship, is it directed towards the true God? The God that created that desire? Is that desire that’s installed in us, is that towards the true God? Now, I think back, and telling on myself a little bit, way back when I was younger, I grew up in a Protestant church.

And I don’t know, as I prepared this message, I thought about this, I don’t know where this thought came up. But I remember it as a youth, as a teenager, that there was this thought that I had. I don’t know if it was when I read it, a psalm, but I thought by myself and thinking worshiping idols, false gods, something that was ancient. It’s not a modern problem today anymore. That was my thought. And you can almost chuckle today and think about it, but that’s not true. Idol worship or false worship is all around us. There’s an article, as I prepared this message, that illustrate this, everyone. I hope I pronounce this correctly, but it says the Kumbh Mela, it’s down in India.

Just recently here in January where four hundred million people went. They go to a specific area where three rivers in India meet, and they go, and they believe that they can be cleansed. They can be cleansed from their sins and avoid evil. That’s something that they went four hundred million people; they go there once every twelve years to hold this festival. You and I can see and know that idol worship is against God’s law, but four hundred million people, almost maybe eighty million people, more than the population of the United States. Sadly, to see after this gathering, people died. I read an article afterwards that said about thirty people died because of a stampede.

So, people went, and they believed, they went with their desire to worship, and they died. But this is the purpose, everyone. It connects our understanding with the practice of idol worship. And this is an example of one type of worshiping the wrong god or idols. Let’s go to a verse as we begin this message. This is one type of just outright idol worship. One type of the desire that people have that’s directed to a wrong god. And God says, that’s the worship of idols. Let’s go to First Corinthians chapter ten and look at an instruction for us, everyone, that God gives his people. First Corinthians chapter ten, and we will just read one verse.

It says here, if you are there first Corinthians chapter ten, verse 14, it says, “Therefore, my dearly beloved, flee from idolatry.” That’s an instruction. That’s a command that God has given us. We’ve seen now just the first form of idolatry and many of us, brethren, when God called us, might have called us out of this way of life where there were idols in our lives, physical idols as this example of the article that I read, what happened in India. There’s another form of idolatry as well, a second form that we could identify. And that is where Christ said, “In vain do they worship me, teaching for doctrines, the commandments of men.” This is a form also of a desire to worship the true God.

But Christ said it is unauthorized, incorrect, and the false worship of the true God. So that’s another form of idolatry and maybe, brethren, many people are involved in that today as we know. And when God called us, again, some of us have been called out of this way of life, this second form of idolatry. But there is a third one, brethren, as Paul said, that we have to flee. You and I, we can say, and we can look around us and say, “Well, it might be easy to flee false idols.” Just I can see false idols. I can see that the meeting, the religious meeting in India, that was false worship, idolatry. The second one, we can also see today the worship of the false Jesus.

But there’s a third one, everyone that Ezekiel calls and he talks about, he says, “These men have set up their idols in their heart.” So, there’s a third form that we could look at today and say there’s a form of idolatry that’s within the heart, and that’s the one that we want to specifically focus on as Christians. Much more even than the first two. That type is much more dangerous for us. So, brethren, just as we have the desire to worship, there is a pool. There is a pool in human nature that pulls us away from worshiping the true God to worship of idols. And that’s why Paul went, and he said, “Dearly beloved, flee from idolatry.”

So, today, brethren, let’s examine one Godly trait that will help you and me to flee all forms of idolatry, any form of idolatry. Let’s go and identify what this godly trait is. It’s directly connected to fleeing from idols. Let’s go to Exodus chapter twenty. Exodus chapter twenty, we find the Ten Commandments and we will pick up in verse two. It says... Exodus twenty and verse two, it says, “I am the LORD thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt.” Out of that land that the first form of idolatry was so rampant, “out of the house of bondage. You shall have no other gods before me.” God says, ‘I know that you have a desire to worship.’

And he comes to Israel, and he says to them, that desire should be directed to towards me, the true God that brought you out of Egypt. In verse four, it says, “You shall not make unto you any graven 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: You shall not bow down yourself towards them.” In verse five, it says, “Nor serve them.” People have that desire to worship, to serve a God, but God is giving Israel the instruction to worship only him. “For I am the Lord your God am a jealous God.”

Have you ever thought about brethren that God is jealous? Here he says he’s connecting idolatry or fleeing from idolatry, so to speak, worshiping the true God. He says he’s connecting that with jealousy, that God is jealous. Now, let’s go and... Now that we have identified that trait that you and I need, let’s go and take it one step further. Let’s turn to Exodus chapter thirty-four. We are in chapter twenty. Let’s go a couple of verses on. A couple of chapters on and verses on and read in verse twelve of chapter thirty-four. It says... Exodus thirty-four, verse twelve, “Take heed to yourselves.”

That’s something that you and I need to do, brethren to take heed to ourselves as Paul said, “Lest you make a covenant with inhabitants of the land whether you go, lest it be for a snare in the midst of you. But you shall destroy a day, altars, break their images, and cut down the groves.” God, again, says through Moses, to flee from idolatry, “For you shall worship no other God.” Brethren, God says that he should take the first place in our lives. That desire to worship, there should be no other God in front of him.

Why? It says here, “For the Lord, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God.” So not only does God say, I am jealous, it might be for us interesting and surprising to think about that God is jealous, but not only does He say that He has jealousy, He says my name is jealous. So, it takes a little bit of a step even further. You know that God says He doesn’t just only have love, that He is love. Here we can see that He says, “I am jealous.” So, Brethren, that is something that you and I have to focus on as well. And that’s what we want to do today through jealousy, godly jealousy, brethren, you and I can flee idols, any form of idolatry.

Now that we looked at and identified what that godly trait is that you and I need, let’s go and define godly jealousy. Because when you think about jealousy, and when I prepare this message and you think about jealousy, you think about jealousy as something that is negative. So, let’s look at a definition. Jealousy is a complex emotional state that arises when a person perceives a threat. A threat to what? Something that he values, maybe a relationship, maybe a possession or a status. Now, immediately your mind, and that’s where my mind went, that’s probably why God is jealous because he wants that number one spot in our lives, in every person’s life, he gave that desire to worship, he wants to be number one in people’s lives.

And when it does not happen, it threatens his status as God, but brethren, unlike human jealousy gods, jealousy is not insecure. Because jealousy, the definition of jealousy, has this element of feeling insecure. Think about the example of a husband. Some husbands can be jealous, jealous of their wife. Their wife might be a beautiful lady, and he feels insecure when she’s around other men. So sometimes it can be just this mild insecurity that a husband can have. But that can progress. Maybe you’ve seen that a husband can be very possessive over his wife. She cannot leave the house, she can go nowhere because he is afraid, he’s jealous of that relationship between her, he’s possessive of her.

And sometimes it can get so extreme that husbands are sitting in federal prisons because they have killed for their wives, killed other men, or even their own wife just because of jealousy. So, jealousy is a strong emotion, a passionate emotion, and God has that emotion. He is jealous. He says, not just I am jealous, He says his name is jealous. So that’s something for you and me to focus on. God is certainly not insecure about his position, but He’s passionate. Brethren, what is he passionate about? Again, in contrast with human jealousy, there’s a word that you and I, when I say it, you will recognize it, and you will think about it, and you’ve heard it before.

Jealousy may be a little bit more a negative connotation, as I mentioned, but rooted in the same root word that you find jealousy, from the word zealous. Have you heard zealous God? You could describe it more as zealous. It reflects a passionate, righteous protection of the commitment that God has towards you and me, towards the commitment that he made back with Israel, but brethren, God made the commitment with you and me as well. he’s passionate about it. It’s a righteous protective commitment. That commitment safeguards the covenant and protects that covenant, brethren, and we will look a little bit later on why that is. But God protects, he’s not insecure, he wants to protect you and me.

In jealousy, there’s a level, there’s an element of protection. That means, everyone if God instructs us through Paul to flee idolatry, any form, the first form, the second form, and specifically when we look at idols of the heart that you and I are not on our own. You and I do not have to try to do it by ourselves. God’s jealousy, brethren, is zealous. his jealousy will help and protect us to keep him number one in our lives. That desire that he built into us, to worship him and ultimately to flee idols. Jealousy has that passionate commitment, it has an element of protection, and it also has an element of faithfulness. Three aspects of Godly jealousy, brethren.

You can see why God wants us to mimic that, why he wants us to reproduce not just having jealousy, but be jealous, become jealous, being part of our character, that character trait that you and I need. That’s what we will touch on, how to do that as we proceed. But I want to give you an illustration. Brethren, you might ask, how does...jealousy, when you look at the definition, it says it’s a complex emotion. How does it look like? Is there example of jealousy in the Bible? God’s jealousy and a visual illustration? Let’s go... You are in Exodus chapter thirty-four, let’s go to Exodus chapter nineteen. There is. Let’s go and read Exodus chapter nineteen.

It says... As we pick up in verse eighteen, just before God gave the ten Commandments, he says, “And the Mount Sinai was altogether in smoke, because of the Lord descended upon in fire.” There’s fire, there’s smoke, “And the smoke thereof ascended as the smoke of a furnace, and the whole mount quaked greatly.” Think that in your mind, brethren, look at that picture in your mind. As God’s presence was there, it’s smoke and the earthquake and fire, just before he gave the ten commandments there on Mount Sinai. Verse nineteen, “And when the voice of the trumpet sounded long, and waxed louder and louder, Moses spoke, and God answered him by a voice.” So, God was present there.

“And the Lord came down upon Mount Sinai, on the top of the mount: and the Lord called upon Moses to come to the top of the mount; and Moses went up. Verse twenty-one, “And the Lord said unto Moses, go down, charge the people.” Just as Paul charged and instructed us to flee idolatry, God says to Moses, “Charge the people, unless they break through.” God knew they had that desire to worship. They are curious, “What is going on?” They see the smoke, they see an earthquake, they see fire. But God said, “Lest they break through onto the Lord to gaze, and many of them perish.” Human nature wanted to see God. They wanted to see his image; they wanted to see his shape.

Let’s go to Deuteronomy, the same account. Deuteronomy chapter four and verse twelve. Deuteronomy chapter four and verse twelve, it says here, the same account, a little bit more information for us everyone, “And the Lord spoke unto you...” Moses saying to Israel, and we can take that instruction for us as well brethren, “And the Lord spoke unto you out of the midst of the fire: you heard the voice of the words, but saw no similitude; only you heard a voice,” a similitude. God said, he didn’t want them to see his shape. That’s what similitude mean, his image brethren, just as Paul instructed us in what we are focused on today, God didn’t even want his image to be seen.

He had used the smoke and the fire to keep away his image because he knew that Israel would go and make an idol after true God. We know Satan ultimately came and counterfeited that. And today we already mentioned the second form of idolatry where the true God is worshiped in an unauthorized illegal way, as in a false way. God knew that that is in human nature to do that. But God wanted Israel to focus on his character. He showed his zeal through that fire. Let’s go. We are in chapter four. Let’s read verse twenty-one of Deuteronomy, and... Excuse me, Deuteronomy four, twenty-four. “For the Lord your God is a consuming fire.”

That’s a summary of what happened there. He’s a consuming fire. That passion, zeal that God has, He says, “That’s who I am.” And He says even a jealous God, “I’m zealous. I’m zealous for you, my people, and I will help you. I will protect that first spot. I will help you. I charge you to do that. But you have to focus, not on the physical. Don’t focus on what you see with your eyes. Focus on my character.” And that’s through God’s Spirit, Brethren. That’s what you and I can do as well. We have the privilege. We have been given the understanding to not just look at the physical things you and I can see with spiritual eyes. We can flee the first form of idolatry.

We can flee the second form and the third one that is about idols of the heart. We can serve God with passion, passionate commitment. Brethren, how does this zeal, this godly zeal, look like in action? How can you and I apply this passionate commitment, being protective and be faithful in our commitment with God? How can you and I flee idols in an effective way? The answer lies in adopting exactly the same passionate commitment, that zealous nature that God has. Now, brethren, you don’t come into Sabbath services or go to work, and somebody just see you glow with passion and with zeal, when they touch you that you’re like God is on fire. He says a zealous God, a consuming fire.

That’s not what we are looking at. It’s not the physical representation that we are... You can be zealous in many other ways. But let’s go to Isaiah chapter forty-four. Isaiah chapter forty-four and just look at here. And we talked about God’s protection and deliverance. That’s an element of zeal. Let’s look here at chapter forty-four. Ultimately, brethren, when people pray to God and worship him, that they ask for deliverance. That is one of the things people want protection. People want deliverance. Isaiah forty-four verse seventeen, just one verse here. “The residue thereof he makes a god.” This is a chapter speaking about elements of idolatry.

“Even his graven image: he falls down onto it, people worshiping and worship it, and praying unto it, and says, deliver me; for you are my god.” That’s one of the reasons why people go and worship, why they have that desire. That desire might be this misdirected to idolatry, to worship false gods, but people worship to want to have deliverance, to be delivered. As I prepared this message, just the other day, I read a headline of an article that shows this. Brethren, it says... And you might find this funny, but you just bear with me as we read this headline. It says, “Brazilians keep breaking up.” This article is about relationships, about marriage, about just relationships between men and women. They keep breaking up.

So where do they turn to? This is just the headline, everyone. They are turning to sorcerers, just as this verse says that people turn to false gods, they want deliverance, and to chicken feet. They turn to sorcerers and chicken feet. Now, interesting, the night before at dinner time, my family and I were talking about and some people eat and put on a rotisserie, dark heads. And ultimately, the conversation went to chicken feet. And then the next day, I read this, that people turn to sorcerers and chicken feet for what? For help. They turn to false gods, to animals, to chicken feet, and other things for deliverance.

But brethren, we know that that zealous nature of God, if you and I mimic that, if you and I learn to reproduce that, that will protect us. Zeal, protect us. Let’s go to Isaiah fifty-nine. Looking at even what God uses as protection. Isaiah fifty-nine verse fifteen, it says here, “Yes, truth fails.” We could say the truth of the worship of the true God. “And he that departs from evil makes himself a prey: and the Lord saw it.” You and I brethren, when we depart from evil, when we depart from idolatry, you and I can make ourselves a prey, “And the Lord saw it, and it displeased him that there was no judgment.” What was God’s response in his zeal? “And he saw that there was no man, and wondered that there was no intercessor.

Therefore, his arm brought salvation onto him; and his righteousness, it sustained him. For he put on righteousness as a breastplate, and the helm of salvation upon his head; and he put on the garment of vengeance for clothing, and was clad with zeal as a cloak.” God put on zeal and the breastplate he put on the armor of God to protect him. Brethren, you go to Ephesians six, to protect us. Ephesians six. Brethren, God’s zeal, he used that zeal and his armor as protection, as deliverance, as you and I want to flee from idols. Let’s go to Ephesians chapter six and just briefly read here, verse ten to twelve. It says, “Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord.”

Having that zeal towards that first place in our lives to keep that passionate commitment that you and I made. “In the Lord, and in the power of his might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.” That wile, that desire that can be misplaced, that pull that is in our lives as well, that wants to pull us away from the true God. You and I can stand with that same zeal, but we have to... like God did put on the breastplate of righteousness, put on the whole armor of God. And you can read what the armor of God is as we continue, but we will just read verse twelve as well, “For we wrestle not against flesh.”

The wrestling that you and I... Brethren those idols of the mind or the idols of the heart that we will look at. Those are the things that you and I struggle with. It’s not a physical struggle. It’s much easier for us to put away that first type of idols, those flopping down on physical, manmade images, graven images made of gold or wood. I mean, it’s much more difficult when we wrestle “not against the physical flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against rulers of darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.” Brethren, how does this look like in a practical way? Let’s apply this in a practical... have a practical application. Let’s go to Second Corinthians.

We put on God’s armor. We put it on in a zealous way to protect that first spot that you and I have to protect as well. Second Corinthians ten verse five, it says, “Casting down imaginations, thoughts, and every high thing,” everything, brethren, that puts itself higher than God. Every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God. Against the knowledge of the true God. Against the knowledge that we saw in the Ten Commandments, those first two commandments that God rightfully deserves that first place in every person’s life. Not everyone knows that, but you and I know that today that’s what we should do.

But the idols brethren that we are faced with want to take that first place, that pull that is there almost on a daily basis. And that’s where you and I can chuckle and I chuckled thinking about myself as a youth saying, I don’t see idolatry as a problem today, that means my eyes were blind to what is actually happening, and we can make a case today that idolatry is much more rampant today than ever before. Why? Let’s go to first John. What are we facing with, brethren on a daily basis? First John chapter two. Maybe we find it not that difficult to put physical idols out. We came out of false Christianity, many of us, but you and I, brethren, it doesn’t matter where you are.

We have to wrestle and contend with this. First John chapter two and verse fifteen. It says, “Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world.” John just said things, what things? That can be anything that wants to put itself in that first spot, puts it in front of God. Brethren, again, that zeal, that protective, passionate commitment that you and I have, will help us to identify these things that are in the world. If any man loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. “For all that is in the world, everything that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but of the world.”

You have heard in messages in the past where we would say any passions, lusts, any possessions, things and positions, the pride of life, those three things, any passion, possession or position, those things, brethren, are not in and of themselves wrong. Think about the possessions that you and I need; the positions you and I are working every day. God commands us to work. He commands us to use our talents. He commands us to do certain things to have a passion about it. Maybe your career or yes, a relationship that you have towards your children, towards your wife. Positions, again, and possessions, those are things that we need.

But brethren, if any of those want to take the first spot in your life, they become and can become an idol. That’s why we can say today even more than in the past, people in the past maybe lived in a village. There was maybe one person that had an idol that they knew that was wrong. They were not bombarded by what you and I are bombarded on a daily basis with the technology that we have, things that are put in front of our eyes, things that we see, things that we lust after. Things that we want, again, not in and of themselves wrong, but if any of those things, anything, if it’s a child, if it’s a career, if it’s a mother or a father, all of those things, we can put it in front of God and those can become an idol to us.

So those are things that are dangerous, and we can ask God with his zeal to open our eyes to see that. Now, what are some of the idols of the heart now. Brethren, God must have a sense of humor. Let’s go to first Samuel. I’m convinced that God has to have a great sense of humor because you and I might think and we might be overwhelmed and we say, again, God says, “You are not on your own. I will help you. I will show to you what these things are in your life that you might put in front of me, but First Samuel fifteen verse twenty-three, it says here an example of an idol of the heart. First Samuel chapter fifteen and verse twenty-three. It says, “For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft.”

So, God in his mind connects rebellion. After Saul, Israel rebelled against God. He says, “rebellion is like witchcraft, and stubbornness as an equity. and idolatry.” Now, you don’t have to raise your hands, but the question is, are there any of us that think we are not stubborn? Every person has an element or level of stubbornness, and an example is, brethren, have you seen a dog on a leash? How stubborn they can be. When you tell the dog, “You come with me on the leash to the right,” and then they will kick, and they will just go that direction. If you say, “Go to the left,” they would want to go to the right.

Now, I’m convinced that the reason why dogs have this thick neck it’s not because they have these strong muscles from the beginning. It’s because they’re stiff necked and stubborn. If you want to pull them in the one direction, they pull the other direction. That’s exactly who you and I are brethren, and that’s how Ezra was, and that’s... God can see all people are stubborn and we can have a little bit of fun there, but that’s a trait that you and I have, an idol of the heart where God says, “Stubbornness, I see as idolatry.” Again, brethren, God’s zeal will protect us from that. Let’s go to Colossians three. Looking at another example here. Colossians chapter three and verse five.

Colossians chapter three and verse five. Another example of an idol of the heart. It says in verse five, “Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth; fornication, uncleanliness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry.” Back to that verse in John that spoke about any possession, any passion that we lust after, not in of itself wrong, but if they pull us towards taking away that first spot that is rightly deserved to God, that can ignite his zeal, brethren, and we have to have and mimic and reproduce God’s zeal ultimately to protect us from that. What is one thing that you and I can do as we go into the self-examination time, year before the spring holidays?

One of the things that we can ask God to protect us from is through his zeal, brethren, to open our eyes that we can have the same zeal, that we can see these things in front of us. Ask yourself, what is consuming your time? Are there things that consumes too much energy that you have something in your life that consume too much time or energy? What do you treasure or value most? We said that jealousy, or jealousy is a trait that ultimately ignites that passion against what you value. God values that first spot brethren, and if we put anything in front of him, again, that can ignite his jealousy.

We don’t want to do that, but that zeal, again, if we reproduce that we can use it in a way that will, again, deliver us from fleeing from idols seeing them and recognizing them is a first step. Doing self-examination is something else asking God to see them. Are there things that you and I treasure, value more than our relationship with God? Let’s go to Luke chapter fourteen. Luke chapter fourteen and verse twenty-six. It says, Luke fourteen, verse twenty-six, “If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and his mother, and his wife, and his children, and brethren, and sisters, yes and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple.” Keeping God there in the first position, brethren, is not easy to do. He says nothing.

No relationship. Not even your own life. The things of our lives should take that position. Brethren, to flee idols of any form requires godly zeal. Let’s look at one final way to see zeal in action. We said that it’s protective, passionate, protective, and there’s an element of faithfulness as well. Worshipping a false god, idolatry, God sees as infidelity, unfaithfulness, just as a husband or wife, idolatry is unfaithful towards in that marriage. God says idolatry is seen as infidelity. Let’s go to Deuteronomy chapter seven. Deuteronomy chapter seven and we will read verse nine.

It says... Deuteronomy seven verse nine, “Know therefore that the Lord your God, he is God, the faithful God, which keeps covenant and mercy within that love him and keep his commandments to the thousands generations.” We just learned recently what that means. But God says, “I’m faithful.” That jealousy that he has, he says, “I will be faithful.” Now, faithfulness, fidelity has an interesting one element that’s interesting for us today when you look faithfulness. God’s zeal that is faithful. It says faithfulness in accuracy and precision. Faithfulness or fidelity can also refer to the degree of exactness with which something is copied or reproduced. Brethren, God is busy reproducing himself.

We use the example of music. If you look at a music sheet, if Bach or Mozart wrote that music, if a certain orchestra play that music, they copy, they reproduce that. Every copy of that would be a little bit different. It would not be an exact copy. Brethren, God is busy to reproduce himself, his character, that zeal in us, to help us to flee idolatry, but that zeal can help us with everything that we need to do as Christians, but he’s reproducing himself. I can remember an example, you have this copy of machines here in the US called Xerox, in South Africa, we had a Nashua, and there was this advertisement where the young boy wrote a letter to a girl and he said, “I love you.”

Now, they show the advertisement where the young boy walks to the copier, he takes a rim of paper and he climbs on the copier and he starts to make copies, which we don’t see in the beginning what he is copying. Ultimately, he came to the hall, and he gave to his favorite girl, he gave a copy of this letter that said I love you and she felt very special. But as he is this young opportunist, he went and as girls came by, he took the copies of that letter, and he handed them out to all the girls in the whole class, but he made a copy of what he wrote, an exact copy. Brethren, if God is faithful, he says he’s faithful, you and I must be faithful as well. If we are faithful and he says he’s faithful, the copy that he’s making will be an exact copy.

Let’s go to Colossians, a final verse, Colossians chapter three, and we will read verse ten. Colossians three and verse ten, “And I have put on the new man.” You and I are putting on a new man in understanding today to flee idolatry, that we need God’s zeal, we need it as new men and new women, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created thee. Brethren, God is all about images if it’s the correct image. He told Israel that they are not allowed to look at him, to gaze at him, because they would go and make an idol of God. But brethren, God’s righteous zeal, his faithfulness, there’s that element that he’s busy reproducing himself in a faithful way.

If you and I are faithful, if you and I are zealous in putting away idols, in fleeing idols, the copy that He’s creating is going to a more exact copy, the more we do that on a daily basis. He wants people, He wants you and me to produce his character, his zeal. Brethren, let us reflect as we conclude on God’s zeal, the commitment to keeping him first in our lives, in everything, guarding our hearts from the idols that seek to take that first place in our lives. Let us commit to keeping God at the center of our lives by examining our lives regularly, especially during this time, setting aside distractions and reproduce this, and develop this sincere, steady devotion to his way of life.