Video
A Jealous God – Mike Underhill
Sermon Preached on September 22, 2013
Notes & Scriptures
1 – ZEAL OF GOD
Isaiah 9:1-3
– This kingdom is accomplished by zeal of God
– If zeal is an attribute of God, then it must be an attribute of His followers
– Zeal in Hebrew is the same word as the English word jealous
– In many foreign languages (i.e., Spanish, Hebrew) the words jealous and zealous are the same word!
Ezekiel 16:1-14
– God is saying very pointedly that no one cared about us!
– And God came along and rescued us from the pool of blood as a helpless child
– Once God rescued, we became the most beautiful of all creation and then God chose to make His covenant with us
– God claimed us as His wife and we entered into a covenant of marriage with God!
– God made us His own and made us into His queen
Ezekiel 16:16-22
– People don’t understand God’s call to be zealous
– When we are involved with worldly relationships, we experience the fury and anger of the other partner being unfaithful!
– God is also furious when He has to share us with the world (our idolatry towards greed, career, other people, etc.)
– We understand the covenant of marriage and how sacred that must be
– Yet it’s so difficult for us to understand why God is equally as furious over our unfaithfulness!
Ezekiel 16:59-63
– God remembers the covenant that He has made with us and wants to reconcile and have an everlasting covenant with us again!
– And once this is done, He wants us to never grumble or complain about our sacrifice for Him again!
– a husband would not be satisfied with an unfaithful and half-committed wife, and God expects the same!
2 – ZEAL FOR GOD
John 2:13-17
– Jesus goes to the temple excited to worship His Father and finds the people working to earn money and not concerned for God
– Jesus, in his indignation, flips the table and makes a whip
– People think that Jesus may be in sin
– But Jesus was not in sin…He was consumed with zeal (jealous) for God’s house!
– Jesus was serious, in His zeal, to clear God’s house from the worldly idols!
– We are an abomination/hypocrite toward God if we are filled with idolatry and lack of zeal for God!
– People think that Jesus is a “religious, nice guy,” but He is a jealous God who expects 100% devotion to Him!
– Jesus stood before family and the people He loved and was just as zealous and serious for God because nothing can get in the way of His relationship with God!
– We need to take a stand for God against the people we love who persecute us!
– Do I have enough zeal for God to clear out the temple (God’s house) for Him?!
– We need to have deep talks with each other and keep God’s house clear of sin!
– Our selfish pride prevents us from getting real about our hidden sin against God nod cleaning out the inside of our temples for God!
– We need to love God more than we love what people think about us!!! (Galatians 1:10)
Numbers 25:1-3, 6-9
– God’s anger burns against our sin
– Phinehas dealt (with zeal) with the zeal towards the sins against God!
– He killed the couple who was sinning against God – because of their disrespect!)
– The plague against God’s people ended when the sin was dealt with!
– Do we have this zeal towards sin?
Ephesians 5:1-10
– Not even a hint of impurity of greed, immorality, in God’s church!
– God’s people should not have a hint of any sexual sin in the fellowship at all!
– Do you struggle giving your contribution? If so, then there’s a hint of greed in your life!
– The best place to invest your money in the world is in God’s Kingdom!
2 Samuel 6:12-23
– David danced with all his heart in his linen undergarments in praise toward God!
– But Michal (David’s wife) despised him in her heart when she saw him dancing.
– Those that aren’t zealous get critical and offended and point it out to others.
– We can be so concerned with what everyone thinks!
– We need to be fired up and not conceal our zeal because the lukewarm person next to us is critical!
– You don’t need to repent of your zeal, they need to repent of their lukewarmness!
– Don’t let critical people hold you back from your enthusiasm toward God!
– Critical people’s thoughts will die with them! We will die pleasing God!
– We have so many disciples in our church who have stood up for what’s right!
– What leads us to repentance is that God is zealous/jealous for us! We need to decide to never disappoint Him and live to make Him proud!
