LoveKey Church
idolatrous iDentity
We worked through our foundations and now we start to look at how our foundations should impact our identity, marriage, parenting, purpose and community. We are going to dive into how our identity is determined by who or what we really serve and worship. https://linktr.ee/lovekeymission info@lovekey.co.za
Locations & Times
https://facebook.com/lovekeychurch
Sunday 10:00 AM
LoveKey Church
LoveKey Church Website
https://lovekeymission.com
LoveKey Church Podcast
LoveKey Podcast Link
Be encouraged, inspired, and challenged with our LoveKey Church Message of the Week, and our Love Unlocks Live Sessions.Please subscribe and write a review.
https://linktr.ee/lovekeypodcast
Birthdays and Anniversaries
Connect Groups
Contact Details for Connect Group Leaders
What is LoveKey Church All About?
Our name comes from the fact that we believe that the KEY to salvation (giving your life to Jesus, becoming a reborn Christian) is the revelation of how much God LOVES you. And the KEY to living the life He has for us is to LOVE him back. That’s why LoveKey Church is a local expression of a part of the body of Christ with a focus on creating a place, opportunity and atmosphere where all people can encounter God, align with His purposes in order to reign in life, and help others to do the same.
ENCOUNTER, ALIGN REIGN, HELP OTHERS DO THE SAME - easy way to remember it.
We believe the Bible is the word of God and we commit to be obedient to it with the leading of the Holy Spirit
We believe that marriage and family is God’s idea and His way of doing it is the right way and the best way. We want to see marriages thrive and families be healthy in Jesus. Because healthy families build a healthy nation - notice I didn’t say “perfect” families, I said healthy - whole in Jesus, reconciled in Jesus, redeemed by Jesus, focused on Jesus.
We stand for unity in the body of Christ - we can be diverse but not divided, and celebrate our different gifts and roles in the greater body of Christ. We really resonate with Jesus’ prayer in John 17 where he asks that the Father will make us all one as He and the Father are one so that the world will know that He sent Him. Our biggest evangelical tool is unity!
We want to help eradicate fatherlessness and shine a light on the crisis of cultural Christianity - South Africa has a physical fatherlessness rate of 62% and other forms of fatherlessness in the remaining percentage - it truly is a huge problem.
Cultural Christianity is where people grow up in a so-called Christian home or culture and believe that that makes them a Christian, when in fact it is very possible that the culture they’re in has adopted a version of God that is convenient, made it apart of their culture and they’re actually worshipping their culture.
We want this to be a multi-generational, multi-cultural church that lives to know Jesus and to make Him known.
ENCOUNTER, ALIGN REIGN, HELP OTHERS DO THE SAME - easy way to remember it.
We believe the Bible is the word of God and we commit to be obedient to it with the leading of the Holy Spirit
We believe that marriage and family is God’s idea and His way of doing it is the right way and the best way. We want to see marriages thrive and families be healthy in Jesus. Because healthy families build a healthy nation - notice I didn’t say “perfect” families, I said healthy - whole in Jesus, reconciled in Jesus, redeemed by Jesus, focused on Jesus.
We stand for unity in the body of Christ - we can be diverse but not divided, and celebrate our different gifts and roles in the greater body of Christ. We really resonate with Jesus’ prayer in John 17 where he asks that the Father will make us all one as He and the Father are one so that the world will know that He sent Him. Our biggest evangelical tool is unity!
We want to help eradicate fatherlessness and shine a light on the crisis of cultural Christianity - South Africa has a physical fatherlessness rate of 62% and other forms of fatherlessness in the remaining percentage - it truly is a huge problem.
Cultural Christianity is where people grow up in a so-called Christian home or culture and believe that that makes them a Christian, when in fact it is very possible that the culture they’re in has adopted a version of God that is convenient, made it apart of their culture and they’re actually worshipping their culture.
We want this to be a multi-generational, multi-cultural church that lives to know Jesus and to make Him known.
Offer to Serve
Offer to Serve Link
OFFER TO SERVE INVITEIf you feel led by God to be a part of this vision and mission, please contact us at info@lovekey.co.za or fill out our Offer to Serve form on the Church Center app, or online:
https://forms.gle/ufM5cD8KYabn365s6Spotlight Social
We would like to bring our whole church community together with the Spotlight Social app. Please download and create and account and link up with LoveKey Church.
https://spolightsocial.app
Please Pray for our leaders, members, marriages, families and our nation
Partner with LoveKey Church
What You Partner With:
Thank you for partnering with our ministry so that we can: 1. reach more people with the gospel message 2. Positively impact marriages and families 3. Play a role in eradicating fatherlessness 4. Shine a light on the crisis of cultural Christianity 5. Minister Unity to the body of Christ 6. Sow into what we hope to be future social justice projects in our local community 6. Sow into trusted organizations preaching the gospel in Israel to Jews, and helping Jews relocate to Israel.- FIRM Foundation and One For Israel
https://lovekeymission.com/partnerEFT: Banking Details: LoveKey NPC, FNB, Current Account Number: 62824888525, Branch code: 250655
Card Payment link: https://pay.yoco.com/lovekey-npc
PayPal: partner@lovekey.co.za
Card Payment link: https://pay.yoco.com/lovekey-npc
PayPal: partner@lovekey.co.za
Cheerful Giver
Here is another easy way for you to partner with our ministry. Cheerful Giver enables you to easily give any amount of your choice to LoveKey Church through whatsapp. You set up your profile and link your card once, and then you're good to give!
https://www.cheerfulgiver.co.za/give/LK
Ways to Partner
Praise and Worship Scripture
SERIES: ALIGNING WITH GOD
SUBSERIES: IMPACT OF FOUNDATIONS
IDENTITY
MESSAGE TITLE: "IDOLATROUS IDENTITY"
SUBSERIES: IMPACT OF FOUNDATIONS
IDENTITY
MESSAGE TITLE: "IDOLATROUS IDENTITY"
IMPACT SERIES
Idolatrous Identity
MAIN MESSAGE: "IDOLATROUS IDENTITY"
CONTEXT:
We have been busy with a series on foundations. Now we’re shifting our focus to how those foundations, when we understand them AND THEN APPLY THEM, should impact certain key parts of our lives - the most important ones that actually affect everything else.
We want to see How:
1. Repentance
2. Salvation
3. Faith
4. Lordship & Obedience
5. Water baptism
6. Holy spirit baptism
7. Spiritual family
8. Discipleship
Impacts:
1. Identity
2. Purpose
3. Marriage
4. Parenting
5. Community
I believe we are going to do a few sessions on identity because it is so important.
How is my identity impacted by the foundations?
Repentance: I realize I am a sinner in need of a saviour and choose to turn away from my old self to God - I burn down the house of the old man and I make a 180 degree turn toward God.
Salvation: I am saved by grace through faith and I am now a child of God and can cry out with the spirit of adoption Abba, Father, to the almighty God, creator of the universe
Faith - I have received a gift of faith and I choose to exercise it exclusively in my relationship with God by putting all my faith in Him
Lordship and obedience: Jesus is Lord, Christ and King, but now I realize it, accept it and make him the lord of my life and because I love Him, I do what He says
Water baptism: my own man is washed away, I am a new creation, no longer in condemnation
Holy Spirit baptism: I receive the spirit of God, fire and power - part and parcel of my new identity in Christ
Spiritual family is my new family in God where I choose to commit by serving and submitting to leadership
Discipleship is the process of maturing in my identity in Christ through meaningful relationships where accountability is key with people in the church
INTRODUCTION TO “IDOLATROUS IDENTITY”
As a first step into studying the impact on our identity by our foundations, I believe God wants us to look at and deal with a very important aspect of being a real born-again Christian: idolatrous identity - which is also the title of today’s message.
I want to take us to a passage in Ezekiel and then show us how important this issue is to God and how it can easily be a blindspot for us as believers in moving forward in our walk with Jesus and in being effective.
The crux of today’s message is that you are, or will become who or what you worship. In other words, whatever you give most of your time, money and efforts to, is your god and will determine your identity.
IDENTITY: You are who you serve/worship (our God is a jealous God)
CONTEXT:
We have been busy with a series on foundations. Now we’re shifting our focus to how those foundations, when we understand them AND THEN APPLY THEM, should impact certain key parts of our lives - the most important ones that actually affect everything else.
We want to see How:
1. Repentance
2. Salvation
3. Faith
4. Lordship & Obedience
5. Water baptism
6. Holy spirit baptism
7. Spiritual family
8. Discipleship
Impacts:
1. Identity
2. Purpose
3. Marriage
4. Parenting
5. Community
I believe we are going to do a few sessions on identity because it is so important.
How is my identity impacted by the foundations?
Repentance: I realize I am a sinner in need of a saviour and choose to turn away from my old self to God - I burn down the house of the old man and I make a 180 degree turn toward God.
Salvation: I am saved by grace through faith and I am now a child of God and can cry out with the spirit of adoption Abba, Father, to the almighty God, creator of the universe
Faith - I have received a gift of faith and I choose to exercise it exclusively in my relationship with God by putting all my faith in Him
Lordship and obedience: Jesus is Lord, Christ and King, but now I realize it, accept it and make him the lord of my life and because I love Him, I do what He says
Water baptism: my own man is washed away, I am a new creation, no longer in condemnation
Holy Spirit baptism: I receive the spirit of God, fire and power - part and parcel of my new identity in Christ
Spiritual family is my new family in God where I choose to commit by serving and submitting to leadership
Discipleship is the process of maturing in my identity in Christ through meaningful relationships where accountability is key with people in the church
INTRODUCTION TO “IDOLATROUS IDENTITY”
As a first step into studying the impact on our identity by our foundations, I believe God wants us to look at and deal with a very important aspect of being a real born-again Christian: idolatrous identity - which is also the title of today’s message.
I want to take us to a passage in Ezekiel and then show us how important this issue is to God and how it can easily be a blindspot for us as believers in moving forward in our walk with Jesus and in being effective.
The crux of today’s message is that you are, or will become who or what you worship. In other words, whatever you give most of your time, money and efforts to, is your god and will determine your identity.
IDENTITY: You are who you serve/worship (our God is a jealous God)
Check this out: IDOLATRY - I-DOLL-A-TREE
We see over and over again in the old testament God the father communicating through his appointed leaders and prophets over generations one simple thing that the people of God just can’t seem to get right: I am your God, love only me and no other gods.
We learn from these kinds of passages that many of the idols were literally made by hand from stone, wood, silver, gold, etc. In many scriptures, God and his prophets rebuke Israel and Judah for choosing to rather worship things they made with their own hands than the God who made everything.
From our scriptures it is very clear that God is a jealous God who does not want to share you love, affection, attention, devotion and commitment.
Who of you are married? Tell us in the comments. Now, I want you to imagine that you find out your spouse is stepping out on you with someone else. You confront them and their response is, “Well, yes, but it’s only an hour a week. I am here with you the rest of the time.” How would you feel? How would you respond?
And yet, in the Bible, and in our time now, people disobey the first two commandments in many different ways. And ultimately, it means we do not really love God. We love something else. But, like when Jesus spoke on money - he clearly stated you cannot serve God and Mammon, a person cannot serve two masters. You will hate the one and love the other.
Ok, so what does this look like in our lives today?
Well, lets ask ourselves, which things, activities, dreams, habits, people, etc do I have in my life that takes up more of my time, energy and focus than God?
We do not schedule God into our diaries, and when we oversleep that one morning we bargain on his mercy and forgiveness for not spending time with Him and his word. But we doll up and dress up and chase in traffic for that meeting on the calender with a human being from a man made company who may or may not give us that big break or contract or opportunity.
We invest in the markets and cryptos etc, or we start multilevel market businesses - and then we check our app every 5 sec to see what it’s doing.
The one we’re probably all the most guilty of is our smart devices. Just ask your kids what they think your most valued and most used item is….
Let’s look at our main scriptures again:
Ez 8
Now let’s look at Ephesians 1 - this is who we are in Christ. Do you feel you are living this to the full?
If not, I believe God wants to show us today that one of the main reasons many of may feel this way is that we have an idolatrous identity - in other words, we are not fully and completely sold out to Jesus as our only God. We have other backup plans and systems in place that we actually trust more than our God like:
1. Doctors
2. Pharmaceutical companies
3. The culture we grow up in - and this is especially a tough one when religious Christianity is mixed in with the culture - we tend to create, carve a false version of God in our minds that we’re happy with and then we make it apart of our culture and then we actually worship our culture
4. Parents
5. Spouse
6. Children
7. The news
... fill in the blank.
Let's reflect and respond and ask God what idols do we honestly have in our lives and then repent, and lay them down, and choose to make God your first love and highest authority in all things.
Amen
We see over and over again in the old testament God the father communicating through his appointed leaders and prophets over generations one simple thing that the people of God just can’t seem to get right: I am your God, love only me and no other gods.
We learn from these kinds of passages that many of the idols were literally made by hand from stone, wood, silver, gold, etc. In many scriptures, God and his prophets rebuke Israel and Judah for choosing to rather worship things they made with their own hands than the God who made everything.
From our scriptures it is very clear that God is a jealous God who does not want to share you love, affection, attention, devotion and commitment.
Who of you are married? Tell us in the comments. Now, I want you to imagine that you find out your spouse is stepping out on you with someone else. You confront them and their response is, “Well, yes, but it’s only an hour a week. I am here with you the rest of the time.” How would you feel? How would you respond?
And yet, in the Bible, and in our time now, people disobey the first two commandments in many different ways. And ultimately, it means we do not really love God. We love something else. But, like when Jesus spoke on money - he clearly stated you cannot serve God and Mammon, a person cannot serve two masters. You will hate the one and love the other.
Ok, so what does this look like in our lives today?
Well, lets ask ourselves, which things, activities, dreams, habits, people, etc do I have in my life that takes up more of my time, energy and focus than God?
We do not schedule God into our diaries, and when we oversleep that one morning we bargain on his mercy and forgiveness for not spending time with Him and his word. But we doll up and dress up and chase in traffic for that meeting on the calender with a human being from a man made company who may or may not give us that big break or contract or opportunity.
We invest in the markets and cryptos etc, or we start multilevel market businesses - and then we check our app every 5 sec to see what it’s doing.
The one we’re probably all the most guilty of is our smart devices. Just ask your kids what they think your most valued and most used item is….
Let’s look at our main scriptures again:
Ez 8
Now let’s look at Ephesians 1 - this is who we are in Christ. Do you feel you are living this to the full?
If not, I believe God wants to show us today that one of the main reasons many of may feel this way is that we have an idolatrous identity - in other words, we are not fully and completely sold out to Jesus as our only God. We have other backup plans and systems in place that we actually trust more than our God like:
1. Doctors
2. Pharmaceutical companies
3. The culture we grow up in - and this is especially a tough one when religious Christianity is mixed in with the culture - we tend to create, carve a false version of God in our minds that we’re happy with and then we make it apart of our culture and then we actually worship our culture
4. Parents
5. Spouse
6. Children
7. The news
... fill in the blank.
Let's reflect and respond and ask God what idols do we honestly have in our lives and then repent, and lay them down, and choose to make God your first love and highest authority in all things.
Amen
Thank you so much for joining us today.