Abomination

0:02 Looking at our world from a theological perspective. This is the Theology Central podcast making Theology Central. Good morning everyone. It is Thursday, August the twenty ninth, twenty twenty four. It is currently eleven thirteen am Central Time, and I am coming to you live from the Theology Central studio located right here in Abilene, Texas. Are you familiar with this Hebrew word? I want you to listen carefully. Are you familiar with this Hebrew word Strong's age eighty four forty one? To ava to ava, to a va, to a va? Are you familiar with toe va? Do you know what that Hebrew word is translated into English? To ava to ava? That word is translated typically as are you ready? What do you think? Abomination? Toy Va is typically translated abomination. It is abominable thing, abominable, abominaal bull If I can speak correctly abomination, abominable thing, or abominable, that is typically how it's translated. Especially in the King James, toy va is used one hundred and seventeen times in the King James, one hundred and thirteen times abomination, two times abominable thing, and two times abominable bull. All right,

1:36 but typically so abominable. A abomination is the typical way it's translated. Again, It's used one hundred and seventeen times. Let me state those again. Clearly, don't know why am I I'm having such difficulty, but one hundred and thirteen times abomination, two times abominable thing, and two times abominable bull. Now, the idea of or the meaning of the word, depending on how I mean, There's kind of a lot of different shades here, but you get the basic idea, something disgusting. That's really the idea, mainly from a moral perspective, something that is disgusting and abhorrence, abominable, abomination, a disgusting thing.

2:24 That's really the idea is something disgusting from a moral perspective. Are you familiar with toy va? Are you familiar with the idea of abomination? If you've been a Christian for any length of time, you have heard sermons about this is an abomination to God, this is abominable, this is wrong, this is disgusting, this is horrible. Now here's what I want you to do. Now. I want you to forget church. I want you to forget everything, and I want you to grab a piece of paper. If you can, you can write down the word abominable, right, or you can write down the word abomination, however you would like to write it down. Write down the word abomination. That's the one we'll go with, since it's translated that way one hundred and thirteen times. Abomination. Write down the word And here's what I want you to do. I'll give you just a couple of seconds, but you should be able to do this quickly, right, from a moral perspective, from behavior action. When you think of things, what things are an abomination to you? You find them disgusting? Forget church.

3:28 I want you to just be brutally honest with yourself. You think it's disgusting, you can't stand it. It bothers you, it's repulsive, It angers you, it frustrates you, whatever the emotion you want to attach to it. What things do you list at Let's try to come up with five five things that to you are abominable to you, are an abomination to you, or an abominable thing. I want you to I want you to you to just be brutally honest with yourself, all right, don't worry about whether well, I don't know if I can have that feeling. Don't worry.

4:11 This is just unfiltered. This disgusted me. This, this makes me angry. You feel it, You have an emotion. It's not something you have to pretend. It's not something you have to say, well, it's an abomination, because you know God says it is. I want your unfiltered reality. What is abominable to you? What is an abomination to you personally? Your feelings, your emotion? Now, I think if you've been in church for any link that does so come up with five. Let's do this, come up with five for your own this is your your own personal feeling. What just it just absolutely it just I mean you know it.

4:57 I mean anyone around you will would see your facial expression, would see your reaction. Now, you may not have anything. If nothing really discussed you, if nothing really bothers you, then by all means, I guess you can say, well, nothing discussed me. Okay, we may need to have a different discussion. But five things then what I want you to do? So they want you to write your own five so abomination your list? What is an abomination to me? All right? What is abominable to me? However, you would like to go abomination again is the word. I think that's the way we're going to go with. Since it's translated that way one hundred and thirteen times, I think that's just the one we'll stick with, right, But I just want you to know it's translated these other ways as well. To a vas is translated these other ways. Okay, so you got that all right, your own personal five.

5:46 Then I want you to write down five things that you have heard, and you can try to list them. I've heard this one the most, I've heard this one the second most, the third, and maybe it's so close it's hard to distinguish. But I want you to write down, basically, five things you have heard over and over and over in your Christian life. This is an abomination. This is an abomination. This is an abomination. I want you to write down the five things that you think are an abomination, and five things you have just heard in your Christian life time and time again. And this is an abomination. This is an abominable thing, This is abominable, This is however, whatever word that they're using, God hates this. This is disgusting, this is vile, and just over and over and over you've heard it. In church. So the five things that you just you feel like it really impacts you, and five things the church stresses. I really want you to write these down. I know a lot of times when I tell people to do this, they're just doing whatever they want. But I really want you to write them down.

6:49 Your five and what we'll call the church the five things that are most abominable, five things that are an abomination to you. Five things are an abomination to the church that you have experienced. Don't worry about what other churches think. Now, it may not be your church in this sense. What you've heard sermons about, what you've heard preached. Sometimes you've listened to far more sermons and other churches than you have in your own church, especially if you listen to a lot of sermons, right if you use the sermons two point oh app all the time, well, then you've probably heard more sermons from other pastors than you have from your own church. So just the general sense of what I know, what number one would be. I think I've heard the most this is an abomination to God, and I've heard it preached over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over, and yeah, I think you probably know which one I've heard. So your top five and what you would consider Christianity or the Church's top five things that are an abomination to God? These things are these things are disgusting, These things are vile. Now, how does your five match their five? Are you in the same page? Now, maybe you're five matches there five because you were raised in Christianity. And but the key I don't want you to see, That's what I was trying to do, is not for you to just give me the church answer.

8:08 I want you to just be honest with yourself. You may have heard your whole life that this is an abomination, but you've never really been that disgusted or bothered by it. I know you're not supposed to say that, but sometimes you just got to be honest with yourself. Now, why am I starting this broadcast that way? Well, you can hear that. I've got my Bible in my hands. Here's what happened. I came up here, I sat down in front of the microphone. I'm like, well, what do I do today? What do I do today? It's Thursday, We're fast approaching holiday weekend. I know I've got to do some sermon prep. I've got a lot of things going on this weekend that I need that's gonna take me away from being able to record to see if we need to finish that Ephesians four. We need to do a little work on this. And I'm just kind of just, you know, flipping around, just trying to kind of figure out what to do, what to do, what to do.

9:03 I've got different books. I'm looking at devotionals. I'm just kind of looking. I'm looking at notebooks, right I just I'm just kind of flipping through all kinds of different things. And I'm sitting here. In the meantime, I have this beta dot sermon audio dot com website open. I see that again. It's all colleges. Ambassador College was broadcasting. Bob Jones was broadcasting Fairhaven, a church in college is broadcasting right now. I'm like, okay, well that's what I told everyone to focus on, so let me click on Bob Jones. I clicked on Bob Jones talking about the Holy Spirit being her advocate. So I was like, okay, some interesting things with the Greek word. Okay, I'm like I could do something with that. That's interesting, all right. So I'm just and then that their webcast kind of went off the air for a second. They were having some kind of technical difficulty. So I was just like, finally, I just kind of turned that off, and I said, here, and I have this new Bible sitting on the table here, Foundation study Bible, and I just opened it. I just opened it. It just fell open, and I kind of looked down and the very first word I saw was the word abomination. There's the word abomination. The sentence was abomination to the Lord. Abomination to the Lord. That's the first thing I saw, right, So I grabbed my pencil and I got ready to underline abomination, abomination. And so my mind just started thinking of all the things I've heard and abomination to God. God hates this, This is disgusting.

10:36 I started thinking about my own things that I would consider to be an abomination. And then I looked up from the word abomination to the verse itself, and this is Proverbs chapter twenty, verse ten, and I read this. Divers weights and divers measures, both of them are alike abomination to the Lord. Diverse waits and divers measures, both of them are like abomination to the Lord, and I kind of like sat back and I'm like, wait a minute, Wait a minute, wait a minute. You never hear this one, right, This is not in the top five, this is not like well, this is an abomination to me. So then I'm like, okay, well that's what the King James says.

11:29 So then I reached down grabbed another bible that's pretty pretty new, and I'm like, okay, well, let me go to Proverbs chapter twenty verse ten in this Bible. Proverbs chapter twenty verse ten in this Bible, and like, how does it? It says, and it's almost identical. Diverse waits and diverse are diverse. So diverse is the way the King James, the new King James has diverse weaights and diverse measures are both alike and abomination to the Lord. All right, so we have weights and measures and abomination to the Lord. I'm like, okay, so I need to do a little work here. I need to do to do a little work here. So I'm like, okay, what exactly is going on? And Proverbs chapter twenty verse ten, So now like now my mind is going, right, my mind is going I'm like, okay, all right, abomination abomination.

12:26 All right, I know the basic idea of what abomination is. It's more it's morally disgusting. It's vile. God loathes it, God hates it. It's an abomination to God. I'm like, okay, so I would have not have ever thought, Oh wait, diverse weights and diverse measures are both an abomination to the Loyd. Like, when I saw the word abomination, my mind immediately went to different actions and different activities and different things. It did not go to this. This was not even in my top five if bro, I don't know if it would even be in my top ten. So I was I'm really giving it much thought. So I looked it up in a different translation, differing weights and differing measures. The Lord detests them both. And I'm like, okay, so divers diverse, differing weights, and differing measures. Whoa yeah, when I hear of differing weights and differing measures, man, that is an abomination. That's the ski Okay, wait, well no, okay, let's do a little bit more work here, right. So this proverb seems to be addressing the issue of dishonesty and injustice, specifically in the context of business and trade in ancient times. Transactions were often conducted using weights and measures to determine the value of goods. Dishonest merchants would

14:02 use different scales or measures, one for buying and another for selling, and they did this to cheat their customers or suppliers, giving them an unfair advantage. All right, so let's listen to that again. This proverb Proverbs twenty ten addresses the issue of dishonesty and injustice, specifically in the context of business and trade. In ancient times, transactions were often conducted using weights and measures to determine the value of goods. Dishonest merchants would use different scales or measures, one for buying and another for selling, and they were doing this to cheat their customers or suppliers, giving them an unfair advantage. So things had to be so if you look at this idea, things had to be weighed, things had to be measured. So you would use one that when when you were let's go through this, when you were buying something, as the merchant, you were buying something, well, you would use one so that it would be advantageous to you. Right, you would have to pay, you would be able to pay less and yet get more. But when you were selling, you wouldn't use weights and measures that would make it cost more for them, so that you got more money for less things that you were giving out. So when you were buying, you wanted to be cheaper yet get more. When you were selling, you wanted it to cost more, but you give less of whatever you're selling. So then you would always do this

15:33 in a way that would be advantageous to you, no matter how dishonest it was. You weren't doing it to be honest. You were doing it simply for the bottom line, so that you would get more money. It would be advantageous to you. It would be beneficial to you, didn't matter if it hurt your supplier, didn't matter if it hurt your customer. You were just doing it for your ultimate good. So this verse in Proverbs twenty ten condemns the practice, emphasizing that God values honest and integrity fairness in all dealings the term detest or abominable. They use the word abominable, and some translations show the strong disapproval God has to deceitful practices. So this is the idea that in business, you're not quite honest, you're being somewhat deceptive, you're somehow manipulating things ultimately for your good and not the good of other people. And God, this is abominable.

16:31 This is an abomination. God detests this. Is that in your top five? Is that what you've heard in church? Hey, God, it's an abomination to you who own businesses, who do things that are not quite honest, that's not quite above board. You're being manipulative, you're being deceitful, You're not being truly fair, you're not being truly honest. It's an abomination. It's an abombas when the church does things and it's business dealings or it's practices, or it's fundraising, that's not quite honest or or fair, or there's something questionable about it. This Proverbs Proverbs twenty ten highlights the importance of integrity and daily life, especially in financial and business interactions, and underscores the principle that deceitful practices, even those that might seem minor are justified for personal gain, are offensive to God.

17:35 There are practices and things people may do in business, even in churches, and their business dealings and financial dealings that may seem justified, but God, they are an offense to God. They're an abomination to God. See that's always the thing when it comes to the Bible, is it's never about what we feel or what we think. It's about how God sees something. And almost inevitably we find ourself and doing things that, from God's perspective is an abomination or an abominable thing, and we may not quite see it as that severe. Using different weights and measures kind of working business to your favor. Come on, how many Christians would be like, Hey, that's an abomination? I would say most Christians don't. Most Christians are very much pro you know, hey, make all the money you can't.

18:28 They tend to have a much more of a conservative perspective on business and making money, maybe more so than a truly Christian perspective. The use of differing weights and measures metaphorically extends beyond conmorce commerce to any situation where deceit or manipulation is used to exploit others. It points to the broader Biblical call for justice and righteousness in society. As believers God, we need to see God hates these deceitful practices, whether it's in commerce in any other and we as Christians must then go and live in a way that is well trying to be fair and just and our dealings. The verse reflects God's nature is just and holy. He requires his people to reflect his character by acting with honesty and fairness. The strong language used detest, according to some translations, abominable and abomination serves as a reminder that God's standards for righteousness are non negotiable. So in what ways have you been guilty of some not quite honest dealings? Have you ever sold something? Maybe you put an ad on Facebook or other sites, and you were selling something but you weren't quite being honest so that you could get a little extra money for it.

19:59 You got extra money, and maybe the people didn't quite get what they thought they were getting. They paid more for really what it was worth. Come on, have you ever done that? Come on? In what ways have you been somewhat dishonest, somewhat not accurate in your business dealings? Come on? At work? What are some things that are done that a little shady, not quite ethical? Maybe maybe questionable, morally questionable maybe not just right now? How do you now? In some cases you're kind of like what do I do here? Like you're you're you may be just the worker.

20:40 Now you can obviously not engage in said activity. Maybe you're stuck, maybe maybe you don't know what to do. But clearly, if you own the business and you have power to change it now, now, now you become even morally you become even more morally responsible. In modern terms, this principle applies to any form of dishonesty or unethical behavior, whether in business, personal relationships, are even in one's personal life. It is a call for consistency and ethics. What one expects from others, one should also practice. What you expect is what you should practice. Oh don't you wish that's the way it really worked. Proverbs twenty ten teaches that God abhors dishonesty, specifically in business practices where deceitful measures are used to gain an unfair advantage. It calls for integrity and fairness in all our dealings. It reflects God's just character. The verse serves as a reminder that ethical consistency is crucial in all aspects of life, and that God holds people accountable for their actions, especially when they harm others. So here's again, here's what I want you to do. Have those five things that you that are an abomination to you, that are an abominable thing to you?

21:58 And five things you've heard the church say abomination, abomination, abomination, and look at that. And then where does different weights and measures show up in either list? Con Where do they show up? Different weights and measures? Where do they show up? I've seen Christians have some weird things, like like like certain things that's an abomination and it needs to be ridded, I mean, it needs to be removed from society, and they get all up in arms. But there'll be these other things, and you'll like, not only do businesses do these types of things. Maybe the person you're trying to vote into office because you're fighting the other abominations, it's guilty of these very kind of shady business practices. Do you not care? Well, no, that's the abomination.

22:57 Is it weird? How we kind of create our like our you know, top list of abominations and that's the only ones we care about. So Proverbs twenty ten. This Hebrew word Strong's age eighty four forty one to ava to ava, to ava to ava abomination. It's used to a vas used one hundred and seventeen times, one hundred and seventeen times, one hundred and thirteen times abomination, two times abominable thing, two times abominable. Yeah, see, I can actually say the words correctly. See how frustrated I get when I don't say things correctly? All Right, it's an abomination to me if you if you wanted my own personal thing, it's an abomination to me. When I try to do a broadcast and I mess up worse, I get probably more frustrated and more upset and more bothered and more disgusted by that. Then I probably do my own sin, which is utterly ridiculous, which just demonstrates I care more about how I'm perceived and my own pride then I do a boss. See, sometimes are what we think is an abominable thing or an abomination has more to do with us and how we really feel about the thing. Okay, but yeah, that's a whole different broadcast,

24:28 isn't it. But do we have a correct understand? So then I continue to do a little bit more work, and I'm like, well, let's just consider then, let's just consider here some things. And so I did a little bit more work here, let me find all my notes. So then I was kind of like my thinking kind of put this down, was, why does it seem that so much attention is given to other sins but maybe not so much like these sins but not these sins.

25:10 We have kind of a we are preoccupied with these sins, almost an obsessive, compulsive focus on these, but not these. So I'm like, well, why is that? But I'm like, well, before I get into that, let's do this. Let's do this, let's consider let's see here if I have these, I'm going to skip these, Let's go down to this. So then I'm like, well, let's try to figure out what God considers to be an abomination right now. I almost was going to just leave this as like an assignment, but I've already kind of given you a brief one. You're write down your five what you think the church is, the church's top five abominable things are, But what does God say? Well, the Bible uses the term abomination to describe things that are detestable to God. These abominations can be actions, attitudes, practices, or objects. Now I want you to hear that they can be actions, they can be attitudes, they can be practices or objects that go against God's character.

26:25 Here is a list of things that the Bible explicitly describes as abominations to God. All right, so we're just gonna go through this list. You may want to write this. Now, you've got your five, you've got what you believe the church's top five. Let's just go through this list. I don't know if I'm gonna make this an exhaustive and cover everything, but I want to throw some things out at you that maybe we tend to look at. Here's one idolatry. Worshiping idols or false gods is frequently condemned as an abomination. Let's look at a up some scriptures here. Let's go to a Deuteronomy chapter seven. Deuteronomy chapter seven.

27:06 I'm gonna have two different Bibles here so we can look up if we need to look up different translations. Deuteronomy chapter seven, Verse twenty five. Deuteronomy seven twenty five. The graven image of their gods shall be burned with fire. Thou shalt not desire the silver or gold that is on them, nor take it unto thee lest they'd be snared therein, for it is an abomination to the Lord thy God. Neither shalt thou bring an abomination into Thine house. Lest thy'll be a cursed thing like it, but thou shall utterly detest it, and thou shall utterly abhor it for a cursed thing. No graven images, no form of idolla. Tree.

27:49 Now immediately right there, you should get a little nervous, right because on one hand you can say, well, I don't make a graven image. But we all know we have all kinds of idols. Your life is riddled with them, My life is riddled with them. We all have these things we place before God. We all, in many cases we have graven image of God, in other words, a false image of the true God, which we've created in our own mind. Remember the famous saying God created us in his image, and we've returned the favor. We've basically recreated God into our own image. Sometimes our ideas of God is nothing more than a graven image. We just haven't carved it out of stone. Deuteronomy twenty seven, Deuteronomy, Chapter twenty seven. Deuteronomy Chapter twenty seven, Verse fifteen. Cursed be the man that maketh any graven or molten image and abomination onto the Lord the work of the hands of the craftsmen, and put it in a secret place.

28:59 And all the peace people shall answer and say, Amen, it's an abomination, graven image idols, it's an abomination. How about Isaiah forty four Isaiah forty four, Isaiah chapter forty four, Verse nineteen. And none considereth in his heart, neither is there any knowledge nor understanding. Say I I have burned part of it in the fire? Yeay? Also I have baked bread upon the coals thereof, I have roasted flesh and edith, Shall I make thee residue thereof an abomination?

29:40 Shall I fall down to the stalk of a tree? Now? The idea here is obviously of idolatry. The idea of is idolatry. In fact, if you look at it, go back to verse eighteen. They have not known nor understand, for he has shut their eyes. They cannot see their hearts, they cannot understand. None considered their's heart, neither their knowledge or understanding to say, I have burned part of it in the fire. Yeah, I of break baked bread upon the coals. Thereof I have roasted flesh and eateth it. And shall I make the residue thereof an abomination? Shall I fall down to the stalk of a tree? He feedeth on ashes a deceived heart, hath turned him aside that he cannot deliver his soul norse. And we can go on and read a little bit more. But the concept here still deals a little bit with the idea of idolatry. That one is not as clear as the others, but you get at least the concept. That one would require a little bit more work, but you get the basic at least the basic idea here. So idolatry is an abomination to God. Idolatry God detest, he hates, He wants idolatry destroyed, He wants it wiped out. Idolatry is we basically, we become blinded to the true God when we are worshiping an idol because we have now placed something before God so that we're blinded to God. So, then here is the question. You see those five things that you hate, those five things that are disgusting to you, those five things that are an abomination to you. You

31:13 see those five things that the church yells about and yells about, and yells about and yells about. Now, how often, how frequently is the church and how frequently are you and I guilty of idolatry, which is an abomination. See here's what we have a tendency to do. We're quick to see every other abomination, we're not so quick to see our own. How about this one Proverbs twelve twenty two. Sorry for that Isaiah passage. It wasn't Sometimes you get into one and you're like, well, how much do I go back? How much do I try to work on this one? That one would have been best just to leave off my list. But that's okay. I will find a way to try to get back to that Isaiah passage and do a little bit more work on it so we have a better understanding what's going on there.

32:10 But in the meantime, let's move forward. Here we go. Proverbs twelve twenty two. Lying lips are an abomination to the Lord. Idolatry is an abomination. Lying is an abomination, lying, bearing false witness. Lying. Now, one of the things that I've driven has just I've almost lost it with a good portion of Christianity is how many times pastors and churches and Christian podcasters turn on their microphone and they spread lies, they bear false witness, They make accusations, say things that are just not accurate or true, whether they're talking about a politician, whether they're talking about this, they're talking about that. Christian radio promoted the lie over and over that the election was stolen, and then many of the people that they promoted then ended up in court and had to acknowledge that they never know they understood it wasn't real, but they were doing this or doing this.

33:23 What I mean, we could go through, you know, Sidney Powell, Jenna Ellis, Rudy Giuliani, all the different things, Fox News being sued for defamation about all their lies they said about the dominion voting system, and then they had to pay Watch seven hundred and something million dollars over But Christians repeated those same lies and they and when you repeat those lives, you're you're literally bearing false witness, You're lying, you're spreading half truths, misinformation, disinformation. The one thing Christian but does Christianity have an abomination is lying? No, because Christians engage in it constantly. We were guilty and by doolatry, and we're guilty of lying to ourselves, lying to others, lying.

34:05 Who knows all the different ways we lie? How about this one? Han, he let's go to let's see, we're gonna go back to Isaiah. No, oh boy, the reason Isaiah versus. Sometimes I don't like quoting Isaiah Versus because there's so much context there. Sometimes, hopefully this one will be a little bit easier. We will see here we go. I well, God is very upset obviously with Israel here, and he says this bring no more vain oblations, incense as an abomination unto me, the new moons and Sabbaths, the calling of assemblies I cannot away with. It is iniquity, even the solemn meeting. So God does not want any more of their worship service, He doesn't want any more of their worship. He doesn't want any more of their entire worship has become simply vain and empty. One source would say performing religious rituals without genuine faith or obedience is an abomination. How many times do we worship and it's just empty ritual, vain, meaningless. Here's one Proverbs sixteen.

35:31 I believe, yeah, this one is very famous. Proverbs sixteen to five. Everyone that is proud in heart is an abomination to the Lord. Though hand joined in hand, he shall not be unpunished. I want you to hear that everyone that is proud in heart is an abomination. Christians will run around screaming, that's an abomination, that's an abomination. If you're proud and he heart, you are an abomination. If you have idolatry in your life, you are an abomination. If you've engaged in bearing false witness and lying, you are an abomination. See it's so quick to it's bizarre all the things you get Christians scream at about being an abomination. How come pride is not like maybe at the top of the list. Shouldn't pride be number one?

36:24 Idolatry and pride? Should I not be like the number one? And number two and then lying like number three? And the reason I would put these at the top because these are the ones the church is most guilty of. How about Proverbs six nineteen Proverbs Chapter six. I believe verse nineteen almost read the wrong chapter. A false witness that speaketh lies he that soweth. Well, let's go back to verse sixteen, because because we need the context here, all right, these six things that the Lord hates seven are an abomination under him, A proud look, a lying tongue, a hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that deviseth, weakened imagination, feet that be swift and running the mischief.

37:16 And here we go a false witness that speaketh lies, and he that soweth discord among brethren. Stirring up conflict among others is an abomination. Stirring up conflict among others is an abomination. You churches have people who always stirring up conflict, always show stirring up discord by their gossip, their slander. They're getting it. They go share things about people that they have no business sharing. They're people who will literally destroy someone's life. Also, please note here a lying tongue, a false witness that speaketh lies, bearing false witness.

38:11 Lying is an abomination. Sowing discord is an abomination. Now, I want you to just think of those abominations. Idolatry, abomination, bearing false witness, and lying abomination. I want you to think about those. Pride is an abomination, sowing discord is an abomination. Being deceitful and business is an abomination. These are the abominations I want you to consider today. I really want you to consider these, all right, I want you to consider these. I want you I want you to write down idolatry is an abomination. Are you guilty of idolatry? Putting anything before God? All right? The idea of having a wrong understanding of God, a graven image of God, a fraudulent view of God. I want you to I want you and we've already covered this one, but you go ahead and write it down just a little different order. But I want you to write this one down. The obviously of dishonesty and deceit and manipulation and business practices God's that's an abomination, So idolatry. How you conduct yourself in business financial affairs with honesty and integrity?

39:41 When we worship God with empty ritual instead of anything meaningful, our lips say one thing, but our hearts are far from God. How many times have we worshiped God in an empty, vain way? That's an abomination. Pride is an abomination. Sowing discord is an abomas domination, being a false witness and lying is an abomination. Sowing discord is a an abomination. I want you to have those things down, whichever order you place them in. I want you to look at that list today. You never see anyone getting in trouble for pride You don't never see pastors in trouble for pride. But you can hear the pride, You can hear the arrogance.

40:24 You can hear it over and over and over and over, but they won't acknowledge it. Pride is an abomination. Sharing, bearing false witness, being a false witness, lying, spreading misinformation, that's an abomination. We've reviewed sermons where things are just said that are absolutely not true, absolutely fraudulent, making accusatory statements that are not true, sewing discord, stirring conflict, that's an abomination. Pride we are doing were repetitive here, how people conduct themselves in business, idolatry, those are the abominations.

41:06 But typically, what do you hear as an abomination? Now, some of these you do here, But Christians love to focus on the sexual sins. That's an abomination. We will put abortion in sexual sins as the abominations and forget all of these others. So I did a little bit more work trying to figure out, well, why is there a discrepancy between what these things God really calls an abomination and the ones that we focus on. Now, God calls other things an abomination there, but I focused on the ones that tend not to get all of the attention.

41:52 So I'm like, well, why is there a discrepancy? And according to some the discrepancy and the attitude or attention given to different sins such as sexual sins versus say, dishonesty like those mentioned in Proverbs twenty ten, can be attributed to several factors, and I found this interesting. Sexual sins often receive more attention because they are highly visible and can be sensationalized. Cultural, culturally, issues related to sexual morality often provoke strong emotions reactions, and thus they become focal points and sermons, teachings, and discussions, and contrasts like sins like dishonesty or unfair business practices are sometimes seen as less dramatic or less directly harmful, despite their significant impact on trust and socialist and justice and society. They can be viewed as acceptable or less serious, particularly when such practices are common or even seen as necessary. So what does that tell you? So many times the way that church is reacting to sin is more driven by culture cultural norms than it is the word of God.

42:58 Because God is saying that is an abomination, You're idolatry, You're lying, you're sowing discord, you're bearing false witness, your pride, your dishonest, dishonesty, and business these are abominations, and we're like, well, those are not the big ones to me again, Comparing it to sexual sins, sexual sins are typically seen as individual moral fellings, making them easier to identify and condemn in personal terms. This individualized view often leads to heightened focus on personal purity. Where Proverbs twenty ten, for example, addresses systemic sins, these embedded in business practices, economics, and societal interactions. These sins are often involved complex systems of deceit and exploitation, which can be more difficult to address because they challenge societal norms and structures. See once you can get a sin into a societal norm, once you can get a sin and to the societal structure, even the church will kind of be like, well, you know, but that's an abomination. That's an abomination. Sins related to dishonesty and unjust business practices are often more subtle and less visible. They don't always have immediate observable consequences, and the harm they cause can be dispersed among many people, making it harder to pinpoint and address. Many religious teachings

44:29 emphasize personal piety and individual morality. That can result in a disproportionate focus on sins that are seen as personal moral feelings rather than social ethics like honesty and business. The focus can inavertently downplay the importance of social justice and ethical conduct, and the marketplace areas where deceit can be just as damaging. We tend to go for the individual sins, which I understand, but just remember, individual sins still are applicable to business because those are indivi vials committing those sins, so they're still individual. Throughout history, certain sins have been emphasized more due to their perceived threat to community order, purity, or the church's reputation. Sexual sin often falls into the category, receiving more preaching and teaching. However, the Bible, including the teachings of Jesus and the prophets, repeatedly emphasize God's concern for justice, honesty, fair treatment, which suggests a broader and more balanced view of sin. So even historically we focused on some sins at the expense of others addressing sin like those in Proverbs twenty ten, such as dishonesty and trade can challenge the status quo of economic systems and personal wealth. It can be uncomfortable or risky to confront these sins because they they implicate more systematic, systemic issue use invested interest. This can be resistant.

46:03 This there can be resistance to preaching against economic sins because they touch on personal livelihoods. Business practices are societal norms that are deeply entrenched. So again, the thing is, you can get some sins that are just so systemic, so kind of built in that everybody's like, just leave that alone, just don't touch that, don't rock the buk. Go after these sins. And the Church loves that, right. We love to go out without. We love to scream and yell and say they and them, they're disgusting, they're vile, they're an abomination. They deserve to burden hell. And we love to do that because other sins become much more acceptable.

46:52 They become a part of the systemic nature, maybe of the Church of Christianity, of a political eye in theology that many in the church already embrace. Now it was simple today, it was very simple. I opened up my Bible. The Proverbs twenty ten by accident. I just opened it, and there it was. Because this new Bible just falls it just naturally falls open to Proverbs twenty ten. I'm not saying this is like some God thing. I just opened my Bible, because the way the because it's a brand new Bible. It's just as where when you open it, it just falls open to Proverbs twenty ten. Every new Bible tends to open up if you just kind of just let it fall open. It may fall to different places.

47:36 Proverbs twenty ten just seems to be the place this one falls open to naturally. And I saw the word abomination, and the Hebrew word is remember Strong's age eighty four forty one, to Ava, to Ava, to Ava. It is used one hundred and seventeen times in the King James one hundred and thirteen times. It's translated abomination two times abominable, thing, two times abominable. This word carries the idea of something disgusting from a moral perspective, an abhorrence usually connected to idolatry or an idol abominable, typically a custom or thing.

48:31 An abomination. It's a disgusting thing, it's an abomination, abominable, and a ritual sense of say, unclean food, idols are well, even mixed marriages. And I think the mixed marriage is typically there is a believer believers marrying unbelievers, which we don't really refer to as an abominable thing, right because because that happens all the time, right, So it can be used as a discussing thing. It can be used in a ritual sense, it can be used in an ethical sense. What are some of the things that are an abomination to God? When we go through the Bible, idolatry, a graven image of God. You can be guilty of that.

49:17 I can be guilty of that. In fact, idolatry is so built into us. We constantly put things before God, and we constantly have concepts and ideas of God. When Christians say, but my God, my God would never sometimes I want to say, your God is the God you created, because that's not the God of the Bible. So many times our understanding of God is never completely an accurate picture of God. We always got to be really oh, we always have to be willing to admit we may have created a graven image of God, even though we think we're trying to create a correct understanding of God many cases, it's very corrupted because we're sinners. Pride pride is an abomination. How many times has I mean, come on, can you even de hect pride in yourself? Pride is hard to be detect in you because pride will never acknowledge that it's prideful. Lying, bearing false witness, misinformation that is an abomination, Stirring up strife, bringing up in discord that's an abomination. Deceitful business practices, that's an abomination. Do we truly see these things as an abomination? The things that God lays out as an abomination? Do we truly see them as such? You have your five You have

50:53 what the Church says is fine. Now you know the ones I did not mention? Right, I could have gone into homosexuality, other sexual practices that the Bible referred to as an abomination. Those are the ones everyone goes to. That's the one everyone wants. And I got no problem. You say that's an abomination, but at the same time be willing to admit, however, I do abominable things. I'm an abomination before God because I'm prideful. I have idolatry. I sometimes use deceit and lying sometimes I've not been completely fair and financial, you know practices. I have done things that are incorrect. I've sometimes bear false witness or created discord, been involved in gossip and slander, which I kind of goes along with it. In fact, I find it interesting. The most famous passage on this most famous past is really on the subject, if you really think about it, is Proverbs six sixteen. These six things, does the Lord hey, A seven are an abomination. It starts with a proud look, doesn't start with sexual sin, starts with a proud look, a lying tongue, doesn't start with That's not homosexuality, now, it's not the transgender movement. Hands

52:24 that shed innocent blood, a heart that diviseth wicked imaginations. Oh come on now, your heart diviseth wicked imaginations all the time. Can you do you? Can you imagine all the things your heart lust for, desires for, craves, imagines, thinks, I mean, for crying out loud. If we could put everyone's heart, that really the center of our emotions and thoughts and on a screen, everybody would be run out of church in total utter embarrassment. Feet that be swift in running the mischief, how quickly do we find ourselves doing that which is wrong? A false witness speaking lies here that so with discord among brothers. Please note there's not one sexual sin listed there, and that's what always gets all the attention. Now I'm not seeing I'm by no means, am I saying play down sexual sin. I am not saying come on, I'm not saying that someone's gonna misinterpret that. What I'm saying is when we consider an abomination. And it all started when I opened my Bible and I saw Proverbs twenty ten, and I'm like, abomination to the Lord. And I'm like, okay, all right, what is the divers weights and divers measures? I'm like, come on, now, come on, it's gonna be something more sensational than different weights and measures. I mean, come on, okay. Yeah.

53:47 So the business guy was like, well, I'm gonna kind of use this weight and measure when I'm buying stuff so I can buy it for less and get more. And I'm gonna use this weight and measure when I sell it so I can sell it for more so I can make more profit. I mean, come on, that's a good business man, come on, right, I mean, I'm gonna throw him under the bus, like you're an abomination to God. I mean, come on now, So that seems a little extreme, but just what other things will say that's an abomination. I think what we always have to realize is whenever we hate a certain sin, whenever it disgusted us, whenever it's vile to us, whenever it makes us so angry, just ask yourself, do you have that same hatred? Do you have that same it's vile and it makes you angry about your sin? And sometimes when people come across so hatred of a sin, they come out being so hateful and so just bombastic against a sin.

54:58 Sometimes it's projection. They're projecting their own struggle and desire, and that what they're hating is their own struggle. All right, there we have it, fifty five minutes, a kind of a long and winding journey, covering many important aspects, all dealing with abomination, abominable, abominable thing. It started a little rough, but hopefully it ended in a much better place. But hopefully it's ended in a place that makes us all going. Man, my list is kind of not really God's list, or man, the church's list is really not God's list. Now, I know it's probably impossible for some of you, but I really want you to think about your list today. I guess i'll end with that. I really want you to think about your list because because you've got things, some of you, it was impossible for you not to write down things that you learned from the Bible. You're like, well, obviously this is an abomination. I want you to really think that what is truly an abomination to you? You really hate it? Like do you really hate pride? You may hate it in someone else, you probably don't hate it so much in yourself. You may hate bearing false

56:30 witness and lying when it's done towards you, you probably don't hate it so much when you do it. So do we really hate what we say we hate? Do we really think it's an abomination? I want us to really struggle with what we really feel as an abomination. All right, thanks for listening, everyone, have a great day. God bless